How to Choose the Best PHP Frameworks

By
Kelvin Ejeta
-

PHP is one of the most popular languages in the world this decade, and it is amazing why and how it made it to the top. Knowing how to choose the best PHP frameworks is very necessary if you are part of the multitude of PHP users in the world in 2023.

How To Choose the Best PHP Frameworks

How To Choose the Best PHP Frameworks

PHP has been used in very popular and effective projects such as Facebook, WordPress, and Instagram. PHP powers more than 82% of websites in the world today. This article will show you the various reasons why you need to choose a PHP framework and the various factors that should influence your choice.

What Is A PHP Framework?

Before moving down to the major contents of this article, it is very necessary to know the meaning of PHP Frameworks and what their functions are.

PHP is the most used server-side language in the world today. PHP Frameworks have been used for a very long time now, and they have taken different forms. However, their purpose has always remained the same.

The main purpose of PHP frameworks is to help PHP developers by providing sets of commonly used functions such as libraries for very common functionalities and enforcing the use of the best coding practices.

We can say PHP frameworks are skeletons that already provide a running system where developers can just embed their codes without having to go through all the details from the scratch.

Furthermore, PHP frameworks can reduce the amount of code that we need to write to improve our efficiency. At the same time, it ensures high quality due to the usage of code standards and best practices.

When To Use A PHP Framework

Although nowadays PHP programmers can use Frameworks for almost any form of project, there are lots of cases where the usage of a framework might not be a very good idea.

The usage of a framework depends totally on the project in question. Most times, the discussion centers around what frameworks should be used when most times it should be about whether or not we should use one or not.

Therefore, it is really important to consider why we should use the framework in question.

Why Pick A PHP Framework?

These are some of the major benefits of using the PHP framework;

  • The PHP framework makes development faster. For example, you do not have to write complex queries to retrieve the data from your database.
  • The Frameworks of PHP enable developers to scale systems much easier.
  • With PHP, code maintenance is very easy. The application code of PHP is concise and very easy t work with.
  • The MVC model of PHP ensures rapid development.
  • PHP frameworks are better at securing web applications from common security threats.

These are some of the most significant reasons that cannot be ignored why you need PHP frameworks.

Although with raw PHP, you can create any application, the current development standards of PHP require the tools and time management skills to meet demands in the market.

How To Choose A PHP Framework

Before choosing a PHP framework, you must answer the following questions;

  • What are the features and functionalities of the PHP frameworks and does it offer what I need?
  • Does the framework have strong community support?
  • What is the learning curve of the PHP framework I want to choose?
  • How scalable is the PHP framework?
  • Is the framework of my choice actively developed and maintained by the core team?
  • Does the framework provide long-term support?

Best PHP Frameworks to Use in 2023

Now, here is an overview of the top three most popular PHP frameworks;

Symfony

This is a set of reusable PHP components, that enables a developer to create scalable and high-performance applications. It has 30 components to choose from. With Symfony, developers have complete freedom to experiment and work in a RAD environment.

The APIs of Symfony also enable easy integration with third-party applications and it can be used with popular front-end frameworks like Angular JS.

Lots of projects such as Drupal and PHPBB also use the Symfony framework.

Laravel

Laravel, also known as the PHP framework for Artisans is a framework that has an excellent community and is one of the most popular frameworks.

In May 2015, the brand Laravel announced that version 5.1 will offer long-term support for two years. Version 5.2 was rolled out on December 2015. Lots of hosting companies provide Laravel support and offer hosting solutions for Laravel applications.

Yii

Yii was created in the year 2008 by Qiang Xue. It is a fast, secure, and high-performance application framework. It utilizes the composer dependency manager for PHP for handling different dependencies and installations. Yii is also the fastest PHP framework, thanks to the lazy loading technique.

One other very great feature of Yii is the JQuesry integration. The integration enables front-end developers to embrace the framework very quickly and it used scaffolding to generate code. Just like Symfony, Yii also used components to enable rapid development.

Top Benefits of PHP Frameworks

Here are some of the major benefits of using PHP frameworks;

Quicker Development Times

A well-selected PHP framework already contains some implementations for the most common problems that people have to solve built into it.  it also usually presents a well-structured application architecture.

Also, lots of PHP frameworks include command-line tools that help people generate code templates that can further speed up the development process.

Easy Collaboration

The use of PHP frameworks makes it very easy for new developers to get started on projects. Even if they are not already familiar with the framework. They will have access to complete documentation for it, with multiple videos and tutorials on how to use it all over the web.

This means that developers will have the luxury of time to focus on developing features instead of constantly guiding new team members throughout their projects.

It Provides Tighter Security

Security is one of the major problems people encounter when developing PHP applications. Some developers are not equipped with all the required tools or skills needed to create a secure PHP application.

With the use of PHP frameworks, we use solutions that are continuously tested, reviewed, and scrutinized by the PHP community.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Hard Are PHP Frameworks to Maintain?

PHP frameworks generally tend to be very easy to maintain. Frameworks are maintained and updated by core developers. Although they may not be some community involvements here are there.

Which PHP framework is the fastest?

Codelgniter is considered to be the fastest PHP framework for web development. If a web application revolves around data management, CodeIgniter is the fastest PHP framework also.

Do People Still Use Laravel?

Laravel has some very good features that make web development effortless for developers and it is one of the most popular web frameworks. With Laravel, you can build different types of software applications and sites.

Which Big Company Uses Laravel?

Some of the most popular brands using Laravel web development are 9GAG, Pfizer, etc

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