Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is one of the most popular programming languages amongst the developer’s community. Open source, easy learning curve, amazing CMS & frameworks written in it, a large dev community in support are some of the reasons why startups and fortune 500 companies entrust PHP for building their web applications.
To make application development more qualitative with PHP, a number of PHP frameworks are being utilized by developers, for different reasons. Before we get to the list of top PHP frameworks, let’s understand the importance of using a framework for development.
Why Use a Framework?
If you think that frameworks are an indispensable part of development, then you must know that frameworks are not an absolute necessity. Nonetheless, they are useful.
Besides a framework, there are several solutions available to support web application development, such as packaged professional solutions, supplementary modules, Content Management System (CMS), etc. But a framework is required when a standard in coding has to be maintained.
A framework, ideally, streamlines development, helping to build applications faster. If you’ve chosen PHP as the core programming language for your web application, then here are some of the reasons to go for PHP frameworks:
1. Automates Development Tasks
One of the significant advantages of using a PHP framework is, it saves the developer’s effort from writing monotonous lines of code for some common development tasks. PHP frameworks are built-in with tools and functions that automate development tasks such as caching, session management, URL mapping, authentication, etc.
2. Faster Time-to-Market
PHP frameworks accelerate the application development cycle. For example, when working with a framework, the developer doesn’t need to write complex queries that retrieve data from the database. There are some CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) already existing in a framework.
3. Simplify Maintenance
PHP frameworks support MVC architecture, which separates the application into three modules. The model is responsible for managing data, the view is responsible to display data provided by the model, and the controller handles the model & view layer together. By dividing the codebase into these three layers, the frameworks ensure that it is easy for developers to focus on an individual layer of an application and maintain it.
4. Security of Application
Apart from speeding up web application development, PHP frameworks can help to develop secure apps. The modern PHP frameworks ensure that security issues that are generally overlooked in proprietary code are quickly noticed and fixed. That said, make sure that frameworks and their tools are timely updated.
5. Improves Database Efficiency
Most of the PHP frameworks allow developers to work with relational databases. Some of them even simplify database operations by providing an object-relational mapping (ORM) system. By taking advantage of ORMs, some of the database operations can be performed without lengthy DB queries.
So, now that we see that PHP frameworks are packed with so many advantages for the developers and for an application’s scalability, security, and time-to-market, utilizing one during web application development, can prove beneficial for developers and stakeholders. But, which PHP framework to choose from for web app development?
There are several PHP frameworks out there and selecting the most relevant one according to the project requirement is important. To simplify this for you, we are here with a list of top 5 PHP frameworks (recommended by our project heads and developers) that can be used for building a qualitative web application.
1. Laravel
Laravel is a free, open-source PHP framework, developed by Taylor Otwell for web application development, following the MVC model. There are 142,610 websites developed using this PHP framework (according to Similar Tech). The framework is best known for building web applications in domains such as computer electronics & technology, arts & entertainment, science & education, business & consumer services, etc. To know more about this PHP framework, visit Laravel’s official website where you can find a list of tools and platforms that makes Laravel a preferred choice for web development.
2. Symfony
Symfony is a PHP web application framework that was launched in the year 2005. As this framework evolves, there are 16,459 web apps built using this open-source PHP framework.
Some of the popular web apps that are built using Symfony include Wix, Naukri, Dailymotion, Spotify, BlaBlacar, etc. The community of Symfony developers has over 600,000 programmers in more than 120 countries. Symfony’s official website can be visited to know the qualitative features of this framework.
3. Phalcon
Phalcon is an open-source, full-stack PHP framework that was launched in 2012. It is written in Zephir language, parsed to C, and then compiled & delivered as a C-based extension of PHP. The unique architecture of Phalcon is built to make it memory resident and offers a faster development approach. Telegram, Discord, Facebook, YouTube are some of the web applications that are built using this PHP framework. More about this innovative PHP framework can be known through Phalcon’s official website.
4. CodeIgniter
CodeIgnitor is another open-source PHP framework that helps developers to speed up web application development. The popular framework is used for web apps in domains such as computer electronics & technology, science & education, arts & entertainment, law & government, etc. (according to Similar Tech). Over 126,535 websites on the world wide web are built using the PHP CodeIgnitor framework.
5. CakePHPCakePHP was released in 2005 and is known for using software engineering concepts and software design patterns such as convention over configuration, association data mapping, model-view-controller, etc. To date, over 27,053 websites are built using this PHP framework (according to Similar Tech).
Criteria for PHP Framework Selection :
There are different factors that contribute to the selection of the most efficient PHP framework. Popularity & community size, sustainability, support, security, license, documentation, resource availability in the market, technique are some of them. These factors can be combined with reviews from the developer’s community to make a choice according to the application requirement.
If you still feel that selecting the best PHP frameworks needs more technical support and expertise, then you can connect with our tech-experts for the same. Our experts, who have hands-on experience with all the frameworks can help you compare them and figure out which one is the closest match for your requirements.