When we talk about web development, PHP is still one of the leading scripting languages in the market. In its early days, PHP development was complicated and not very secure without the luxury of frameworks. With the introduction of PHP frameworks, PHP and PHP cloud development have been simplified, with advanced security and application design features.

Why Use Frameworks

With every passing day, software development gets progressively more complex and requires the utilization of modules, libraries, and other utilities. Frameworks offer pre-defined development modules, internal libraries. Some frameworks provide the feature to import and compile usable external libraries for a better experience.

PHP frameworks are platforms used to develop PHP websites and web applications. They provide code libraries for commonly used functions, reducing the original code time required. PHP frameworks emphasize ensuring scripting flexibility and reusable coding.

If we talk about the current market, the growth of a business venture is highly dependent on its marketing, promotion, and customer interaction. To be among the top contenders, enterprises tend to stay digitally connected to their audience via mobile applications, websites, blogs, etc. PHP frameworks make application development easy enough that you can focus on growing your business and outranking competitors.

 Top PHP Frameworks

Laravel:

Laravel is an open-source framework designed for reliable web app development to handle complex and faster-paced web-applications coding. Laravel is also the first choice of framework for 50% of all PHP users, and it is also easy to install Laravel.

Laravel follows the Model-View-Controller(MVC) pattern. The architecture works on the principle of breaking the application into three components.

1. Model components: Handles all the data-related logic that the user works with. This is used to examine either the data transportation between the view and controller components or any other module.
2. View components: As the name suggests, the feature works on the user interface of the application.
3. Controller components: This acts as an interface between the model and view components to process all kinds of business logic and incoming requests.

Who uses Laravel?

• 9GAG
• Mastercard
• Razorpay
• Olx

Features:

• Laravel’s standout feature is its templating language called “Blade,” making it easy to create HTML layouts.
• Laravel provides a vast range of pre-installed modules and libraries that helps reduce human labor and eases the coding process.
• Works on MVC architecture
• Laravel provides a structure for simple, easy to maintain, reusable code. That can later be modified without any difficulty.

Pros:

• It is the easiest to understand among all the PHP frameworks.
• The range of features offered by Laravel makes it the go-to platform for big companies.
• The easy-learning process makes it a platform for small companies.
• Laravel provides a wide range of security features and methods, including authentication, email verification, encryption, and password reset.

Cons:

• Due to heavy packages and libraries, it is comparatively slow.
• The online database can complicate query syntax.

Symfony:

Symfony is a collection of PHP components that can be used directly in any PHP project. Symfony comes with pre-installed drivers for the enterprise databases, making it ideal for enterprise projects.

Who uses Symfony?

• Spotify
• Magento
• Statista
• com

Features:

• It’s highly customizable and works on standalone components
• Operates on MVC architecture
• Uses Twig templating engine, which is fast and secure as compared to other frameworks
• Symfony uses data mappers to map objects to the database
• Provides built-in testing and debugging

Pros:

• It is a reliable platform for long-term use
• Offers components and libraries for enterprise projects
• Supports most of the databases, among the best PHP frameworks
• It creates and maintains complete documentation of the project

Cons:

• It is not easy to learn or master, as it requires an understanding of many components being used.
• File parsing is very hard to handle

 CodeIgniter:

Unlike Symphony, CodeIgniter is an easy-to-learn Framework that enables new. CodeIgniter is exceptionally successful for shared accounts. It comes with numerous back joins, including forums, video instructional exercises, and client guides. CodeIgniter helps to create applications with optimized configuration.

Who uses Symfony?

• Sprout Social
• Buffer
• Grindr
• 3M

Features:

• CodeIgniter is ranked as the top-performing framework in terms of speed
• CodeIgniter supports both MVC and non-MVC architecture
• Offers to the cache that increases the rate of apps
• Offer support with multiple databases, routing, and other services.

Pros:

• Due to its optimized performance, it is among the best PHP Frameworks.
• It allows you to download only required components
• It provides an architecture of extendable and straightforward coding
• Supports both app and database caching

Cons:

• The code maintainability is not prioritized
• It does not offer much in terms of pre-defined libraries.

Table of Comparison

Other Noteworthy PHP Frameworks

Yii Framework:

Yii is said to be one of the most accessible PHP Frameworks to be developed. Yii provides a detailed documentation guide, from installation to explaining web concepts to deploying applications and everything in-between, making it highly suitable for newbies. Developed on Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) architecture, it can easily be integrated with Ajax and JQuery, making it ideal for large-scale websites.

CakePHP:

One of the pioneers of PHP Framework, CakePHP, adapted to market changes, so it’s still trendy. It is easy to install, as it requires only a web server and a copy of the framework. CakePHP is recommended for commercial application projects as it offers high-end security.

Zend Framework:

Zend has completely developed Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts. It focuses on speed, security, performance and reusability, and ease of customization of code. Although Zend provides easy drag and drops editor and coding tools, it is still considered one of the most challenging learning frameworks.

Conclusion:

These Top PHP Frameworks simplify development and reduce the extensive code time it takes to create a PHP application. No single framework can be said to be complete and perfect for all development needs. The suitability of the framework depends on the application’s needs. So before opting for a framework to start, the developer or the business should have a clear idea about developing. This will help them analyze what framework is suitable for their business and development process.