Crafting wise XIV is probally the hardest mmo to level up crafts based off pure time it takes. XI was much harder for most to do it due to a gil restriction where 1 craft level could cost upwards of 4-5million (~10-15million in XIV gil) and there where 10-20 levels where you had to just burn absurd amount of gil to level to cap.

So it all depends on how you see it. Do you want to farm mobs for 10-20hrs to get 1 level, or do you want to take 3-4hrs per level crafting cheap stuff.

I would say XI, if you include the farming to make the money to level... was much much harder and more of a grind.