PHP Framework List: Ultimate Guide For Web Developers

18 min read

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) which earlier stood for Personal Home Page is one of the most popular general-purpose scripting (or web programming) languages used by millions of websites on the internet. According to a report, PHP is used by 79% of the websites using server-side programming languages. Why do we need a PHP framework list? These frameworks help the developers promote RAD (Rapid Application Development) to save time, build more stable applications, and reduce repetitive coding. PHP is used to create dynamic content that interacts with the databases of the applications and is easier to learn in comparison to several programming languages.

Programmers have their way of coding and they use top PHP frameworks to avoid developing applications from scratch every time. PHP has many amazing features that are helpful for productivity, faster development, and protection from low-level errors. So, if you are looking for a complete PHP framework list to develop versatile web applications then you have landed on the right page. In this article, you will get the best free PHP frameworks list with the necessary details, features, benefits, and their official website link. I am going to share the best PHP frameworks developed by top organizations and communities to deliver an intuitive experience.

Every full-stack developer needs to work on both client-side and server side, so there is no need to worry about the client-side (or front-end) development because we have lined up the top 20 javascript IDE and Source code editors for client-side development. Enhance your skills in backend development using top PHP frameworks and frontend with the help of JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, CSS, and HTML.

Table of Contents

Google PHP Framework Trends [2020]

Comprehensive PHP Framework List:

Laravel

Initial Release Date: June 2011

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.5.9

Developed By: Taylor Otwell

Official Website: https://laravel.com/

As you have watched the Google trends of the most popular PHP frameworks, the Laravel framework is widely used by developers. It is created as an open-source PHP web application framework with special inversion control containers, unit testing maintenance programs, strong building tools, good routing, easy authentication, blade templating engine and migrations support with neat and expressive language rules. Expert programmers try to choose Managed Laravel Cloud Hosting with Laravel PHP framework to get optimum results.

Laravel Benefits:

Organize ﬁles and code
RAD (Rapid application development)
MVC architecture (and PHP7)
Unit testing maintenance program
Best documentation and strong building tools
High-level abstraction
Overloading capabilities using dynamic methods
Out-of-the-box functionality
Easy payment integration with stripe
Strong encryption packages
ORM

Symfony

Initial Release Date: October 18, 2005

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.5.9

Developed By: Fabien Potencier

Official Website: https://symfony.com/

In the PHP framework list, Symfony is the second most popular framework that is a more flexible, scalable, and powerful tool used for MVC applications. Symfony is also modularized with composer and support reusable components used for templating, validation, security, translation, and many more.

The purpose of Symfony is to make your application creation and maintenance faster with more flexible and easy-to-use tools. Moreover, it is also used to overcome repetitive code problems and guarantees a stable platform. Web developers can get the real benefits if they are using managed PHP cloud hosting.

Symfony Benefits:

High performance (due to byte code caching)
Stable and support reusable components
Well-documented and maintained
Flexible and easy-to-use tools

CodeIgniter

Initial Release Date: February 28, 2006

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.4

Developed By: EllisLab

Official Website: https://codeigniter.com/

CodeIgniter can support next-generation applications with its classic performance and simplified coding. It has a great community and good documentation with security, reliability, and easy encryption steps. Many libraries allow developers to make customization as they desire. Moreover, it facilitates the developers to handle errors with ease and no version conflicts.

CodeIgniter Benefits:

Developer friendly and doesn’t need any support or dependencies
Capable to use normal web hosting and standard databases
Uses PAC (Presentation-abstraction-control) architecture (non-MVC)
Good documentation and Long Term Support

CakePHP

Initial Release Date: April 2005

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.5.9

Developed By: Cake Software Foundation, Inc.

Official Website: https://cakephp.org/

CakePHP falls into the top 5 frameworks in the PHP framework list with integrated CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) and many other built-in features for request handling, email, session, coolie, and security. It also offers the option to create standalone libraries with great modularity and makes it easy to learn with flexible templating.

CakePHP Benefits:

Modern framework · Supports PHP 5.5+
Scaffolding system and Fast builds
Better for commercial web applications (MIT License)
Built-in Database Access, Authentication, Caching, Validation
Scripting and SQL Injection prevention
Good documentation and Form Validation

Zend Framework

Initial Release Date: March 3, 2006

Written in: PHP 7

Required PHP Version: 5.3

Developed By: Zend Technologies

Official Website: http://framework.zend.com/

Zend framework or Laminas project is a fully-featured Object-oriented PHP framework that allows the developers to extend custom classes using OOP concepts and use only what you need. It is an exceptionally innovative, flexible, and secure development environment used in enterprise-level projects. Moreover, it also offers online training and certifications.

