Software Development Updates

PHP is one of the first programming languages that comes to mind in the case of a web development project. Although it’s very old, it’s still popular and relevant. A study from W3Techs revealed that almost 79% of websites on the internet use PHP, making it 8 times more popular than ASP.NET one of the modern and advanced programming languages. The usage share of PHP has never dwindled over the years. 

PHP frameworks help developers write code for their apps and websites. PHP development companies leverage these frameworks to deliver high-quality web solutions. There are multiple options available in the market, but not all of them can provide a reliable foundation for your project. 

Therefore, you have to pick a PHP framework that aligns with your business needs and the scope of the project. This article explores the best PHP frameworks, highlighting their features, pros, and cons. Understanding your options will help you make an informed decision. 

1. What is a PHP Framework?

A PHP framework is an open-source platform that enables developers to build and launch web apps in a structured and standardized manner. 

It offers robust built-in features that improve the development speed and boost developer productivity. The PHP framework handles low-level coding operations such as routing, database management, and security, allowing developers to focus on creating reliable websites and applications. 

PHP frameworks have a decent learning curve. All of them come with an MVC architecture, comprising three core components; 

• Model – Helps separate data management 
• View- User interface 
• Controller – Allows to control the app workflow 

These architectural components of the PHP framework help you simplify the web development process and build easy-to-maintain applications. 

2. Why Use a PHP Framework?

PHP frameworks offer pre-programmed modules that simplify web app development. It also allows you to reuse code to avoid repetitive tasks. There are many more advantages of using PHP frameworks including but not limited to the following: 

2.1 Faster Development

Using PHP frameworks significantly reduces your development time, as they have built-in tools and libraries. For instance, the CakePHP framework offers a bake command-line tool, which is capable of creating a skeleton as per your project requirements. Moreover, many popular PHP frameworks have an integrated PHPUnit library for your testing requirements. 

2.2 Better Security

XSS and SQL injection are the most common security threats for PHP applications. However, PHP frameworks enforce data sanitation and best coding practices to minimize security risks and vulnerabilities. 

2.3 Community Support

PHP is an open-source programming language that is helpful for developers in building websites and applications. So, naturally, it has strong support from a large and active community that strives continuously for the advancement of the language and its frameworks. 

The community offers detailed documentation and support for developers facing PHP development problems. The community also contributes by teaching PHP development best practices and adding functionalities to the frameworks. 

2.4 Less Code to Write

PHP frameworks provide a wide range of pre-programmed modules and libraries that offer pre-built features. This significantly reduces the workload for PHP developers, allowing them to spend less time writing code and more time on building the applications. 

2.5 Better Collaboration

When working in teams, PHP development frameworks help maintain consistency among developers. It allows you to set the rules for the script and follow a single coding standard. This way, there won’t be any miscommunication leading to wrong scripting. Moreover, clear documentation is available in PHP frameworks, allowing developers to catch up quickly and follow the same development patterns.

3. Top PHP Frameworks

Numerous PHP frameworks are available in the market. Each offers diverse capabilities and different sets of strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a look at the top PHP frameworks to find a suitable choice for your project. 

3.1 Laravel

Laravel is dubbed as “The PHP framework for web artisans”. It is an open-source MIT-licensed software created by Taylor Otwell in June 2011. Laravel is one of the most popular and preferred choices among PHP developers for web development projects. The framework enjoys the support of a large and vibrant community of developers, enterprises, and organizations. 

Laravel is based on the MVC architecture. It also offers a set of robust features, including progressive designs, elegant syntax, and scaling. They enable developers to code and handle complex web applications and elevate their overall development experience. 

Features:

• Eloquent ORM: It allows you to interact with the database efficiently. Eloquent ORM simplifies the CRUD operations and creation of database models. 
• Artisan CLI: This feature provides a large number of commands for app development including scaffolding boilerplate code, automating repetitive tasks, dependency management, and running tests. 
• Blade Template Engine: This robust templating engine helps you create reusable and dynamic views with less amount of code. It offers custom templates, control structure and template inheritance to make web development secure and efficient. 
• Expressive Syntax: This feature encourages the developer to write clean, and readable code. Such a codebase is easy to understand and can be maintained for the long term. 

