PHP is one of the most prevalent programming languages around the world today. Besides, the PHP 7 release has also made this server-side programming language better and more stable than ever before.
So, what's the whole point of using a PHP framework rather than raw PHP to develop your application?
These benefits are a bit too good to be ignored, aren’t they?
However, choosing the best PHP framework requires a bit of research. Here are a few questions to consider in planning phase to decide on a framework:
Decide what your domain and primary goal is. Is it an ecommerce portal, a social platform, a blog or a business website?
A blog site may need a framework with options for various themes and plugins to choose from. For instance, an eCommerce website needs suites of plugins like payment gateway, shipping and inventory to name a few. Frameworks that reflect the goal of application are best pick. Next, evaluate the number of tested plugins available and the robustness, security and scalability of the framework based on the primary goal.
A good documented framework, communicates all the workflow and hidden anomaly. It outcast the dos and don’ts well before the actual development is undertaken. Picking a framework with a good documentation will make it easier for the programmers to understand the source-code and develop applications.
Also, the automated section will help to maintain the source code, documentation and DevOps activity.
Frameworks with no active development support can bleed financially on maintenance and upgrades. Therefore, it is wise to check the number of downloads made, number of changes recently done and when was major version released. Good research of the community support is key to choose a framework while the project is still in the planning phase.
Laravel is one of the best PHP frameworks used today with many business and corporate houses. A free, open-source framework, with a very comprehensive list of plugins and easy to use UI. Comes with virtually no learning curve and called a web artist framework. Great features to create forms in Multilanguage and has native support for cache.
Zend Framework has been in existence for almost a decade now. An open-source project, it is a favorite of multi-national companies such as Cisco, Google and BBC. Built for Industrial GRADE usage while using MVC architecture. Many of the people behind Zend Framework were developers of PHP.
If you feel the “need for speed,” Phalcon is the best PHP framework for you. Phalcon is an extension written in C. This approach allows it to increase execution speed and decrease the use of costly resources of servers.
Symfony is a reliable choice for large-scale projects. It uses a system of reusable components.
Its components are in some of the most successful projects online, including content-management system Drupal and the Twig templating engine.
You can compare Laravel vs Symfony here
Yii is a high-performance PHP framework best for developing Web 2.0 applications. It can reduce your development time significantly. Yii has powerful caching support and is explicitly designed to work efficiently with AJAX.
You can compare Laravel vs Yii here
CakePHP is an open source framework used for RAPID DEVELOPMENT to build web Apps, micro services, blogs, shopping cart, portals and headless websites. CakePHP is a choice of developers because it supports multiple languages. In CakePHP, there is no default language. One of the biggest advantages of using this best PHP framework is embedded security.
PHP micro frameworks are minimalistic web frameworks used only to perform a task, as it is not like the full stack frameworks that offer everything to develop fully functional web applications.
Used in developing simple websites and few specific use cases providing faster-developing schemes and improved quality testing. E.g. REST API.
The team behind Laravel developed Lumen in 2014. Lumen allows you to use many Laravel components such as “middleware,” validation, caching and the Laravel service container for lightweight usage.
Slim is one of the most popular PHP microframeworks — it has more than 960,000 installs. It features a powerful logic control, plenty of helper methods for easier caching, and session support.
Based on Symfony with Twig template engine. In 2010. Silex is extremely lightweight built to handle small projects and lets you add features as needed. Choose between two versions:
Use it for RESTAPI or single application.
Micro-frameworks are better for smaller projects that require simplicity, low overhead and rapid deployment. When planning for an enormous application like a social-media or large e-commerce website with a global footprint, you’ll need to use the strength and depth of a full-stack framework.
No matter which framework you choose, our team of experts will be glad to help you. Get in touch with our experts today.