On the Master Zend Framework site Matthew Setter has written up a post that tries to answer the question: "can you create Zend Expressive apps as easily as with Laravel?" He works through each of the major features in the frameworks (controllers, routing, views, etc) and compares the two and how easy they make it for the developer.

Laravel is the PHP framework For web Artisans, able to create applications nary with the speed of thought. Zend Framework, on the other hand, is the enterprise-ready framework; one that can build the largest of applications, for companies in the Fortune 500. I was asked, recently, if applications could be built as easily in Zend Expressive as in Laravel. Recently I sought to find out. Here's what I found.

He starts off with more of an "overview comparison" of his own experience building a simple application with Laravel and how, interestingly, there's not an easy way to make a direct comparison between the two. He also mentions picking the right tool for the job and not "fitting a square peg in a round hole" or trying to use the same development practices between the two. From there he then gets into more of the specifics of the features:

• Forms and Entities (and Form ViewHelpers)
• Routes and Controllers
• View Helpers
• Database Access
• Data Models
• Database Migrations and Testing
• Testing

Each of the sections comes with some brief code snippets and examples from either side of the fence, helping you get a better idea of how they differ. He finishes off the post sharing his own opinions on the comparison between the two....but you'll have to read the article to find out about those.