Advantages:

• Detailed documentation: This helps beginners easily learn the ways of the framework. And also enables the experts to find a way around laravel development problems. 
• Built-in libraries: You don’t need any additional packages when using Laravel as the framework offers a large array of tools and libraries by default covering most of the web functionalities. 
• Scalability: Laravel is built to adapt to your requirements. No matter how small or big your requirements are, Laravel ensures all of them are met. 
• Security: Laravel offers a robust access control mechanism that takes care of your security requirements. 

Disadvantages:

• Performance: Despite being a lightweight framework, Laravel lags in speed compared to other lightweight frameworks because of its extensive functionalities.
• Increased costs: The popularity of the framework comes at a cost as the developers demand premium salaries. 
• Frequent updates: Laravel releases regular updates, making it difficult for developers to use a steady version for the long term. Updating the framework frequently is also a challenge in itself. 
• Limited support: Laravel lacks extensive support systems like other popular web frameworks have, which can be troublesome, especially during downtimes. 

Use Cases:

• Rapid App Development: Laravel is a feature-rich framework that helps accelerate the development of applications even if they are complex ones. 
• Database Manipulation: Laravel helps interact with various databases. It simplifies the CRUD operations, migration process, and the creation of data models. 
• Scaling and performance optimization: Over time, as the complexity and the traffic on your app grows, laravel can assist in scaling the application and improving its performance.

3.2 Yii

If you are wondering if there is any high-performing PHP object-oriented framework to build modern web apps, then Yes, there is! Popularly known as Yii is the right framework for you. Its component-based MVC architecture allows PHP developers to rapidly build web apps including single-page applications (SPAs), and content management systems (CMS). 

Some of the notable capabilities of Yii include a layered caching system, error handling, and support for functionality and unit testing. It also includes strong security measures to protect against CSRF and XSS attacks. This is a universal programming framework that also offers a robust class code generator called Gii. 

It’s an extension that offers a web-based code interface to help developers create modules and models with desired code interactively. This enables the developers to build fast and secure PHP applications. Additionally, Yii supports heavy customization options. 

Features:

• MVC architecture: Yii is designed with an MVC architectural pattern separating business logic from the data access layer. This helps developers easily implement changes in one part without affecting another. 
• Database Access Objects (DAO): It simplifies database access, allowing developers to work with different DBMS without modifying data accessing code. 
• Form input and validation: The entire process of handling user input and validating the data is simplified in the Yii web development framework. 
• RESTful APIs: Yii offers support for building RESTful APIs. It helps you represent your app functionalities as web services.

Advantages:

• Security: Yii offerings include robust security features like XSS and CSRF protection, input validation, output filtering, and also ensure data integrity and safeguard the app from potential threats. 
• Community Support: Yii boasts support from a huge and active community. They provide readily available solutions to development challenges through forums and online resources. 
• Reduced development time: Adhering to the principle of convention over configuration, code generation tools in Yii speed up the development process. A minimal development time results in significant cost savings. 
• Flexibility: Yii is not an opinionated framework. It takes a modular approach to development. This allows developers to be flexible in picking the components in their projects. 

Disadvantages:

• Steeper learning curve: You need to have a working understanding of PHP language and adequate programming skills to be able to master Yii. 
• Highly dependent: Yii relies heavily on static methods that web developers are no longer comfortable using in their projects. 
• Limited support: Yii does not support AR queries or multiple relations. Moreover, the embedded Ajax features are also not drafted properly. 
• Requires great attention: Developers need to be careful during Yii app development as a little mistake can result in oversized code and multiple problems. 

Use Cases:

• Small apps: The modular approach of Yii helps create small and well-defined applications that don’t need rich features. 
• High-performance applications: If it’s speed you want then Yii can deliver. It is lightweight and gives an advantage with an efficient caching mechanism. 
• Content Management Systems (CMS): The flexibility and robust features of the Yii framework are what you need to build CMS solutions. 

