I think the biggest plus for using an ORM is increased security over rolling your own interactions with the database. Plus the time savings/overall security us

I think the biggest plus for using an ORM is increased security over rolling your own interactions with the database. Plus the time savings/overall security using a framework that is typically tied to the ORM. So I would recommend using a framework and ORM. If you're just getting started and are working on a web app for your own use I would recommend building at least one from scratch. Rolling your own Auth, etc. Once you do that you'll understand more of what appears as 'magic' in a framework like Rails/Laravel.