Top 5 PHP Frameworks of 2018

For developing the web application app or any dynamic website  PHP technology is the most popular and easiest server-side scripting language. It provides services for interacting with database technologies and handling emails etc. Because of its flexibility, it is not difficult to create an application. PHP has great HTML and Database integration support and it’s easy to learn. PHP frameworks are designed to simplify complex coding concerns of PHP developers. PHP also has some great frameworks to make your development fast, more productive and protects you from low-level error.

Below are the top 5 PHP framework technology described as below :

1- Laravel:

Laravel is the free open source PHP framework created by Taylor Otwell in 2011. This framework has many functions, the aim of which is to provide as fast development process as it is possible. 

Laravel offers the following key features –

• New directory structure – This new folder contains all language and template files.
• Route caching – Route caching feature speeds up the application route registration
• Authentication – Laravel 5 contains the ready to use inbuilt authentication system.
• Multiple file system – Laravel 5 provides the native support for multiple file system
• Unit testing is provided as an integral part of Laravel
• Template engine
• E-mailing

2- CodeIgniter:

CodeIgniter is an open source PHP framework used to develop a dynamic website. It can be easily installed and requires minimal user configuration. CodeIgniter contains libraries, simple interface and logical structure to access these libraries, plug-ins, helpers and some other resources which solve the complex functions of PHP more easily maintaining a high performance.A person using CodeIgniter must be familiar with PHP. You need to have a good knowledge of PHP like its basic syntax and how it interacts with database and HTML.

There are some basic features of Codeigniter –

• Framework with a small Footprint
• Very developer friendly (Doesn’t need any special dependencies or supports)
• Good documentation and LTS (Long Term Support)
• High Performance
• Minimum Configuration
• MVC is optional
• Pagination
• Search-engine Friendly URLs
• Full Page Caching
• Error Logging
• Application Profiling
• Calendaring Class
• User Agent Class
• Zip Encoding Class

3- Symfony

Symfony is a very powerful PHP framework. Symfony aims to speed up the creation and maintenance of web applications and to replace repetitive coding tasks. If you aren’t familiar with MVC, you just need to understand that separating the code into three parts — the logic code (called the Model), the presentation code (the View), and the request handling code (the Controller). Symfony uses the Model-View-Controller design pattern, which separates the business logic from the presentation layer. You will get the detail idea about framework at Codekul – web development training institute in Pune.

4- Zend :

Zend is an open source web application framework. Zend framework contains a collection of PHP packages which can be used to develop web applications and services. Zend Framework provides to users a support of the Model View Controller (MVC)

It includes the following features:

• Pure object-oriented web application framework
• Advanced MVC implementation
• Supports multi-databases including PostgreSQL, SQLite etc.,
• Simple cloud API
• Session management
• Data encryption
• Ideal for enterprise applications
• Tons of components for validation, feeds, and forms.

5- CakePHP :

CakePHP is a simple and easy open source framework for PHP. It is built in MVC pattern along with the model class.  Fast and secure web applications can be developed with very less code.

It includes the following features :

• User-Friendly Tool
• Safe and Secure
• Extensive safekeeping tools include cross-site
• Good Documentation
• Scripting prevention and SQL Injection prevention
• Clean MVC Conventions

Advantages of using Framework :

The Framework was made for the developer to make web development easy and meet project requirements. Most of the developer write their custom code for every page this process takes long time, using framework we can save time and reuse the code for multiple pages.

Let’s see some other advantages using the framework.

Organising Code and File:

Most of the framework has its own file structure and standard for organizing files. Well organized file structure will keep your files in the separate directory and make easy to find & reuse code.

MVC Pattern:

Many PHP frameworks like CakePHP, Zend, Codeigniter etc follow MVC pattern in which you can separate business logic from the user interface (UI) which helps keep code cleaner.  

Libraries and Utilities:

PHP framework supports large no. of useful tools and libraries which adds extra functionalities to your application.

Example:

• Session handling
• Form validation
• Email, Pagination, Sorting calendar etc..
• Cookie handling
• Database extraction
• Data handle with JSON
• SOAP/REST API
• Input / Output filtering

Less code and faster development :

This MVC framework will help you for developing small and medium application faster in less time. If you know one framework this help to learn other easily. You can write less code and reuse it to build the application quickly.

Community Support :

Most of the PHP framework provide large no. of community support. There is no lack of support, number of developers engaged to solve your queries. If you have any query regarding framework, type-specific keyword, you will get the document which will give an answer to your question. If you are not satisfied with these then they provide email, messaging, forum etc options to post your query.

Security :

PHP framework provides a great security, most of the code security can be done automatically.

For example:

• Central Authentication
• Any value passed to database object gets filtered against SQL injection attacks
• Central input validation and filtering
• All HTML generating functions, such as form helpers and URL helpers filter the output automatically
• Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Protection
• Session Management Security
• Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Protection

Simplified and pretty URLs :

PHP frameworks use a bit of mod_rewrite magic to ensure that your URLs are always clean and accessible. These type of URLs helps in SEO by making your blog post links which are going to boost your search engine ranking.