3.3 Symfony

Symfony is one of the best open-source PHP frameworks for developing complex web apps, APIs, and microservices. Utilizing an MVC architecture pattern, it offers a variety of command-line tools to reduce overall web development time. 

When using Symfony, PHP programmers have to write fewer lines of code, as the framework offers a wide range of reusable PHP components and libraries. Utilizing these reusable PHP components can minimize the risks of repetition in your PHP code. 

Inspired by the Spring framework, Symfony shares some similarities with Laravel. However, there is a steeper learning curve for this framework. It also provides multiple customization options to make your web apps more user-friendly. Therefore, building complex applications with numerous features and functionalities is easy with Symfony. 

Features:

• Twig templating engine: This powerful templating engine from Symfony promotes code readability and simplicity. It allows developers to design elegant and maintainable templates. 
• Flexible URI Routing: This is one feature-rich routing library. It allows you to create routes in PHP apps and provide versatility. Developers also use it to define routes for their apps in YAML. 
• Session Management: Built into the HttpFoundation component of Symfony, this feature uses an object-oriented interface to handle sessions through various session storage drivers. It also offers cookies for client-side data storage. 
• Error Logging: Symfony manages logging through Monolog, a third-party PHP logging framework. It categorizes the logs and stores them in a project directory. Developers can configure the settings to fit their requirements. 

Advantages:

• Rapid App Development: The major objective of Symfony is to allow developers to write code rapidly. For that, it promotes an extensive use of reusable components and modules. 
• Cache Management: For efficient data management, Symfony offers a caching mechanism. It handles all the data retrieval requests from Symfony and works well with MySQL databases. 
• High Flexibility: Symfony provides great flexibility as it comes with a bundle system, allowing you to pick the functionality you need in your project. 
• Community and Resources: Symfony framework is supported by a large community offering third-party bundles and troubleshooting forums for finding solutions to critical problems. 

Disadvantages:

• Performance: Many performance issues are reported in Symfony web apps, especially during high-traffic periods. Meanwhile, many elements in Symfony are created using other technologies, so their loading speed is also a little slow. 
• Parsing Issues: It is challenging to access parser and lever codes in the Symfony framework, making it difficult to test the code on time. 
• High learning curve: The concepts in the Symfony framework are complex which makes it difficult to learn and takes more time. 
• Testing takes time: Because Symfony offers a comprehensive testing process, it takes more time compared to testing in other frameworks. This affects the project timeline. 

Use Cases:

• Web development: Symfony is quite helpful in creating websites. Although it provides readymade templates, you can also create a custom template from scratch or update an existing one. 
• API development: Helps increase the compatibility between components and devices.

3.4 CakePHP

Released in 2005, CakePHP is a widely used PHP framework for both personal and commercial use. Although usable under an MIT license, CakePHP is an open-source solution used by many enterprises, such as BMW, Express, and Hyundai. 

CakePHP is transforming web development by following the principle of convention over configuration. Beginners can easily get started with this framework and quickly build PHP applications, as it needs less code. 

The purpose of creating CakePHP was to reduce configuration as well as accelerate and streamline the development process. This allows the PHP developers to focus on the critical factors of the app without reinventing the wheel for common tasks. 

Features:

• HMVC Architecture: With this, developers can not only keep the app UI and backend logic into separate components but also reuse the same piece of code across multiple web pages. 
• Object-Relational Mapping (ORM): Developers can use this feature to easily incorporate relational databases into their web applications without modifying them. 
• Class Inheritance: It automatically sorts all the functions categorically. That way it becomes easy for developers to retrieve required functions and streamline development time. 
• CRUD Scaffolding: It helps with rapid development. You can customize this feature to meet your business requirements. 

