PHP is one of the most widely used programming languages in the website development community. It is safe, quick, and provides a seamless coding experience to the developers. If we talk about the popularity of PHP, the BuiltWith report shows that PHP 7 is a mega technology, as it is used by at least 15,118,719 websites on the Internet.
Here is the graph that shows the popularity of PHP.
Image Source: BuiltWith
Although PHP has been an entirely scalable and secure programming language since its start, developers have to write massive lines of code to build a website, which is a monotonous and time-consuming task. Also, developers have to start from scratch every time. This is where PHP frameworks come into existence.
Frameworks in PHP have made the whole development process easy for developers as they make swift development a reality. But to choose the best PHP Frameworks is not that easy as every framework has its own benefits and features.
So in this huge variety of frameworks, we help you choose the best that will benefit your business in certain ways. For providing you with a brief overview, we have listed some of the top frameworks to help you choose the best.
The List of Best PHP Frameworks for Website Development
Here are some PHP frameworks that you must acknowledge:
1. Laravel
Laravel is the most demanding PHP framework for web app development. It is a robust tool that is used to build a website with model-view-controller (MVC) patterns. Laravel is an open-source framework with various advanced features, making this platform popular among developers and business owners.
Studies show that currently, Laravel has 779,682 live websites available on the internet. Let’s see its usage through a graph.
Laraval Usage Statistics
Image Source: BuiltWith
The fantastic thing about Laravel is that it can manage complex web applications with extraordinary measures and quickly. It also simplifies the procedure with tasks such as caching, authentication, routing, etc. Besides, with excellent features, developers can customize complex apps easily. Apart from caching and routing, data migration is also straightforward in Laravel.
Features that Laravel offers to their users
- High-end security
- Easy to Get Started
- Built-in Project Environment
- Template Engine
- Excellent Documentation
- Object-oriented Libraries
- MVC Architecture Support
- Large Community Support
2. CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter is a light framework with a mere 2MB in size. Codeigniter is popularly known for its hassle-free installations with minimalistic configuration prerequisites. It is a simple yet powerful PHP framework that is suitable for building dynamic websites. Studies have shown that there are around 572,859 live websites that are using the Codeigniter framework. Take a look at the image below.
Laraval Usage Codelgniter
Image Source: BuiltWith
Some of the Main features of Codeigniter
- Highly Customizability
- Secure
- User-Friendly Interface
- Hassle-Free Migration
- The MVC-Based System
- Quick Development
3. CakePHP
CakePHP is one of the perfect options for those who are looking to build commercial application projects. Because it offers high-end security features to its users, such as cross-site request forgery protection, SQL injection prevention, and cross-site scripting protection.
BuiltWith statistics of CakePHP shows that there are currently 66,445 websites using CakePHP.
This framework is quite compatible and can quickly upgrade to a new version. When developers want to create a rich and visually soothing website – they opt for CakePHP. Furthermore, the extensive community support and easy installation feature is a plus point that makes this framework the best for developers.
Essential features of CakePHP
- Open Source platform
- No Pre-Configuration Required
- Object Relational Mapping (ORM)
- Easily extendable
- CRUD scaffolding
- Security
- Model View Controller (MVC)
4. Symfony
With 26.5k+ stars on GitHub, Symfony is one of the oldest and most popular PHP frameworks. It is a PHP framework and a great set of fifty stand-alone reusable PHP components that help you with fast web app development.
It helps you to build APIs, web applications, and microservices too. Symfony offers a stable, high-performance, and adequately documented framework for modular applications. The features that may make you choose Symfony are – stability, reusable elements, independent engine database, and capability.
Essential Features of Symfony
- Time-saving capabilities
- Flexibility
- Ease of Use
- Extensive Community Support
- Full Customizability
- Easy Testing
- Popular amongst Big Brands
5. Yii
Yii is a feature-rich PHP framework. Thanks to its extensive documentation and helpful starting guide that provide ease to set up Yii. Talking about its performance, Yii is on par with Phalcon. As per BuiltWith statistics currently Yii has 169,476 live websites on the internet. Have a look at the graph below.
Yii Framework Usage Statistics
Image Source: BuiltWith
Due to its robust set of features and extensions support to speed up the web development process. Yii supports the GII code generator for model, CRUD operation, and module creating.
Although Yii comes with in-built security features, including SQL injection prevention and user-based authentication controls, there is a drawback as Yii is not the most beginner-friendly framework. However, its user community and documentation will help you learn.
Features of Yii Framework
- Shortened Development Time
- Secure to use
- Caching to improve the performance of a web application
- Easy Configuration
- Huge Community Support
6. ZEND
Like other PHP frameworks, Zend has also made its own space as Zend has 108,022 currently live websites. Here is the graphical image of the usage of Zend.
Zend Apps Usage Statistics
Image Source: BuiltWith
Zend is a complete and object-oriented framework that is built on agile methodology. Zend came into existence to build high-quality web applications at the enterprise level.
Zend is basically created to develop and maintain high-speed, secure, performance-oriented, and extensible websites delivered to clients’ time. It provides advanced features such as interfaces and inheritance to the developer.
Some of the great features of Zend are simple such as cloud API, MVC (Model-View-Controller) components, and data encryption. Zend framework allows collaboration with external libraries, and we can term it the best choice among all PHP frameworks.
Additional Features of Zend Framework
- Ease of performing difficult tasks
- Reduce technology-related risks
- Easy to integrate
- Guidelines and Standards
- Object-Oriented Programming Platform
7. Phalcon
Phalcon is another name in the list of PHP frameworks. It is a full-stack PHP framework written in C and C++ programming languages. Phalcon is a C-extension, but one need not worry about learning C.
Philson is a fantastic PHP framework as it comes with the prominent feature of blazing fast. This is because Phalcon uses a handful of resources, unlike other frameworks available in the market.
The speed can be essential for developers who work with systems that do not offer much overhead expense. Developers have continuously updated Phalcon since 2012, and one can see a few upgrades in the recent releases.
Key Features of Phalcon
- High performance
- Good for high load
- Rich functionality
- Consumes few resources
- Requires a minimum of file operations
- You can use your base and its elements.
- You can use your base and its elements.
- All processes occur pretty quickly, because of the framework’s direct access to the internal structures of PHP.
8. FuelPHP
FuelPHP is an extendable and flexible PHP framework that is not limited to the basic MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern but its successor, the HMVC (Hierarchical-Model-View-Controller) at the framework architecture level.
It also adds a voluntary class known as the Presenter class, previously known as ViewModel, between the view layer and controller to hold the logic required for the generation of views.
The Fuel PHP framework is secure and can tackle the user’s concerns by using several features, including input and URI filtering and output encoding. Many other features come with the framework: HMVC implementation, caching systems, URL routing system, and vulnerability protection.
Essential Features of FuelPHP
- Complete Flexibility
- Community Enthusiasm
- Secure
- In-Build Modular Structure
- ORM in the core.
In a Nutshell
If you want to reduce your time spent developing web apps, using a PHP framework is the best choice. All you need to do is choose a framework that goes well with your business requirement.
Although the above information will help you choose the best PHP framework, if you find it difficult to determine, one can take the help of a developer who at least has basic knowledge of PHP and has a decent understanding of the concepts behind the frameworks.
Or the best you can do is take the help of a professional IT development service provider that can help you create a website for your business.
Nascenture is a versatile and renowned PHP web development company with a team of certified PHP experts that can help you with every query and meet your expectations. Have a word with our skilled team.
