Zend vs drupal (comparison)

We have a project to build a web application that has many features like: google maps integration, item review and rating (something like eBay rating), chatting among users, content search based on content calculated value, integration with Facebook (for login, liking the content, fetch user's friends...etc),batch and real-time notification through SMS and email and many others.

We have two candidates for this zend and drupal, I tried to search a detailed
comparison between them without luck; only found high level stuffs.

Our criteria is to use a product which will not require lots of custom development and satisfies most of out needs out of the box, and it should be reliable and easy to maintain and extend in the future.

I would really appreciate if someone can shed some light on zend vs drupal comparison and point me to any useful recent analysis already done in this. 

What are the real strengths of zend ?

Thanks in advance and best regards

 

Drupal is easier to have a project up and running with, it is a fully working web application out of the box. The flexibility of Drupal is pretty good, but be aware that using such a "pre-built application" type of framework tends to make the hard things easy to do, and the easy things hard to do.

Zend Framework, on the other hand offers much more flexibility, but at the cost of having to write things up from scratch yourself.

Zend is an [application framework][1] while Drupal is more of a [content management system][2] (with some framework characteristics). That makes it difficult to compare them beyond those definitions.

> Our criteria is to use a product which
> will not require lots of custom
> development and satisfies most of out
> needs out of the box, and it should be
> reliable and easy to maintain and
> extend in the future.

There's no magic bullet for that but most of your criteria (pre-built modules) puts you firmly in the Drupal camp. It employ modules that you can plugin and config.


[1]:

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[2]:

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Actually, you are to choose from two different solutions. They are both used for building sites, but on a different level.

Base on the following:

> Our criteria is to use a product which
> will not require lots of custom
> development and satisfies most of out
> needs out of the box, and it should be
> reliable and easy to maintain and
> extend in the future.

I think you should choose Drupal. This is why:

- Zend Framework is PHP framework, which enables you to build applications almost from scratch - you need to put some effort to reach the phase when you are able to actually use the application,
- Drupal is Content Management Framework, that helps you build CMS system on the basis of your modules - only thing you need to start using base features is to install Drupal,
- both Zend Framework and Drupal are extensible, but Zend Framework is much more extensible. Drupal has some architecture that should be followed and you can not do much about it (unless you really have time and resources to change it significantly and then be your own support, updating the core), but since you need "just extensibility" (not some major one), Drupal still meets your needs,
- there are plenty of modules allowing you to add needed features to your application on both Zend Framework and Drupal, but in Drupal it is just as simple as copying the files and configuring it through the interface - there is usually nothing that has to be performed by developers,

You have to be aware also, that because of some architectural restrictions you should first analyze, whether Drupal is really suitable for your solutions. If you think the traffic will be heavy and you need different base concepts (user management, content management?), you probably should think about choosing more resource-consuming solution (which is Zend Framework).

**Drupal offers** both the functionality of a framework (through modules and its API), and Drupal offers ready-made functionality. The trick is knowing Drupal very well.

Pre-made functionality in Drupal can be overridden through hooks, or you can find workarounds that DO NOT require modifying other modules, but sometimes this requires a lot of experience with the inner-workings of Drupal, for maximum control.

One major hurdle is deciding when to write in-house modules, or turn on modules provided in core or contrib. The problem (for me) is resisting the siren's call to use every module that Drupal provides either in core or in contrib.

Another technique is to turn on a module, and use the functions and data that the module provides, and create your own functionality on top of (or replacing) the functionality provided by the core or contrib modules.

**With Zend**, well they offer a very good set of classes but every page including admin pages, and features like caching, and routing will need to be built from scratch. In some ways this can be a good thing if it can get you away from the siren's call of wanting to use ready-made Drupal modules.

On the other hand, you own everything you have to make from scratch. With a community like Drupal, you can be part of a community that shares in development efforts.