Advantages:

• Doesn’t Require Pre-configuration: Because it follows convention over configuration, developers can save a lot of time. It also allows you to focus on writing better logic instead of worrying about extensive configurations. 
• Security: CakePHP offers a wide range of protection and security features including data sanitization and input validation. Its CRUD features are also helpful in securing the user submission process. 
• Readable and reusable code: With the CakePHP framework, you can write easy-to-read code. It also allows you to reuse these codes across different projects, eliminating the need to add new libraries, plugins, and components. 
• Migrations: CakePHP helps you handle changes in the database schema. It comes in handy when working in a collaborative environment. 

Disadvantages:

• Learning Curve: The intricate conventions and customizable features of CakePHP are difficult to master. Also, if you are unfamiliar with the framework or MVC architecture, then it’s going to take a lot of time and effort.
• Flexible but Opinionated: The adherence to convention over configuration and an emphasis on uniformity does restrict developers who want to be more innovative.
• Performance Issues: despite many improvements, CakePHP is reportedly slower than other PHP frameworks.
• Community and resources: The community support for CakePHP is smaller compared to other PHP frameworks. Its ecosystem isn’t mature enough as it has limited libraries, plugins, third-party packages, and documentation for their use. 

Use Cases:

• Rapid Development: CakePHP’s reusable components and convention over configuration method help developers to quickly build their applications. 
• Budget Restrictions: CakePHP can help you build reliable applications with a limited budget and resources. 
• Small to Medium-Sized Projects: CakePHP framework’s simplicity helps build suitable apps for small and medium-sized businesses. 

3.5 Laminas Project

Laminas Project is an object-oriented framework with an MVC architectural pattern. Because of its component-based nature, it is often referred to as a glue framework. Laminas allows you to add required components as individual libraries. This enables code reuse across various projects. 

Laminas Project comprises three main parts; Meizzio, an app builder, Laminas components, and API tools. Being a continuation of the Zend, you can easily integrate this PHP framework with external libraries to extend its functionalities. Hence, it’s easy to customize the framework to meet your specific requirements. 

Laminas Project is designed with Agile methodologies. So, it’s very helpful in building high-quality enterprise applications.

Features:

• MVC design: Laminas is equipped with an MVC pattern that separates the app’s logic from its presentation. 
• Extensive documentation: laminas offer well-organized and extensive documentation that makes it easy for developers to use the framework. 
• Modular architecture: Laminas Project framework is made up of independent components, developers can either use them individually or together for app development. This offers great reusability and flexibility. 
• Built-in  Logging: This feature from Laminas is very helpful for enterprise applications. It automatically keeps track of all the events to catch any errors or discrepancies. Even in the event of a crash, it ensures that the event history is available. 

Advantages:

• Highly Customizable: Because it is powered by Zend, Laminas provides various customization features to build websites and applications.
• Speed and Performance: Laminas is optimized for quick response time. It makes your sites or apps faster compared to other PHP frameworks. 
• Robust Security: With features like input validation and secure session management, laminas ensures your app is heavily fortified. 
• Community support: Laminas has great community support including many experienced PHP developers. They help solve various challenges together. 

Disadvantages:

• Not for beginners: Laminas is a framework with large and complex libraries, components, and classes. Learning to use them takes time.
• Costly plugins: Although the framework is feature-rich, you need to use plugins for better programming. But they cost way more than the ones available for other PHP frameworks. 
• Bulky documentation: With a heavy framework comes bulky documentation. Laminas framework provides details for everything. So, it’s a little hard even with online tutorials and resources, it’s difficult for developers to follow them. 

Use Cases:

• Enterprise app development: the combination of reusability and MVC pattern in Laminas allows you to build large and complex enterprise applications. 
• Custom app development: Because it supports heavy customization, building tailor-made solutions is easy with Laminas Project. 
• Microservices: Thanks to its modular approach to software development, laminas is also useful for microservices app development.

3.6 CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is a fast and lightweight PHP framework that uses the MVC architecture to improve code management, reusability, testing, debugging, flexibility, and maintenance. This framework offers a rich toolkit with various pre-built modules to quickly develop full-featured web applications. 

