List of Best 5 PHP Framework
1) Laravel
If you went through Google search trend chart, Laravel is the most popular PHP frameworks among PHP developers. It’s a good PHP framework with elegant syntax pattern.
Required skills – PHP and OOP knowledge
Current Version – 5.1.6
Stable Version – 4.1
Release Date – June 11, 2011
Required Modules – Open SSL, Mbstring, Tokenizer, PDO PHP
Licensed Under- MIT
Hierarchy – MVC
Minimum PHP Version needed – 5.5.9
Why should we use Laravel?
It has lots of inbuilt functionalities like authentication, file uploads etc.
- It also offers strong routing and caching features.
- It is integrated with unit testing support.
- It can be used for very large application or simple JSON-based APIs.
- Laravel supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite.
- Laravel comes with Composer and vendor packages installation is a charm.
- infographic_PHP-framework-comparision
2) Symfony Framework
Symfony is one of the most actively used frameworks that ships with a powerful ORM and excellent documentation.
Required skills – PHP 5, OOP , ORM, Console
Current Version – 2.7
Stable Version – 2.4.1
Release Date – 22nd October 2005
Required Modules – OpenSSL, Mbstring, Tokenizer, PDO PHP
Most Suited for – Intermediates / Experts
Licensed Under- MIT
Best For – Large Projects
Runs On – PHP 5.3
License – MIT
Ease of Learning – Difficult to learn – a steep learning curve
Speed – Bloated and Slow
Performance – 39.22 requests per second
Multiuser System – Conditional
Databases Supported – Microsoft BI, MySQL, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, GraphDB, MemcacheDB, Apache Jackrabbit, MongoDB, NoSQL, CouchDB, GemFire, Membase, Oracle
Rigid Catalog Structure – Yes
Official Internalization Support – Yes
Design pattern – Dependency Injection, MVC, Observer, Data Mapper, Domain Driven Design, HMVC, Restful
Dependency Injection Container – Yes
Code Generators – CLI
Template Libraries – PHP, Twig
View System – Proper View System
Cache Storage – Yes
Complexity in Installation and Adjustment – High
Requires Additional Configuration and Settings – Significantly
Documentation and Samples – Comprehensive
Unit Tests for Source Code – Yes
Testing Library – PHPUnit
Security USPs – Authentication, Dynamic encoding of password, role-based and stateless authorization, access control lists
Community – Available
Why should we use Symfony?
- It’s a flexible, scalable yet powerful PHP framework.
- It has plenty of reusable PHP components that can be used like Security, Templating, Translation, Validator, Form Config and more.
- Reusable and decoupled components that can work together or independently.
- Highly performing, faster, and less greedy.
- The ultimate flexibility in terms of dependency control.
- Quickly and easily expandable.
- High-level ease of use.
3) CodeIgniter Framework
CodeIgniter is the second most popular web framework among PHP developers. It is a lightweight powerful PHP framework that provides a simple and elegant platform to create full-featured web applications.
Best For – Small, Medium or Large Project
Runs On – PHP 5.0
License – MIT
Required Skills – PHP, OOP basic
Ease of Learning – Easy to Learn
Speed – Agile, has a very small footprint
Performance – 187.78 requests per second
Multiuser System – Yes
Databases Supported – JDBC, OrientDB, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, Cubrid, MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft BI, PostgreSQL
Rigid Catalog Structure – Yes
Official Internalization Support – Yes
Design pattern – Active Record, MVC, HMVC, Chain of Responsibility
Dependency Injection Container – No
Code Generators – Has many code generator console applications
Template Libraries – PHP simple template
View System – Does not offer in-built WYSIWYG editor
Cache Storage – Yes
Complexity in Installation and Adjustment – Low
Requires Additional Configuration and Settings – Slightly
Documentation and Samples – Excellent
Unit Tests for Source Code – No
Testing Library – PHPUnit
- Security USPs – Password encryption, message encoding/decoding, XSS filtering, output filtering, SQL injection, Session security, private controller methods
- Community – Active Forum, Wiki Tutorial, Blog
- Why should we use CodeIgniter?
