Well if you mean Model/Controller/Route first vs View first, yes they are philosophically different. But I meant more along the lines of how friendly the API is. An additional example would also include the fact that although Lift has come a long way in providing meaningful error information, by contrast Play!'s take on it is just a breath of fresh air. This isn't to say that Lift is doing it wrong; it's error messaging is less arcane than some other web frameworks.