CodeIgniter organizes the code by separating the application logic from the presentation layer. It helps improve the scalability and maintainability of the apps. This PHP framework is famous for its simplicity, minimal configuration, and easy installation. CodeIgniter also comes with easy-to-read documentation and quality error handling. 

Features:

• Extensive Built-in Library: CodeIgniter offers a feature-rich library by default. It helps you with all the necessary tasks like routing and data manipulation. 
• Error Handling: A simple interface helps developers find and manage errors during app development. It also provides instructions to the error logging class. 
• Lightweight: CodeIgniter requires fewer resources and hence leaves a smaller footprint compared to other PHP frameworks. It is also efficient at resource management and utilization. 
• Flexible Routing: You can define custom routes and URL structures that fits your app requirements, thanks to a flexible routing system from CodeIgniter. It is also helpful in creating SEO-friendly URLs. 

Advantages:

• Ease of Use: PHP developers can use CodeIgniter in various web projects. Thanks to the Convention over Configuration, the setup is also quite simple, so they can easily get started. 
• Offers Modern Separation Concept: Unlike other PHP frameworks, CodeIgniter doesn’t force developers to use MVC patterns. It suggests they use models for data, libraries, and controllers for control and views for HTML. 
• Supports both Web Page and Database Caching: By providing both web page and database caching, Codeigniter reduces the server load and allows developers to cache web pages in a fully rendered state. 
• Flexible and Customizable: CodeIgniter allows developers to pick the best libraries and tools they need for their projects. It supports tons of third-party integrations. Such an extensibility helps developers build custom applications.

Disadvantages:

• Does not emphasize code maintainability: Developers need to put in extra time and effort to maintain or update the code written with CodeIgniter. 
• Lack of Modern Features: The CodeIgniter framework hasn’t been updated for a while. So, it not only lacks modern features, but all of its existing features are almost outdated. 
• Lack of scalability: The CodeIgniter framework is not an ideal option for building large-scale enterprise applications that need high scalability. 

Use Cases:

• Small to Medium-sized Applications: Because it is lightweight, CodeIgniter can easily build apps of small to medium size. The deployment and setup of these apps are also quite quick. 
• Legacy Applications: Maintaining and updating old apps based on CodeIgniter requires you to use the same framework for the job. 

3.7 Slim

Josh Lockhart developed Silm, a stripped-down, micro PHP framework designed to handle HTTP requests, invoke a callback, and return an HTTP response. It provides components for prototyping, building RESTful APIs, and simple web services.

Slim is a minimalist framework with fewer features and functionalities. But its extraordinarily lightweight design settles for this limitation, boasting one of the smallest codebases at around 60kb. 

Features:

• Slack Integration: Slim allows you to integrate with Slack, a web messaging software for team interactions. It’s a helpful tool for remote teams. 
• Middleware Support: Developers can augment the functionalities of the framework in a modular manner. It allows you to create complex apps without any hassle. It also assists with securing cross-site requests and validating requests previous to running the app. 
• Dependency Injection: Provides total control of the external tools. You can use any container-Interop containers. 
• HTTP Caching and HTTP Router: Allows you to store assets that don’t change frequently. Slim also offers a router for mapping the routes for HTTP requests and URIs.

Advantages:

• Lightweight: As a micro-framework, Slim doesn’t weigh much and hence can offer better performance than full-stack frameworks. 
• Flexibility: Slim does not tie you to any conventions or pre-set directory structures. You can create your app in any way you want. It also allows you to extend its functionalities with various third-party integrations. 

• Open Source: Slim is open-source and free to use. That is also why it’s got the support of a great community ensuring continuous updates and various third-party integrations. 
• Performance: Slim is known to perform well across all performance benchmarks, outranking all the other micro-frameworks. 

Disadvantages:

• Not Feature-Rich: Being a micro-framework, Slim can’t offer as many features as a full-stack framework. So, you need to rely on third-party integrations or build a new functionality from scratch. 
• Learning Curve: Learning Slim is simple. However, if you need tons of integrations to build a complex app with Slim. when you add them all up, the learning curve will be higher. 
• Scalability: A micro-framework can’t help you with scaling a project or an application. You need to bring in external tools and libraries for it. 

