5 best PHP Frameworks to use in 2018

Update –  New Article Published for 2019 -: 7 best PHP Frameworks to use in 2019.

We all know that all web applications have some things in common like login, registration & communication.  communication is carried out mostly through validated and secured forms, and the information is stored in various databases. The databases are then searched, data is processed, and data is presented back to the user.

Why use the Framework?

Frameworks are half-produced applications that you can extend and form to make them take shape according to your needs. Well, that means half your work has already been done.

There are a wide variety of PHP frameworks, many of them are open source frameworks.  let’s highlight Top 5 Php Frameworks to use in 2018  and take a bird’s eye view of how each one of them can ease your PHP app development & Why these are top Php frameworks of 2018.

Important Notes

  • Most of the Data is taken from Semrush & Stats is mainly from USA
  • I have compared domain statistics as well keyword Trend stats.
  • Top Features of each PHP framework is also compared.

1. Laravel

Laravel offers a robust set of tools and an application architecture that incorporates many of the best features of frameworks like CodeIgniter, Yii, ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, and others.

Popularity

Below is the domain overview of laravel.com

Php Frameworks 2018 - laravel

domain stats of laravel.com

Now let’s  See how many people are searching  For Keyword laravel

keyword overview of laravel - php framework 2018

laravel keyword - php framework 2018

the above data shows how popular is laravel and its popularity is rapidly increasing among developers.

Summary of the data above

  • 96.3k people/month from the USA Visits laravel.com via google
  • 18.1k people/month from the USA search keyword laravel
  • its popularity is rapidly increasing but it shows some decline in past few months.
  • people have keen interest to learn laravel

Top New Features of laravel

  • Laravel includes 3 frontends preset: Vue.js as default, react.js and bootstrap, you can change as per your preference.
  • Laravel  uses PHP 7+ version, it will improve the speed of web application and will save a cost for your project
  • You can send the custom email template with your perfect branding more easily.
  • Laravel introduced the dedicated class to handle the validation.

Github Stats

[gitrepo author=”laravel” repo=”laravel”]

 

Laravel uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm or design pattern. If you have used one of the aforementioned tools or the MVC pattern, then you will find it quite easy to get started with Laravel 5+


2 – Symfony

Symfony is A set of decoupled and reusable components on which the best PHP applications are built, such as Drupal, phpBB, and eZ Publish.

domain overview of Symfony.com

symfony.com Domain Overview php framework 2018

Now let’s  See how many people are searching  For Keyword Symfony

symfony SEMrush overview for keyword

symfony SEMrush overview for keyword (1)

the above data shows how popular is Symfony. It has declined in popularity in past few months.

Summary of the data above

  • 77.1k people/month from the USA Visits symfony.com via google
  • 3.6k people/month from the USA search keyword symfony
  • its popularity is not rapidly increasing.
  • people don’t have keen interest to learn Symfony

Top Features of Symfony

  • Symfony defines MVC while many other frameworks try to simply follow MVC rules.
  • The standards of Symfony also make it easier to catch errors and to write high-quality code; its community is growing every year.
  • symfony is The leading PHP framework to create websites and web applications
  • Laravel uses Symfony :P

Github Stats

[gitrepo author=”symfony” repo=”symfony”]

 

PHP frameworks like laravel and Content Management Systems (CMS) like PhpBB have adapted the Symfony components and started to follow in its footsteps.


3 – CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for developers who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications.

domain overview of  codeigniter.com

codeigniter.com Domain Overview - php framework 2018

codeigniter.com Domain Overview

Now let’s  See how many people are searching  For Keyword Codeigniter

codeigniter overview for keyword

codeigniter SEMrush overview for keyword (1)

the above data shows how popular is Codeigniter and its popularity is not rapidly increasing among developers compared to symfony.

Summary of the data above

  • 26.7k people/month from the USA Visits Codeigniter.com via google
  • 8.1k people/month from the USA search keyword Codeigniter
  • its popularity is not rapidly increasing, it also shows some huge decline in past years.
  • people have not keen interest to learn CodeIgniter as compared to Symfony

Top Features of Codeigniter

  • Full Featured database classes with support for several platforms.
  • Query Builder Database Support
  • Form and Data Validation
  • Security and XSS Filtering
  • Session Management
  • Email Sending Class. Supports Attachments, HTML/Text email, multiple protocols (sendmail, SMTP, and Mail) and more.
  • Image Manipulation Library (cropping, resizing, rotating, etc.). Supports GD, ImageMagick, and NetPBM

Github Stats

[gitrepo author=”bcit-ci” repo=”codeigniter”]

 

CodeIgniter is also based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development pattern.


4 – CakePHP

CakePHP makes building web applications simpler, faster while requiring less code. A modern PHP 7 framework offering a flexible database access layer and a powerful scaffolding system that makes building both small and complex systems simpler, easier and, of course, tastier.

domain overview of  cakephp.org

cakephp.org Domain Overview Report php framework 2018

Now let’s  See how many people are searching  For Keyword CakePHP

 

cakephp SEMrush overview for keyword

the above data shows how popular is CakePHP.

Summary of the data above

  • 18.3k people/month from the USA Visits Cakephp.org via google
  • 3.6k people/month from the USA search keyword CakePHP
  • its popularity is not rapidly increasing.
  • people have not keen interest to learn CakePHP as compared to Codeigniter

Top features of CakePHP

  • Enhanced components and helpers
  • CakePHP offers a flexible caching layer that assimilates improvements to the bootstrap process, routing process and numerous parts of the process for generating helper templates.
  • Integrated with the bug-fixing tool that provides turnkey solutions for solving new application errors rapidly and easily during development process stage.

 

Github Stats

[gitrepo author=”cakephp” repo=”cakephp”]

CakePHP 3.0 that provides the flexible and turnkey solution for software developers to save their development time significantly.


 5 – Yii 2

Yii is a generic Web programming framework, meaning that it can be used for developing all kinds of Web applications using PHP.

domain overview of  yiiframework.com

yiiframework.com Domain Overview Report - php framework 2018

yiiframework.com Domain Overview Report

Now let’s  See how many people are searching  For Keyword Yii 

yii keyword SEMrush overview for keyword

yii keyword SEMrush overview for keyword (1)

the above data shows how popular is yii 2

Summary of the data above

  • 8.3k people/month from the USA Visits yiiframework.com via google
  • 2.9 people/month from the USA search keyword yii
  • its popularity is not rapidly decreasing.
  • people have not keen interest to learn Yii Framework

Top features of Yii framework

  • Because of its component-based architecture and sophisticated caching support, it is especially suitable for developing large-scale applications such as portals, forums, content management systems (CMS), e-commerce projects, RESTful Web services, and so on.
  • Yii is a full-stack framework
  • Provides many proven and ready-to-use features

 

Github Stats

[gitrepo author=”yiisoft” repo=”yii”]

 

Yii implements the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern and promotes code organization based on that pattern.


Conclusion

You can accomplish everything you want with any of the frameworks. Just depends on what you want to achieve and features you’d like to reuse.

Deven Rathore

Entrepreneur, tech enthusiast and Full-stack developer, Constantly learning and experiencing new things.