Is CodeIgniter still relevant in 2026?

CodeIgniter 4 is actively maintained and still receives releases, so 'still relevant' is a fair description. What changed is the gap to Laravel. CodeIgniter 4 was released in 2020 with significant architectural improvements, but Laravel kept moving with Octane, Vapor, Livewire 3, Filament 3, Pennant, Reverb, Pulse, and the broader Laravel platform offering. The CodeIgniter ecosystem is smaller, the hiring pool has shrunk relative to Laravel, and most active PHP development resources concentrate on the Laravel side. CodeIgniter remains a competent framework; it is no longer the obvious mainstream choice.