Use Cases:

• Lightweight Applications: A micro framework is an ideal option for creating a small and simple application. 
• Rapid prototyping: the minimal overhead and quick setup from Slim help you rapidly develop the app to validate the idea or concept. 
• Microservices: Slim helps you build microservices and ensures that each service is small and manageable. 
• Generate REST Applications: You can create REST APIs with Slim.

3.8 Phalcon

Launched in 2012, Phalcon is a PHP framework popular for its lightning-fast speed. Based on the Zephir, and C programming language, Phalcon follows a development style similar to C and C++. You can build different types of web applications using this framework. 

You don’t necessarily need to master the C language to use Phalcon. It creates PHP classes and namespaces that developers can use. Phalcon also has a very innovative framework, allowing you to build complex applications effectively. 

Phalcon is easy to install and provides features for asset management, caching, and generating forms. Its form builder is quite useful in quickly creating forms and gathering user data. 

Features: 

• Volt Template Engine: Phalcon is compatible with Harness Volt, a templating tool that enhances overall performance. 
• Forms Builder: Phalcon helps you build and maintain web forms. It also enables developers for dynamic form generation and custom rendering. 
• MVC Pattern : This architectural pattern encourages code organization and separation of concerns. It also supports multi-module MVC apps. 
• Database Support: Phalcon supports a wide range of databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite, thanks to its advanced ORM. 

Advantages: 

• Speed and performance: Phalcon offers lightning-fast execution speeds and efficient resource utilization. It is suitable for high-performance applications. 
• Low Overhead: Phalcon is an agile framework that utilizes fewer resources and has efficient memory management. This results in improved responsiveness and reduced operational costs. 
• Flexibility: Due to the PHP class exposure, Phalcon allows developers to create performance-optimized apps without using C programming language. 
• Security: Phalcon comes with some high-end security features for XSS and CSRF protection. 

Disadvantages: 

• Learning Curve: Phalcon has a unique architecture which increases its learning curve.
• Limited Hosting Support: The C-extension nature of Phalcon is the reason why many shared hosting platforms do not support it.
• Community: Phalcon has a smaller community compared to other PHP frameworks. 
• Source Code Complexity: The complex source code of Phalcon may complicate the installation and maintenance process. 

Use Cases: 

• Low-Level Access: Phalcon is executed as an extension of C to allow low-level access to system resources. 
• Microservices: The lightweight nature of Phalcon is useful in building microservices that are fast and efficient. 
• Reduced Resource Usage: Phalcon helps manage your resources efficiently. It is helpful for projects with limited server resources. 

3.9 FuelPHP

FuelPHP is an open-source, flexible, and full-stack PHP framework created from scratch to provide developers with an easy-to-use yet robust web development tool. In addition to the MVC architecture pattern, this PHP framework offers unique concepts and improvements, notably the HMVC (Hierarchical Model-View-Controller) approach. 

It was designed by community contributors to overcome the shortcomings of the current PHP frameworks. It is considered an ideal solution for multiple platforms. Although it has a steeper learning curve, FuelPHP is a simple framework with a clean syntax that can support almost all web servers. 

FuelPHP is a security-focused software solution that uses output encoding and URI filtering. It adheres to the highest security standards and methodologies to ensure the safety of your end-to-end web solutions. 

Features: 

• ORM Support: Thanks to ORM, FuelPHP offers seamless integration with multiple database management systems. 
• Flexible routing: FuelPHP simplifies the generation of RESTful APIs and offers a robust yet flexible routing system. 
• Command-line tools: FuelPHP provides a set of command-line tools for code generation, package management, and also database migration. 
• MVC/HMVC support: You can create more flexible and modular apps with HMVC architecture support. 

