Yii vs Zend

Digital platforms are a combination of different technologies working in a synchronous manner to fulfill various tasks. These platforms are built using different layers like the database layer, service layer, presentation layer, etc. Developers worked hard to write code for building different layers and due to this development work takes time. Avoiding code rewriting by using old components become possible with the use of frameworks that provides different components for faster development. So let’s compare two PHP frameworks Yii and Zend to find the best one.

What is Yii Framework?

Yii is a BSD-licensed, MVC-based PHP web framework. It uses object-oriented concepts for providing data abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism capabilities for faster development. Its source code is available for reference and can be downloaded from the YII repository. It is a cross-platform framework developed by Qiang Xue in 2008.

Advantages of Yii

• It has one of the biggest community support.
• It supports the NoSQL database along with the relational database.
• It allows developers to use RESTful API.
• It supports multi-level caching for good performance.

Disadvantages of Yii

• It does not support AR queries which are essential for creating multiple relations.
• It requires JavaScript for implementing AJAX features.

What is Zend Framework?

Zend is an MVC-based open-source PHP web framework launched by Zend technologies in 2006. It was built using PHP language by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski. It comes with a component library that contains fully implemented reusable components required by users. It makes development work fast and efficient.

Advantages of Zend

• It allows you to schedule jobs and tasks easily.
• It is decoupled means all the parts are distinct from one another.
• It provides good performance.
• It has an inbuilt testing feature which saves developers time.

Disadvantages of Zend

• Documentation is not structured which makes it difficult.
• Customization can be done using external plugins which have a high price.

Below is a table of differentiation between Yii and Zend:

Category	Yii	Zend
Definition	Yii is an object-oriented, MVC-based open-source framework of PHP that is used in making different applications.	Zend is an MVC-based free framework that is used in making different applications.
License	It has a new BSD license.	It also has a BSD license.
Client Side Validation	It provides client-side validation support by default.	It does not have client-side validation functionality.
Source Code	Source code is available in the YII repository.	Its source code can be downloaded from GitHub.
Addons	It has a large number of add-ons more than 2000 on its official site.	It has a few add-ons.
Customization	Yii has limited customizing options.	It has more customizing features.
Testing	Developers can perform unit, functional, and acceptance testing,	It allows only unit testing.
Official website	Official website of YII is yiiframework.com	framework.zend.com is the official website of Zend.

Conclusion/Summary

On the basis of a detailed comparison, it is clear that both Zend and YII are good for building different types of applications as both are open source and has simple interface, the performance of both are nearly the same so one can choose any framework depending on the business requirement.