Zend Framework Benefits:

Ideal for enterprise applications
Object-oriented (Uses OOP concepts)
Many components for validation, feeds, and forms
Innovative, flexible, secure and decoupled

Yii PHP Framework

Initial Release Date: October 2006

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.1

Developed By: Qiang Xue and its team

Official Website: https://www.yiiframework.com/

It is a modern and highly extensible PHP framework that is easy to handle and supports many powerful features. Yii framework has built-in integration with CodeCeption (PHP testing framework) and allows the developers to their applications with ease. It allows them to work out of the box in a fast, secure, and efficient way.

Yii PHP Framework Benefits:

Modern and flexible
Support many powerful features
Packages for authentication, testing, and security
Rapid development with out-of-the-box features

Aura

Initial Release Date: 2012

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.4

Developed By: Jake Johns and 166 others.

Official Website: http://auraphp.com/

Aura Framework is the best option for developers who are developing basic applications because it provides the go-to options. Moreover, it is based on self-contained decoupled libraries without any dependencies. Aura uses individual libraries that can be utilized in any type of coding structure.

Aura Benefits:

Lightweight and slim
Good documentation and Getting started guide
Perfect for Small rest APIs
Add-ons including HTTP Caching, & Flash

Phalcon Framework

Initial Release Date: November 14, 2012

Written in: Zephir, C, PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.3

Developed By: Andres Gutierrez and others

Official Website: https://phalconphp.com/en/

Phalcon is a full-stack framework written as a C-extension and highly optimized for good performance. It allows the programmers to develop high-performance applications with lower server consumption because it is purely written in C/C++. Phalcon becomes popular in the PHP framework list within a short period to develop innovative web applications.

Phalcon Framework Benefits:

Blazing fast speed due to C/C++
Developer-friendly with autoloading
Written as a C-extension
Built-in security features
Great documentation

Fat-Free Framework

Initial Release Date: 2009

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.3

Developed By: Bong Cosca

Official Website: http://fatfreeframework.com/home

As the name indicates, Fat-Free is one of the best lightweight PHP frameworks that use less than 50kb space files and offers many amazing features including a URL router, cache engine, and multi-lingual application support. Moreover, there are many plugins available to enhance functionality including backend operations of any type of database.

Fat-free Framework Benefits:

Lightweight with a small learning curve
Faster with optimizations for URL routing, cache engines, and code
The best option for multilingual applications
Off-the-shelf support for SQL or No SQL Databases
Several packages are available including unit testing and image
Processing, JavaScript / CSS compressing, data validation, and many more

Qcodo Development Framework

Initial Release Date: October 18, 2005

Written in: PHP, PHP5, JavaScript, SQL

Developed By: Qcodo Community

Official Website: http://www.qcodo.com/

Qcodo is one of the open-source top PHP frameworks that is also an object-oriented framework. Those websites that are powered by Qcodo are capable of generating more than a hundred million page views each month.

Organizations such as NASA and several companies like Hewlett-Packard where there is always this difficult production of data are implementing the Qcodo Development framework as it is hassle-free to use. It can be used for almost anything and everything including both large-scale enterprise applications and Web 2.0 startups.

Qcodo Benefits:

Global support
Support of object-oriented database querying library
Built-in database profiling tools
Fully integrated PHP-driven AJAX Support

FuelPHP

Initial Release Date: July 31, 2011

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.3

Developed By: Dan Horrigan and their team

Official Website: http://fuelphp.com/

It is an easy, simple, flexible, and community-driven web framework based on good ideas from other frameworks with a new start. FuelPHP is laced with many additional features present between the controllers and used to make incredible websites.

FuelPHP Benefits:

Authentication packages and URL routing
Restful building and modular with integrated ORM
A unique command-line utility
The latest version is object-oriented, can be installed using composer, and a single installation can support multiple applications

Slim Framework

Version 4.0 Release Date: August 01, 2019

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.5

Developed By: Josh Lockhart, Andrew Smith, Rob Allen, Pierre Bérubé and their team

Official Website: http://www.slimframework.com/

Slim is a micro-framework that is used to quickly create easy and powerful web applications or APIs. It has many features including, a reliable router, HTTP caching, flash messages, template depictions with bespoke views, AES-256 encryption for cookies, error treatment, and uncomplicated and debugging options.

Slim Framework Benefits:

Fastest RESTful Framework
Good documentation
Perfect for Small rest APIs
Add-ons include: HTTP Caching, & Flash

PHPixie

Version 3.3 Release Date: February 16, 2018

Written in: PHP

Developed By: Roman Tsiupa

Official Website: http://phpixie.com/

It is one of the simplified frameworks in the PHP framework list with the MVC pattern and facilitates the developers to complete their applications within a shorter period. They can easily create superior web apps flawlessly with a strong development foundation.