Advantages: 

• Modular Design: It allows developers to reuse the code, and create independent modules and a modular codebase. 
• Security Features: FuelPHP provides robust security features to protect your app against the risks of XSS and CSRF attacks. 
• Performance: FuelPHP also offers features that help enhance the performance of your application, making it more fast and efficient. 
• Flexibility: You can easily extend the functionalities of FuelPHP with third-party support. This allows easy customization of your applications. 

Disadvantages: 

• Community Size: The community support for FuelPHP is very small. Hence it gets limited contributions for third-party plugins, extensions and other community-generated resources. 
• Documentation: Although FuelPHP has detailed documentation, it is still less compared to other PHP frameworks. 
• Learning Curve: This PHP framework has a steeper learning curve as developers need to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of MVC/HMVC architecture patterns. 

Use Cases: 

• Modular Applications: Thanks to its modular design, FuelPHP helps you create modular applications through reusable packages. They are easy to scale and maintain. 

3.10 PHPixie

PHPixie is a framework built with independent components to simplify web application development. It has a strict architecture that follows the HMVC design pattern, which helps avoid common pitfalls such as relying on static methods, singletons, and global scope. 

Started as a micro-framework, PHPixie quickly became a popular full-stack PHP solution known for delivering high performance. It is fast, reliable, flexible, modular, and provides in-built security features. PHPixie is ideal for developing small and medium-sized apps. With PHPixie, reading, testing, extending, and debugging your PHP code becomes easy. 

Because it is relatively new compared to other PHP frameworks, PHPixie has less community support. But with a little help, you can always find your way around web development problems effectively.

Features: 

• MVC Architecture: This allows PHPixie to promote a clear separation between data management, UI, and business logic. 
• ORM (Object-Relational Mapping): It helps simplify database interactions and allows developers to work with database records as objects. 
• Built-in Support for Dependency Injection: This improves the modularity and testability of your apps. 
• Template Engine: PHPixies’s templating engine is simple yet effective. It helps render views and separate app logic from presentation logic. 

Advantages: 

• Compact and Efficient: PHPixie leaves a smaller footprint and does not monopolize any resources. 
• Feature-Rich: Although it is small in size, PHPixie is equipped with robust features and supports a diverse range of databases. 
• Extensible: You can easily extend the functionality of the framework through different plugins. 
• Supportive Community: With support from an active community, PHPixie developers can always seek help in case of a problem or share insights on the same.

Disadvantages: 

• Popularity: Although it’s a robust and quite useful framework, PHPixie isn’t as popular as full-stack PHP frameworks like Symfony and Laravel. 
• Not Ideal for Large-scale Projects: Because of its small size, PHPixie is not an ideal option for building a large-scale application. 
• Small community: With less popularity, there are hardly a few developers around the world who know how to use PHPxie and solve development challenges. 
• Lack of documentation: Less popularity and a small community lead to a lack of extensive documentation which doesn’t help if you are using the framework for development purposes. 

Use Cases: 

• Lightweight Applications: PHPixie allows you to create small to medium-sized apps especially those requiring faster loading times. 
• Custom applications: Developers can leverage the extensibilities of PHPixie to create tailored web services and applications. 

3.11 Fat-Free Framework (F3)

The Fat-free framework is a small and robust package with a codebase of around 90kb. While it doesn’t offer numerous features and functionalities, it offers various security and authentication features. You can use the framework with plugin functionalities to add features like shopping carts, image processing, and unit testing. 

The Fat-Free framework supports multiple databases, including SQLite and MySQL. It opts for minimalism in structural components by avoiding app unnecessary complexities. Moreover, this helps balance the developer’s productivity, app performance, and code elegance. 

The Fat-Free framework is lightning-fast and easy to use. Learning how to implement a PHP framework in a team workflow is an ideal option. 

Features: 

• Easy to install: F3 doesn’t require any complex configuration. Hence it is easy to install and get started with it. 
• Database support: F3 provides seamless integration with a myriad of databases including Sybase, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and MySQL. 
• Security: F3 performs DNSBL checks regularly to avoid spam and offers protection against DoS attacks. 
• Modular design: F3 allows you to take a modular approach to app development. This makes it easy to scale and maintain the app even if it has a large and complex codebase. 

