As far as frameworks go, Laravel takes the cake with the most number of personal and professional users. The 2015’s Sitepoint survey indicates that excellent documentation, solid features, and a thriving, growing support community have made Laravel a clear winner in the space of PHP framework. Google trends on PHP frameworks show similar results.
One of the older players, Symfony is considered to be a stable base for many other newer frameworks including Laravel. The quick adaptability and widely used documentation of Symfony make it one of the most dependable PHP frameworks.
A simple, powerful PHP framework, CodeIgniter is known for its flexibility and hassle-free installation. CodeIgniter is supposed to have an easy learning curve thus making it the best choice for beginners.
One of the oldest frameworks, CakePHP has retained its strong user base and has continued to grow. It also boasts of an impressive portfolio consisting of brands such as BMW and Express.
Zend is considered to be a very stable and robust framework recommended for big, enterprise-level projects. It has a wide variety of features which facilitates the development of quality applications for enterprise clients.
PHP Frameworks | Laravel | Symfony | CodeIgniter | CakePHP | Zend Framework |
Started in | 2011 | 2005 | 2006 | 2005 | 2006 |
Latest Version number | 5.4 | 3.2 | 3.1.3 | 3.4 | 2.5 |
Features | •Database agnostic migration •Schema builder •Toolkit that includes ORM queue library routing methods, authentication facilities |
•YAML •Event dispatcher •Dependency Injector •Templating engine |
•Application profiling •Template engine class •Query builder •Data encryption |
•Authentication facilities •Console tools •Controllers •Modeless forms •Plugins |
•End-to-end encryption •Package dependency manager •Continuous integration service |
Prominent projects | •Deltanet Travel •World Walking •FusionInvoice •Asgard CMS |
•Drupal •Laravel •phpBB •OROCRM |
•Buffer •Small SEO Tools |
•BMW •Express •Sainsburys Bank |
•BBC •BNP PARIBAS •Cisco Webex |
License | MIT | MIT | MIT | MIT | New BSD |
WRAPPING UP
It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or an expert coder, these top PHP frameworks are built to make your life easier as a developer. PHP frameworks standardize repetitive code thus reducing the lengthiness of code and encouraging developers to follow coding standards and the creation of reusable components, and lets developers focus on the business flow and the components of the application/website rather than get distracted by the small changes of the coding language.