10 Best PHP Frameworks For Web Development[2024]

In the Progressive time of web development, PHP remains a cornerstone language, powering a significant portion of the internet’s dynamic content. Yet, harnessing PHP’s full potential often requires the assistance of frameworks – powerful tools that streamline development, enhance security, and boost efficiency. With a plethora of options available, selecting the right PHP frameworks can be a daunting task.

In this comprehensive guide, we embark on a journey to uncover the top 10 PHP frameworks that stand as pillars in the web development landscape. From robust MVC architectures to elegant templating engines, each framework brings unique strengths to the table, catering to diverse project requirements and developer preferences.

Best PHP Frameworks for Web Development

Frameworks not only simplify the complexities but also fasten the overall development process by providing different sets of functions and libraries. In web development, PHP is used by many large organizations and startups. So we need to know the frameworks of web development, here is the list of best PHP frameworks that you should consider for Web Development

1. Laravel

Laravel, released in 2011 is one of the best, free, open-source, and very popular PHP frameworks wherein you can build customizable web applications. Pfizer, Tour Radar, and BBC are some companies that use Laravel as their server-side development language. It is well known because of its secure handling of complex web applications. It offers a vast ecosystem and simplifies the process of development by lowering the complexity of sessions, queuing, routing, caching, and authentication. It has more than 20 built-in libraries which makes the development of the web easier. With Laravel, automating tasks that were done manually is quick.   

Features of Laravel

• Scalable and Secure
• Functionality packages
• Email Integration system
• Highly active community
• Supports MVC architecture

2. Symfony

Symfony, which was released in 2005, is a modular-based PHP frameworks that is an ideal framework for large-scale corporate applications. Also, the best thing about Symfony is within a click, deployment is done. Moreover, setup and configuration are also easy. Popular projects that use Symfony are Drupal8, publish, eZ, and Open Sky. Being an extensive PHP frameworks, it also has high community support. Due to the extensive availability of libraries and components, it is generally the first choice of developers. It allows integration with other vendor libraries and this is why Symfony should be the preferred choice if you want to create flexible and feature-rich applications. 

Features of Symfony

• Building APIs and microservices is easy
• Reduces redundant coding 
• Supports MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and SAP
• Uses Doctrine ORM for operating database
• Database-engine independent

3. Laminas (Formerly Zend)

Released in 2006, Laminas is an open-source and object-oriented PHP frameworks helping developers to provide high-quality apps to business-oriented customers. It is customizable and can integrate with external libraries, unlike other frameworks. The main intention to use it is security, speed, and performance. It has collaborated with companies like IBM, Google, and Microsoft. It comprises three parts namely components and MVC, Mezzio, and API tools. 

Features of Zend

• Extendable due to inheritance and interfaces
• Session management, simple cloud API, and data encryption
• Extendable due to features such as inheritance and interfaces
• Drag and drop editor, an online debugging tool
• Extensible and excellent performance

4. CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter, released in 2006, is another popular and lightweight PHP frameworks and has the smallest footprints (file size of 2MB, including documentation). The framework offers error handling and is the perfect one to create dynamic websites. It offers prebuilt modules that help in creating reusable and robust components. It has a library that has a simple interface and requires a logical structure to access. The latest version of the framework is merely 1.2MB in size. Firms like Udemy, QuinStreet, Adobe, and Medical Guardian use this framework.

Features of CodeIgniter

• Encryption steps
• Simple Security and Extendable
• Negligible PHP adoption struggle
• Easy to implement CRUD operations without using raw SQL
• Promotes quicker page loads

5. CakePHP

CakePHP, released in 2005, is the easiest and most open-source framework following MVC architecture. It has a set of libraries and components that help in creating commercial applications quickly. Implementation of CRUD operations is quite easy in this framework. It uses the CoC (convention over configuration) approach which explains about coding guidelines developers need to follow. The updated version 4.0 brought a skeleton design and provides APIs for the rapid development of applications. Earlier companies like MBW, Hyundai, and Express were attracted by the framework.

Features of CakePHP

• SQL injection prevention
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
• Secure and Scalable
• Inbuilt ORM 

6. YII

Released in 2008, Yii which means “Yes, It is” in Chinese is a simple, fast, and component-based PHP frameworks that comes with excellent speed and performance, best for developing modern web applications. It is indeed a strict object-oriented PHP framework and requires knowledge of all OOPS concepts. It offers a powerful class code generator, named Gii. It also follows the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) concept which makes it suitable for large-scale applications. Websites that use YII are Deloitte and General Electric. 