- Best framework for Beginners as it is simply great and easier to learn
- Exceptionally High performance and broad compatibility delivered with standard hosting
- Zero configuration required to let the task easier for you
- Large scale monolithic libraries that let complexity break into simplicity
- Thorough maintenance
- Offers incredible control in comparison to other frameworks specially Yii.
4) Zend Framework
Zend is the one and only framework which is best suited for Enterprise Projects. No other framework can match up to its flexibility, scalability, and robustness.
Best For – Medium and Large Projects
Runs On – PHP 5.2
License – New BSD
Required Skills – Requires high knowledge of PHP5 and OOP, as well as awareness of design patterns
Ease of Learning – Academically literate code
Speed – Lightweight, easily customizable
Performance – 103.2 results per second
Databases Supported – Apache Derby, BM DB2, MSSQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, DBeaver
Rigid Catalog Structure – No
Official Internalization Support – Yes
Design pattern – MVC, Dependency Injection, Adapter, Action Controller
Dependency Injection Container – Yes
Code Generators – CLI
Template Libraries – Possible to integrate most templates such as Smarty
View System – No WYSIWYG editor has to be added as a plug – in
Cache Storage – No
Complexity in Installation and Adjustment – High
Requires Additional Configuration and Settings – Significantly
Documentation and Samples – Comprehensive, Good
Unit Tests for Source Code – Yes
Testing Library – PHP Unit
- Security USPs – Authentication, input Validaiton and filtering, SQL security, CSRF protection, Session management security, XSS protection
- Community – Strong and Vibrant
- Why we should use Zend Framework?
- Agile Design methodology that focuses high-quality enterprise apps.
- World class Cloud support on servers.
- Inherently excellent streamlining and automation process that brings software from codes to production
- The most coolest Drag and Drop editor.
- Instant Online Debugging.
- Intuitively connected Database Wizard and Editable Table Viewer for exclusive database connectivity.
- Offers the most efficiently designed workflows.
5) Yii Framework
YiiFramework is the high-performance modern PHP framework. As its popularity in the chart, it attracts most of PHP developers due to its features like fast development, caching, authentication and role-based access control, scaffolding, testing, etc.
Best For – Any Project – small, medium or large
Runs On – PHP 5.4
License – New BSD
Required Skills – PHP5 and OOP
Ease of Learning – Easy to learn and manage, Time consuming
Speed – Fast
Performance – 123.5 Requests per second
Multiuser System – Conditional
Databases Supported – MySQL, SQLite, Microsoft BI, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
Rigid Catalog Structure – No
Official Internalization Support – Yes
Design pattern – DAO, Active Record, MVC, HMVC, Observer
Dependency Injection Container – No
Code Generators – Yii CLI, Gii (web based)
Template Libraries – PHP, Prado, Others such as Razor, Smarty, Twig using extensions
View System – Decent View System – WYSIWYG editior
Cache Storage – Yes
Complexity in Installation and Adjustment – Average
Requires Additional Configuration and Settings – Slightly
Documentation and Samples – Excellent
Unit Tests for Source Code – Yes
Testing Library – PHP Unit, Selenium
Security USPs – Authentication and role – based access control, easy form validation
Community – Strong
Why should we use Yii Framework?
- Powerful Caching system that loads your web applications extremely fast.
- Security at its best with Yii.
- Provides excellent support for writing and running both unit tests and functionality tests.
- There is a detailed documentation for everything if you get stuck anywhere.
- Works fantastically well with 3rd party codes.
- Has a built-in authentication support that is facilitated via RBAC (Role Based Access Control).
- Well integrated with JQuery.
- Supports message translation, date and time formatting, number formatting, and interface localization.
- Offers professionally clean and reusable code that follows MVC pattern.
- Integrates best with both the relational and non-relational databases.