Laravel
Laravel is a PHP based framework. It is developed by Taylor Otwell June 2011 and it is free to open-source PHP web framework as well as supports model-view-controller (MVC) patterns for application development. Therefore, framework mostly used for developing a modest and full-featured application for web. Also, laravel is written in PHP, and it is used for the backend side of web development.

CodeIgniter
Codeigniter is also a PHP based framework. It is developed by the British Columbia Institue of technology on 28 February 2006. It is an open-source framework that is used for Application development a toolkit for people who build a website using PHP.

Here are some features of CodeIgniter Framework.
1. Model-View-Controller Based System.
2. Extremely Light Weight.
3. Query Builder Database Support.
4. Form and Data Validation.
5. Security and XSS Filtering.
6. Session Management.
7. Email Sending Class.

Differences between CodeIgniter and Laravel are given below:

1. Technical Documentation- No framework can beat the well-organized and easy to understand documentation of CodeIgniter. Hence, the concepts used in development and designing a website are clearly explained in the file. On the contrary, Laravel framework has tough documentation.
2. Stability and Reliability-  Laravel and CodeIgniter both are stable as well as reliable PHP frameworks. It is depicted that the risks of bugs and other technical issues are very less in CodeIgniter as compared to Laravel.
3. Community Support- Developers of Laravel and CodeIgniter get support for working on small scale and large scale website projects. But, Laravel framework development community is wider.
4. Authentication Feature- In Laravel, authentication class is provided that helps developers to implement authorization and authentication. But, the users need to write custom CodeIgniter extension to utilise authenticate and authorize features.
5. Routing- Laravel and CodeIgniter provide the option of PHP frameworks, the features enable developers to route the requests in an efficient manner.
6. Security- For any kind of website application, security is a major concern. Moreover, Laravel is featured with better authorization and authentication check. It clears that Laravel is more secured framework than CodeIgniter.

Well, the PHP developers still need to evaluate added features of Laravel and CodeIgniter according to the demands of business requirements. This would help them to select the perfect PHP framework for website development.