Advantage with using "defined" ORM:s in PHP?
FYI, there was a thread about this a while ago. The gist of it is that ORMs (ActiveRecord is an common ORM pattern) help enable database independence and quicker access to common queries. Downside is that ORMs are "heavier" than straight SQL. For most apps, 90% of your data access is pretty standardized so ORMs help with time to market.