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Bobby Iliev
Bobby Iliev

Posted on • Originally published at devdojo.com

The 10 Most Popular PHP Frameworks and Their Creators

Introduction

It would be really intimidating if you had to start from scratch and reinvent the wheel every time you were to start a new project.

Luckily in 2021 there is a vast number of brilliant PHP frameworks out there that you can use.

In my opinion using a framework is a must as it would help you structure your project, so that in case that there were other people working on the project they would be able to easily find their way around.

In this post I will list out the 10 most popular PHP frameworks and their creatos!

Laravel

Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. This is my personal favourite framework! I love the Laravel ecosystem and all of the great open source tools that you could use.

Symfony

CodeIgniter

Zend Framework / Laminas Project

The Laminas Project is an open-source continuation of Zend Framework, a PHP framework and component library targeting enterprise applications.

Yii (Framework)

CakePHP

Slim

Phalcon

FuelPHP

Fat-Free Framework

Conclusion

If you are just getting started with coding, it might be a bit overwhelming to have to learn a whole Framework. But in the long run this is going to save you a lot fo development time!

If I missed a framework that you think should be on the list make sure to let me know by tagging me on Twitter: @bobbyiliev_

Top comments (18)

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

Laravel rules, but Phalcon also sounds interesting because of the fact that most of its code is memory resident, meaning it doesn't need to be reloaded and reinterpreted on reach request/response cycle - unique approach with obvious speed advantages, but it never really became popular.

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Yes absolutely! I think that this is now what you also get with Laravel Octane, haven't used it personally but watched a few videos about it.

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

WOW ! Laravel Octane, first time I've heard about this ... so it means Laravel running on top of Swoole, which I did hear about - people have tried to run Laravel on top of Swoole before, and apparently successfully, but with Octane it's officially supported now, that's incredible ...

Laravel just keeps innovating, with Vapor you can even run it on top of AWS Lambda as a "serverless" framework, and now official support for Swoole with Octane ... they're really silencing all those naysayers who keep moaning about Laravel being for amateurs, and that you need to use Symfony or whatever.

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Yes, it is absolutely crazy the amount of goot stuff that the Laravel team and community are releasing 🤩

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

It is, that's why I admire them ... there could always be cases where framework X is marginally better than Laravel in respect Y or Z, but looking at the big picture the Laravel team keep impressing me :)

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Absolutely! I could not have said that better!

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kubeden profile image
Kuberdenis

Great resources!

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Thank you 🙏

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erzncn2434 profile image
erzncn2434 • Edited

top quality framework is NotORM!

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

I haven't tried it. Just looked it up though, looks cool but it does not seem to be maintained any more. No commits for the past 7 years:

github.com/vrana/notorm

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smusmu profile image
SmuSmu

Sadly fat-free-framework ist dead.

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Ah this is very unfortunate :(

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smusmu profile image
SmuSmu

But there are some people ready for a fork. So If anyone is interested? 🤘

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dylandelobel profile image
Dylan Delobel • Edited

Symfony components quality are top-tier 👌

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jotajeff profile image
Jeferson Silva

PHP é um fenômeno, linguagem long-seller .... raridade num universo tão concorrido e essas ferramentas vem impulsionar ainda mais. Parabéns pelo excelente artigo

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lizhichao profile image
vic

github.com/lizhichao/one
It is a very good framework. Flexible, good performance, can also run in memory

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bobbyiliev profile image
Bobby Iliev

Thanks 🙌

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Samet Tutkun

Actually Ellislab is the creator of CodeIgniter. However, he gave up on developing the project after a while and handed it over.