PHPixie Benefits:

New framework with the option to get started
Good documentation with different code samples
Impressive Routing System with fast compile ability
HMVC Pattern oriented

Ice Framework

Version 1.0 Release Date: November 15, 2014

Written in: Zephir

Developed By: Mariusz Łączak

Official Website: https://www.iceframework.org/

Ice framework is a simple, open-source, fast, and loosely coupled PHP framework frozen in C-extension. The complete framework is already loaded in the RAM which will help you to support the same traffic with fewer servers and time. With the help of the Ice framework, you can manipulate database documents/records as classes and objects.

Ice Framework Benefits:

Built-in authentication
Delivered as C-extension
Simple and fast
Manipulate database records as classes or objects
Lightweight and fast compiling engine

MODX Revolution

Initial Release Date: 2004

Written in: PHP

Developed By: MODX LLC

Official Website: https://modx.com/

MODX Revolution is open source, scalable, faster, secure, and flexible and helps developers build their applications without any compromise and restrictions. Programmers have access to the built-in package library containing what they would need for all common tasks.

MODX Revolution Benefits:

Powerful template system
Support micro templates
Provide the environment to develop object-oriented designs
Developers can create any type of custom content fields

Typo 3 Flow

Initial Release Date: 1998

Written in: PHP

Developed By: TYPO3 Association

Official Website: https://flow.neos.io/

Typo 3 Flow facilitates the programmers to develop smarter and more complicated applications. It is also a widely supported PHP framework by major PHP communities. Typo 3 Flow is focused on Domain-driven design and clean code based on strong conventions.

Typo 3 Flow Benefits:

Clean coding approach
Highly configurable and extensible
Easy integration of third-party extensions
Out-of-the-box CLI programming and real OOP experience

Cappuccino

Initial Release Date: September 4, 2018

Written in: JavaScript/Objective-J

Developed By: Cappuccino Core Developers and community (280North team of Motorola)

Official Website: http://www.cappuccino-project.org/

It is one of the best options from the PHP framework list to develop applications within a shorter period with rich features. Cappuccino is built on JS but works well with PHP applications and provides options that might not have been available on other framework bases.

Cappuccino Framework Benefits:

Stunning controls
There is no need to directly manipulate DOM
Compiled directly in the browser
Support Objective-J language

Pop PHP Framework

Initial Release Date: 2012

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.3

Developed By: Nick Sagona

Official Website: http://www.popphp.org/

The POP PHP Framework is developed with a strong design but it is simple to use with an efficient API. It is also used as a toolbox having several novel features and is suitable for the foundation of your applications.

Pop PHP Framework Benefits:

Make the testing easier
Provide a robust set of lightweight tools
Simplify web app maintenance
Protect website from targeted security attacks

Zest Framework

Initial Release Date: February 20, 2018

Written in: PHP

Developed By: Malik Umer Farooq

Official Website: https://zest.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Zest framework is lightweight without any dependencies except autoloader and core. The size of its source records is less than 1MB and gives an exceptionally lightweight structure of classes that can work without any outside conditions.

Zest Framework Benefits:

Advance routing system
Efficient error handling and logging
Dependency Injection
Better session and cookies management

SilverStripe

Stable Release 4.5.2: April 14, 2020

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 5.3.3

Developed By: SilverStripe

Official Website: https://www.silverstripe.org/

Silverstripe is an open-source PHP framework that builds and updates the database schema for accessing relationships. It also scaffolds sophisticated forms for developers to edit and keeps the application logic in the model and controller layers.

Silverstripe Benefits:

Object-relational mapping (ORM) takes care of your data
Build your web forms in no time
A template engine for the frontend guru
Reuse your code
Scale up, out, and securely
Opensource, application programming, and launch interfaces

DASH PHP Framework

Initial Release Date: 2018

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 7.0

Developed By: Ermile

Official Website: https://dash.ermile.com/en

DASH PHP framework uses multi-layered architecture based on the structure and increases user input security with an automatic input validation system. It has smart communication with databases to validate the input automatically. DASH has a pattern-based structure for making dynamic pages.

Roducks PHP MVC Framework

Official Website: http://roducks.possible-development.com/

Roducks PHP MVC Framework is a modern, scalable, and lightweight MVC PHP framework that works with MySQL databases, and different libraries to build a secure and great web application. It comes with many features including, Object Relational Mapping to make SQL transactions, a JavaScript library with useful tool UI / UX, and different templates to render views on products.