Advantages: 

• Easy to Use: F3 is an easy-to-use framework even if you are creating a complex web app. You don’t require any special features to get started with the F3. You can also use optional plugins to extend its functionalities. 
• Minimal Requirements: For app development, PHP developers don’t need a server and F3 copy. They also don’t require any configurations, or database inputs. Its minimalism and ease of use are quite helpful for beginners. 

Disadvantages: 

• Requires support: F3 needs full front-end stack support otherwise you can’t create an app with this framework. 
• Unique model class: Fat-free framework comes with a custom format where it has its own model class. Developers need to familiarize themselves with this concept before using the framework. 
• Backward incompatible: Minor versions of F3 don’t support backward compatibility.

Use Cases: 

• Small to Medium Projects: If you want to avoid the overhead that comes with heavy frameworks then F3 is the right choice for building small and medium-sized apps. 
• Microservices: F3’s lightweight nature helps you create microservices that can be deployed quickly and scaled easily.

4. Factors to Consider When Picking a Suitable PHP Framework

When browsing through the best PHP frameworks, you have to consider some critical factors to pick an appropriate option. 

4.1 Learning Curve

Learning a difficult PHP framework can be overwhelming and time-consuming. When working on a project, it’s crucial not to waste valuable time and resources in figuring out how to use unfamiliar frameworks and other tools. It’s better to employ a framework you are familiar with or learn a framework that can be mastered in a short time.

4.2 Easy to Use

Many popular PHP frameworks for web development are difficult to use. Their advanced nature and intricacies make them more complex for developers. If the web developers are having difficulty using the frameworks, then you can’t expect them to make the most out of these PHP frameworks, resulting in less effective outcomes.

4.3 Speed and Efficiency

A slow framework won’t get you anywhere and an inefficient framework would become a hindrance to developing a quality product. So, if you want to quickly deliver a web application that meets all the expectations, then you require one of the best PHP frameworks with high speed and efficiency.

4.4 Flexibility

It is not necessary that your MVC-based PHP framework would offer everything you need. These tools aren’t one-size-fits-all solutions. So they can’t fulfill the specific requirements of every business. However, they need to be flexible enough to adapt or adjust as per those requirements. A flexible framework would allow you to keep only the necessary components by allowing you to add or remove features as required.

4.5 Security

You need a framework that can help ensure the security of your applications against common threats like XSS attacks and SQL injection. 

4.6 Stands the Test of Time

It’s important to select a framework that won’t become obsolete after a while. Pick a framework with a history of relevant changes and updates with a proven track record. 

4.7 Technical Requirements

Ensure that the framework supports all necessary features, databases, APIs, plugins, and other solutions required for building and deploying your product.  

4.8 Documentation and Support

A framework with detailed documentation can help you through the development process. And if you face any problems, then you can seek support from its active community. A vibrant community also sees to it that the framework stays relevant to the changing trends and technologies. 

5. Conclusion

Simplify your web development process with PHP frameworks. These frameworks lay the groundwork for developers, allowing them to focus on designing web solutions rather than doing mundane and repetitive tasks. This helps increase productivity and efficiency. There are numerous options in PHP frameworks for web development and picking the right one can be challenging. 

You have to consider your requirements and then weigh them against the features and functionalities of the popular PHP frameworks. That ought to tell you whether a given option is the right PHP framework for your web development project. 

FAQs 

Is Laravel the best PHP framework?

Laravel is undoubtedly the best PHP framework because It is simple to get started. It provides clear and comprehensive documentation, not to mention it enjoys the support of a large active community. 

Which PHP framework is best for security?

Laravel and Symfony are the best PHP frameworks for security. They provide robust security features, including efficient role management and user authentication/authorization. Moreover, they also allow you to enhance web security through third-party packages.

What is the fastest PHP framework?

Phalcon is one of the fastest PHP frameworks, as it is very lightweight. Although this framework’s source code is written in the C programming language, you don’t need to learn this language to use the framework. It uses PHP classes and an MVC architecture.