If you were asked to name a few programming and web development languages, what would your answer be? Common answers to this question usually include html, CSS for markup, JavaScript, and PHP.
PHP is one of the most popular server-side programming languages for creating dynamic websites. According to statistics, the PHP programming language is used in about 79% of websites in the world. This number is almost eight times higher than ASP.NET, which is PHP’s closest competitor. Many big sites in the world, like Facebook, Wikipedia and WordPress, have used PHP. It can be said that the PHP programming language has been one of the most widely used programming languages for the development of websites and web applications for years.
But websites are no longer old websites. With the passage of time, the complexity of websites is also increasing. Developers have to write thousands of lines of code to create a website, which is very tedious and time-consuming. In addition, developers have to start all the steps from scratch every time they program the site, or sometimes they have to rewrite a piece of code several times. This is where PHP frameworks come into play.
PHP frameworks help simplify the PHP programming process. These tools include resources to simplify the web development process, including libraries of code and pre-built components to avoid repetitive coding.
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What is a framework?
Suppose you want to build a house. You can lay the foundation and build this building yourself, but it will take a lot of time. But if all these things are prepared for you in advance, your work will definitely be much easier, especially if it is done by experts.
It is the same in programming. A lot of software has a similar base and structure. If you want to do all the steps yourself from the beginning to produce a software or web application, it is possible, but it will be very time-consuming and boring. For this reason, by using pre-designed frameworks by professional programmers and developers, you know that you have used a solid and reliable foundation and you can implement other parts of the software in your own way.
What is the PHP Framework?
Now that we have a good understanding of the framework, we can start defining the PHP framework. The PHP framework is a platform that allows you to create and implement PHP web applications. PHP frameworks provide libraries of common functions and by using them, the amount of required code is reduced.
Advantages of using PHP frameworks
Using PHP frameworks has many advantages that we have mentioned in this section.
Increase the speed of work
Since PHP frameworks have built-in libraries and tools, the speed of work increases and less time is required for coding.
Less code volume
Using the functions that are included in the frameworks reduces the final volume of the code.
Functional libraries
Many tasks that developers have to do in web applications are common and repetitive tasks. For example, form validation, data cleaning and CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update and Delete) can be mentioned. By using PHP frameworks, instead of having to design these functions yourself from scratch, you can simply use ready-made functions in PHP frameworks.
Use best coding practices
PHP frameworks give order to the structure of your programming. For example, frameworks divide your code into a number of directories based on functionality. They also help you organize your code in a cleaner, more organized and maintainable way. In addition, frameworks have their own naming conventions for naming entities that must be followed.
Security
Using PHP frameworks minimizes the possibility of hacker attacks. A good PHP framework has data sanitization capabilities and prevents common hacker threats.
Improve teamwork
Usually, projects that have several developers may have problems if there is a lack of transparency in things like documentation, programming and design standards. The use of PHP frameworks determine clear rules for the project that any programmer and developer can work with if they are familiar with this framework and its standards.
Easier maintenance
Site and software maintenance is one of the most important phases in programming. PHP frameworks facilitate code maintenance and refactoring.
Introducing the best PHP frameworks in 2022
It is difficult to provide a complete list of PHP frameworks. Because there are many PHP frameworks. In this section, we have tried to introduce some of the most popular PHP frameworks to you.
Laravel
Laravel can be introduced as the king of PHP frameworks. If you want to design a professional and basic website, Laravel is the best choice for you. One of the main reasons for the high popularity of the Laravel framework is that it is very easy to learn and, at the same time, it can be used in complex projects.
Features of the Laravel framework
High speed
The time required to create or develop a website with Laravel is much less than other frameworks. A Laravel developer can build a 5 or 6-page website in one to two days.
Security
Laravel provides advanced security features on websites to increase security and protect sites from hackers. For example, Laravel uses a Bcrypt hash algorithm, which means it never stores any passwords in the database. Compared to other PHP frameworks, Laravel has excellent authentication that helps keep the website and the data of the website users safe.
Better website performance
Unlike many existing frameworks, Laravel supports storing the website in the cache, which increases the speed of the site. In general, Laravel uses site speed optimization techniques that can be very useful for SEO (search engine optimization).
Great for traffic management
High-traffic websites implemented by Laravel respond to user requests faster than other platforms. Laravel uses a unique queue management system that can handle various site tasks by quickly processing user requests.
Flexible
According to its libraries, Laravel has the ability to create all kinds of websites, from simple to complex, with advanced features.
Easy integration with third-party applications
Almost every site needs to integrate with some kind of third-party application. Third-party programs are different for each website. For example, on shopping websites, payment gateways or marketing tools can be considered a third-party program. Overall, Laravel makes it easy to integrate with any third-party application.
Simple website maintenance
Maintenance and maintenance of websites designed by Laravel is very simple. Suppose a website is implemented with Laravel, after a few years another developer can easily add new features to the site.
Laravel site fee
Compared to some existing frameworks, Laravel is an open source framework. This means that it is free to use in any project, and since it takes less time to build and maintain a website in Laravel, it also reduces development costs and is more cost-effective in the long run.
Symfony framework
The Symfony framework was launched in 2005, and is a reliable and mature platform. Symfony is not only a framework, but also a collection of reusable PHP components and libraries. In general, the features of the Symfony framework are close to Laravel.
Features of the Symfony framework
- Symfony is an excellent choice for developing large-scale projects.
- Symfony is very flexible and can be integrated with other projects.
- Reusable components and components reduce repetition in the programming process.
- In general, compared to Laravel, Symfony is a bit more complex and only suitable for professionals. While Laravel is suitable for both beginners and advanced people.
CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter is known for its speed and is suitable for developing dynamic websites. This framework offers several modules that help build robust and reusable components.
Features of CodeIgniter
- Flexibility: CodeIgniter uses the MVC architecture, but developers can also program from other programming architectures in this framework.
- Lightweight: CodeIgniter is a lightweight framework that is easy to install and setup compared to other frameworks.
- Security: CodeIgniter includes defenses against CSRF and XSS attacks, as well as context-sensitive escaping and content security policy.
- Performance: CodeIgniter supports several caching methods that help speed up websites and web applications.
- Easy to learn: CodeIgniter is easy to learn and very suitable for beginners.
Cake PHP
If you are looking for a simple and elegant framework, CakePHP can help you create beautiful websites with special features. Additionally, CakePHP is one of the easiest frameworks to learn.
Features of CakePHP
- CakePHP is one of the fastest web development platforms.
- CakePHP allows developers to have more control over the database and SQL queries.
- This framework supports all types of databases.
Zend
Zend is an object-oriented framework that uses features like inheritance and interfaces that make it highly extensible. The Zend framework is open source, easy to use, and an excellent choice for building feature-rich web applications.
Features of Zend
- Zend contains highly structured and reusable code, making it an excellent choice for building complex enterprise-level applications.
- Some of its key features include MVC components, Cloud API and encryption.
- Can be integrated with third-party libraries and templates.
- Zend has excellent performance, security and extensibility.
- Zend has very detailed documentation and a large community of developers and users.
Which frameworks are most used?
So far we have met 5 PHP frameworks. You may ask, which one should we choose among these five items?
According to statistics, about 44% of PHP projects are implemented with Laravel framework. These statistics for other frameworks are as follows:
- CodeIgniter: 15 percent
- Symfony: 13.5 percent
- Zend: 12.5 percent
- CakePHP: 7 percent