What is a web application framework?
A web application framework is a software framework that is built to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. With web frameworks you can build and deploy web applications on the internet in a standard way. The main objective behind web framework development is to reduce unnecessary time for development of website or app. In this article we will look at 6 best PHP frameworks for web development.
Laravel Framework
Laravel is one of the most popular frameworks for web development with expressive, elegant syntax. Making applications in Laravel framework is an enjoyable and creative experience as it cuts down common development tasks such as authentication, routing, and caching involved in developing an app or website, giving developers breathing and experimenting time. Developers choose Laravel as it makes development process simpler and efficient as they can build anything without sacrificing application functionality. Laravel has powerful tools with which you can create large,robust applications. It's control container, expressive migration system, and tightly integrated unit testing support enables you to build any application.
Symfony Framework
Symfony is also one of the best php framework for web development leading PHP framework to create websites and web applications. It is built on top of the Symfony Components. Symfony is a php framework which has a set of decoupled and reusable components which is the base of building the best PHP applications, such as Drupal and phpBB. On top of this Symfony framework has a developer community which has a group of over 600,000 developers belonging from more than 120 countries. Symfony is an open-source PHP web application framework which offers developers the liberty to create full featured web application using its simple and elegant toolkit.
Laminas Framework
Laminas framework, previously known as Zend Framework, is managed by Linux Foundation. Laminas is nothing but a more secure and updated version of Zend framework, offering bug fixes and latest features. Zend however is not discontinued and if developers use it to build an application on it, they will have to migrate their project on Laminas. Laminas framework is one of the best php framework for ecommerce web development and is widely used across different organizations for content management, healthcare, entertainment and messaging. Laminas too has a developer's community which is always available to help developers
CodeIgniter Framework
Want to develop a web application fast? Build it on CodeIgniter. CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP-MVC (Model-View-Controller) based framework which develops apps that are lightweight and easily testable. Most of the modern frameworks take under 1 second to load after installation (this is an average app time and it may vary depending upon your device) but CodeIgniter loads on average around less than 50ms. One of the reasons why CodeIgniter is listed among popular php frameworks of 2021 is its support - there are books, tutorials and answered forums available to help developers in case if they get stuck at a point while developing. A bonus feature is it also has built-in components for sending email, database management, session management and more.
CakePHP Framework
CakePHP is an open-source framework for PHP. CakePHP, like CodeIgniter is based on a MVC-like architecture that is both powerful and easy to understand. CakePHP gives enhanced control to developers on database and SQL queries. Because of MVC interface users can develop robust web applications, without losing their environment flexibility and wasting much time. On the security front CakePHP has features like input validation and sanitization tools which enable the users to create secure apps. Overall, CakePHP framework is intended to make developing, deploying and maintaining applications less time consuming and easy.
Yii Framework
Yii is a pure Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) framework. Yii is an open-source PHP framework for developing modern web applications rapidly and is built around the MVC pattern, which offers lighter and faster application development. The Yii framework has inbuilt latest PHP features, like traits and namespaces. With Yii framework's secure and professional features you can create robust projects rapidly. The Yii framework has a component-based architecture and a full solid caching support which makes it suitable for building all kinds of Web applications such as forums, portals, content managements systems, e-commerce websites, etc.
So these were the 6 best php framework for web development which you can use for developing varieties of websites or web applications. These are popular php frameworks in 2021 which most of the developers have been using to create powerful web applications in a matter of few days.