Features of YII

• Can be integrated with AJAX and jQuery
• Extensible and efficient.
• Unit and functionality testing
• Layered caching support
• Encryption and authentication

7. Phalcon

Released in 2012, Phalcon is a PHP full-stack framework that is flexible, fast, and whose development style is based on C and C++. Its uniqueness is that it is as fast as lightning was written C and also comes with a C-extension. However, it comes with an extensive development option to develop flawless web apps. Asset management, universal autoloader, and caching are some of the prominent features this framework has. 34 organizations use the Phalcon framework for development, some of them being, Urban Sports Club, the Proshore, and Edureka.

Features of Phalcon

• Code compilation
• MVC architecture
• VOLT template engines
• Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
• Phalcon query language for writing queries and Phalcon transactions that ensures data integrity.

8. FuelPHP

Released in 2011, FuelPHP is a full-featured, flexible PHP framework that comes with an HMVC (Hierarchical Model-View-Controller) architecture. Using HMVC, there’s no need for duplicate content to display on several pages, hence it takes up less time and consumes less memory. With great community support, FuelPHP takes security measures seriously and provides seven security features. It is the best option if you’re working on a project where security is a major concern. Companies reportedly using FuelPHP are Spookies, InventoryBase, and Amitum.

Features of FuelPHP

• URL routing system
• Robust security feature
• RESTful implementation
• Own command-line utility
• CSRF and XSS filtering

9. Pixie

Released in 2012, Pixie is a full-stack PHP frameworks and follows HMVC architecture. Using Pixie, the developers build highly optimized web applications. With huge active community support, upgrades are possible in Pixie which adds new features to it leading to high-performance products. the components in PHPPixie are 100% unit-tested and require minimum dependencies. It comes with a routing system which makes it impressive. Companies that integrate with Pixie are Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, and Google Kubernetes Engine.

Features of Pixie

• Follows bundle system (reuse code)
• ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)
• MongoDB support
• Offers low coupling 

10. Slim

Released in 2010, Slim is a simple yet powerful framework that focuses majorly on HTTP requests and responses. It is a lightweight micro-framework used for developing RESTful APIs and services. Being 4.10 as the latest version, Slim comes with major changes in PSR-7 updates and interfaces. It has immense features such as session, URL routing, client-side HTTP caching, and cookie encryption—firms like E-commerce, HHEY, PathMotion, Directus, and WebbyLab.

Features of Slim

• Extensible
• Easy to learn
• No third-party dependencies
• Dependency injection
• Error handling and debugging

To learn about PHP, refer to this article: Introduction to PHP

Also, refer to this article: Benifits of Using PHP in Web Development

Conclusion

PHP is commonly used for Web development and its frameworks play a very important role in simplifying the overall process of development workflow. So a developer needs to choose the right framework that suits the requirements of the project and makes the process faster. In the article, we have discussed the best PHP frameworks that are commonly used by developers and have unique capabilities that are used in different kinds of applications, so a developer needs to know about the features of those frameworks which have also been discussed above.

10 Best PHP Frameworks For Web Development – FAQs

Which PHP Framework Is Best for Beginners?

Beginners should stick to simpler and leaner frameworks that are straightforward to understand. If needed, developers can progress to more feature-rich frameworks once they’ve mastered these.

CodeIgniter is the best PHP framework for beginners because it is simple to use and understand. It uses the MVC architecture, is simple to install, comes with various instructions, and is simple to comprehend for beginners who want to start developing web applications in PHP.

What are the top PHP frameworks for Web Development?

For web development, developer prefer these PHP frameworks to create reliable web applications

1. Laravel
2. Symfony
3. Laminas (Formerly Zend)
4. CodeIgniter
5. CakePHP

What are PHP frameworks?

PHP frameworks are pre-built and organized sets of tools, libraries that simplify the web application development using the PHP programming language.

Which is the easiest PHP framework to learn?

Laravel is widely regarded as the easiest PHP framework to learn due to its clear documentation, expressive syntax, and rich feature set, making it ideal for beginners. Its active community and built-in features further contribute to its accessibility and popularity among developers.

Which framework is most used in PHP?

Laravel is one of the most widely used PHP frameworks, appreciated for its robust features, ease of use, and active community support