Top 12 PHP Frameworks and Where To Study Them
by Kyle Prinsloo Last updated Oct. 22, 2016
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is one of the most popular coding languages in the world.
Some of the most popular websites on the web are based on PHP – sites like Facebook, Google and Apple.
PHP is a server scripting language and is a powerful tool for creating interactive and dynamic web pages.
Tip: Download HHVM for up to 6 times performance improvements!
Below is a list of the Top 12 PHP Frameworks And Where To Study Them
Laravel tops the list as the most popular PHP framework. It is elegant, intuitive, expressive, configurable and extendable.
It has a great database abstraction layer and a nice migration system. Laravel has an abundance of tutorials with videos.
A cool feature to mention is Blade - its very own templating engine which also allows you to write plain PHP. Sites that are run on Laravel are One Plus and True Lancer.
I recommend studying this Laravel course: Create a RESTful API with Laravel 5.
For tips and tricks, check out: Laravel Tricks and Laravel Daily
Symfony is ideal for large PHP web projects.
It is a set of reusable PHP components which does not confine you to its environment, but allows you to choose the software components that you want to use.
Tip: Download this Symfony plugin – it has an autocomplete which will make you so thankful you wouldn’t know whether to smile or cry.
Sites that use Symfony are Thelia and W3Counter.
I recommend this Symfony course to get started: Introduction To Web Development with Symfony.
For tips and tricks, check out: Solid Web Code
CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework that is lightweight and fast.
It’s built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. Sites that use CodeIgniter are Buffer and Emma.
I recommend studying this CodeIgniter course: CodeIgniter Tutorial for Beginners.
For tips and tricks, check out: Tuts Plus
Nette is a full-stack PHP framework composed from a set of decoupled and reusable components.
It supports AJAX, DRY, KISS and MVC. A site that uses Nette is Rite Tag.
Tip: Download Tracy – a debugger telling you important information when needed.
I recommend getting started with Nette here.
For cool features, check out: Medium
Yii or "Yes It Is" is an impressively fast, secure and extensible framework employing the clean, DRY (don't repeat yourself) principles in its framework.
That means you spend less time on those repetitive tasks and more time reading my blog ;)
Sites that use YII are Stay and VICE.
I recommend this Yii course: Rapid Web Application Development Using Yii.
For tips and tricks, check out: Sitepoint
CakePHP is extremely useful when building high security web applications.
It is faster than most other frameworks and it requires less code.
CakePHP has many built-in security features like SQL injection prevention, input validation, XSS (cross-site scripting) prevention, CSRF (cross-site request forgery) protection and more.
Sites that use CakePHP are BMW, Billabong and Hyundai.
I recommend this CakePHP course: CakePHP 3 For Beginners.
For cool features, check out: CakePHPExpert
Phalcon is the fastest PHP framework around.
It’s a full stack MVC framework that offers features like routing, template viewing, controllers, query language, Caching and ORM and more.
Tip: Download these Developer Tools.
We recommend this Phalcon course: Learn PhalconPHP Framework.
For tips and tools, check out: GitHub
PHPixie is a lightweight PHP MVC framework designed to be fast, easy to learn and provide a solid foundation for development.
It’s slightly different to most of the other PHP frameworks in that it avoids common pitfalls like static methods for example.
Learn PHPixie in under 30 minutes here.
For tips and tricks, check out: Speaker Deck
Zend Framework is recommended for more complex and larger projects.
It comes with a lot of configuration options and some cool features are cryptographic coding tools, an easy-to-use drag and drop editor with support for front-end technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), PHP Unit testing tools, instant online debugging, and a connected Database Wizard.
A site that makes use of Zend Framework is Magento.
I recommend this Zend course: Learn Zend Framework From Scratch.
For tips, check out: Zend Developer Zone
Slim is very popular amongst PHP developers for developing Restful API’s and services.
One of the main benefits about Slim is that it is a sophisticated micro framework which means that it’s very easy to learn.
I recommend this Slim course: Introduction to PHP Slim Framework.
For tips, check out: Slim Docs
FuelPHP is a community driven framework that’s based on the ideas of other frameworks.
It is an HMVC framework which in simple terms makes things a lot easier when coding. For a full list of features, click here.
FuelPHP offers everything to build pretty much any web application and complexity.
Learn more about FuelPHP in on their tutorials page.
Kohana is similar to FuelPHP in that is an HMVC framework. It provides a juicy set of components to help you build web applications.
Kohana is an OOP framework that is as DRY as a piece of watermelon left out in the Sahara Desert.
To get started learning Kohana, have a peak at Digital Ocean.
For tips and tricks, check out: Kohana Tips
Thank you for reading the Top 12 PHP Frameworks And Where To Study Them.
There are many more PHP Frameworks out there, but this is just a collection of the top ones you should pay attention to.