Database support :

PHP framework such as Laravel, Zend, CodeIgniter etc supports for all database like MySQL, SQL and Oracle etc. These frameworks provide to access database in an object-oriented way instead of directly interacting with the database using SQL queries. you can use any Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) model to map your database table to a PHP class.

Frameworks Comparison:

Which PHP Framework Should You Choose?

Most of the developer preferred to use PHP framework, due to increasing popularity as a PHP developer it is a bit difficult to decide which framework is best suitable for our project. Some developer chooses framework on the basis of performance, functionality or others but Before selecting a framework for your project, you should understand the needs and requirements of your project.

Below are some questions you should consider before deciding on a particular framework :

1.What is the main goal of your application?

While deciding the framework, first of all, choose the goal of your application, means you are developing an e-commerce portal, social platform, blog or a business website. If you are developing an e-commerce website then you required plugins such as payment gateway, shipping etc. otherwise if you developing a business website then you required different themes and plugins.

2. Does the framework have a strong community support?

The PHP framework web services provide short or long- term supports. Also, check community support for the framework and check the number of downloads made, the number of changes recently done and when was the major version released.

3. Which environment would you be using?

Some frameworks require additional PHP modules or software installation on the server, which may not be an option in shared hosting environments. For example, some frameworks work best with MySQL, while others include libraries for working with key-value and document store databases.

4. What good developer you are?

It is important to find the strength and weakness of developer. This may help to developer to choose user-friendly framework.

Laravel vs Codeigniter:

There are number of PHP framework which helps developers for developing custom web application as per requirements. But choosing framework is the very difficult task for every developer and it differs from one developer to other. Laravel and Codeigniter both are most popular PHP framework among all. While choosing the framework the smart web developers always compare the features, need, community support, functionalities and performance of various PHP frameworks according to the needs of each project.

Let’s understand the difference between Laravel vs Codeigniter:

Support for PHP 7:

New release in the server-side programming language, PHP 7 comes with new features which help the programmer to increase the performance of web application and reduce the memory consumption. Both frameworks support PHP 7 but CodeIgniter application faced issues while developing and testing applications.

Built-in-Modules:

Using simple PHP, many developers divide the large project into the number of small modules to make the development easy. But Laravel comes with built-in modularity features which enable developers to divide the entire project into small modules through bundle and reuse the module in different projects. On the other side, CodeIgniter doesn’t support built-in-modules features. For that developer have to use an additional extension to keep code separate.

Support for Databases:

Both Laravel and CodeIgniter support multiple databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Bi, and MongoDB. But CodeIgniter support some additional databases such as ORACLE, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, orientdb and JDBC compatible

Eloquent ORM:

Laravel helps developers to take advantage of Eloquent ORM. The developer can use Eloquent object-relational mapper (ORM) that makes easier to work with a variety of databases more efficiently by ActiveRecord implementation. It allows user to interact with the database directly through the model. Eloquent ORM allows user to perform common task such as run database queries in the table as well as inserting new record into the table.

Built-in Template Engine:

Laravel support built-in template engine such as Blade. Which is very powerful and enable developer to optimize the performance of the web application by enhancing and manipulating views. While CodeIgniter doesn’t support built-in template engine, to overcome this issue developer can integrate the framework with other tool such as Smarty which helps to boost the performance of the website.

REST API Development:

Many developers preferred to build REST API without adding extra effort and time. Laravel comes with these features and built REST API through RESTful Controllers. The developers can create REST API by setting the $restful property as true in the RESTful Controller to build custom REST APIs without writing additional code. CodeIgniter does not provide any features to simplify development of REST APIs. The developer has to write additional code to create custom REST APIs while developing web applications with CodeIgniter.

HTTPS Support:

Using HTTPS protocol developer can send and receive sensitive information securely. Laravel support to define custom HTTPS routes that make easier to create an URL HTTPS for the HTTPS route. Whereas CodeIgniter does not support HTTPS  fully so programmers have to use create paths using URL helpers additionally.

Authentication:

Laravel support authentication feature, developer have to use authentication classes which is extensible and customizable. While CodeIgniter does not support it

Unit Testing:

Every web application needs to test before going to market so most of the programmer look for PHP framework which includes powerful unit testing frameworks. PHPUnit support number of built-in plugins, which enables the programmer to check the application code. CodeIgniter does not support built-in testing tool. It requires the programmer to write test cases and check the code.

Community Support :

Both PHP framework Laravel and CodeIgniter are open source framework and both are supported by the large community. While using Codeigniter many web developer facing problem for help from the community. CodeIgniter members are not active as compare to Laravel member. They do not provide continuous support or online help quickly. Laravel gives great community support and also proper solution while developing the web application.