QueryPHP

Initial Release Date: 2010

Written in: PHP

Required PHP Version: 7.4.3

Developed By: Hunzhiwange

Official Website: http://www.queryphp.com/

QueryPHP is a modern, high-performance PHP progressive coroutine framework with a focus on traditional PHP-FPM scenarios.

Silex

Initial Release Date: September 16, 2010

Written in: PHP

Developed By: Silex Contributors, SensioLabs

Official Website: https://silex.symfony.com/

Silex is a micro-framework built on the shoulders of Symfony and Pimple having the aim to be concise, extensible, and testable. It uses the HttpKernel of Symfony to abstract requests and responses that make the Silex simple.

Lumen PHP Framework

Required PHP Version: 7.2

Developed By: Lumen Contributors

Official Website: http://lumen.laravel.com/

Lumen is a stunningly fast microframework by Laravel used for blazing-fast APIs. If you need to upgrade the full Laravel framework then drop your code into a Laravel installation without changing anything.

PRADO PHP Framework

Initial Release Date: September 1, 2004

Written in: PHP

Developed By: PRADO Group (Qiang Xue)

Official Website: http://www.pradosoft.com/

PRADO (PHP Rapid Application Development Object-oriented) is a component framework for PHP5 and enables the maximum reusability of code of their own or other developers. PRADO is an event-driven programming framework and is enlisted in the PHP framework list.

PHPUnit

Initial Release Date: November 27, 2001

Written in: PHP

Developed By: Sebastian Bergmann

Official Website: https://phpunit.de/

It is a programmer-oriented testing framework that is the instance of xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks.

Nette Framework

Stable Release 3.0: April 3, 2019

Written in: PHP

Developed By: Nette Foundation (David Grudl)

Official Website: https://nette.org/en/

Nette is one of the best framework active community, high-quality, well-tested, and object-oriented design to enhance functionality. Nette is also considered a safe framework of PHP and brings out ground-breaking methods.

Horde Application Framework

Stable Release 5.2.22: September 21, 2017

Written in: PHP

Developed By: The Horde Core Team

Official Website: http://www.horde.org/apps/horde/

Horde Application Framework is a general-purpose web application framework that provides classes for preferences, browser detection, MIME handling, compression, and connection tracking.

StupidlySimple Framework

Official Website: https://stupidlysimple.github.io/

SupidlySimple is a microframework for lazy developers and more suitable for those who are developing vanilla projects. As the name indicates, it is small in size but contains several functions required to rapidly start developing a project.

UserFrosting

Official Website: https://www.userfrosting.com/

UserFrosting offers a complete toolbox of programmatic components for building your fully-functioning user management application. Moreover, it is fully extendable so that you can easily create custom features when you need them.

RedCat PHP Framework

Official Website: http://redcatphp.com/

RedCat is a full-stack web framework dedicated designed for meteoric application development with high performance and scalability.

Elefant CMS

Official Website: https://github.com/jbroadway/elefant

Elefant CMS delivers a modern, minimalist user interface that eliminates clutter and confusion, with a site. You will notice the attention to detail throughout the software with extensive documentation.

CrossPHP

Official Website: https://www.crossphp.com/

CrossPHP is a lightweight, simple, and efficient microframework that comes with the annotation configuration, PSR standard, and flexible module. Moreover, it is also MMVC, easy to expand, and easy for multi-person collaboration.

Mvc5 Framework

Official Website: https://mvc5.github.io/

It is an enhanced PHP programming environment for a web application or any function with many built-in components. Developers can easily create middleware applications with anonymous functions, plugins, and dependency injections.

li₃

Official Website: http://li3.me/

li3 is the best in the PHP framework list built from the ground up for PHP 5.3+, and the first to break ground into major new technologies including bridging the gap between relational and non-relational databases using a unified API with a fast, flexible, and RAD development environment.

Yiistrap

Official Website: https://www.yiiframework.com/

YIistrap is a fast, efficient, and secure framework for PHP that works out of the box and has reasonable defaults.

Mockery

Official Website: http://docs.mockery.io/en/latest/

It is a simple and flexible PHP mock object framework offering a test double framework with a succinct API defining Object operations and interactions using DSL (Domain Specific Language).

phpDaemon

Official Website: http://daemon.io/

With the help of PHPDaemon, developers can build very fast applications and services with out-of-box functionality. PHPDaemon framework provides a wide range of network servers such as CGI, FlashPolicy, FastCGI, HTTP, Telnet, and WebSocket; clients like MySQL, Memcached, IRC, Redis, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, XMPP, and others.

phpspec

Official Website: http://www.phpspec.net/en/latest/

It is a PHP toolset to drive emergent design by specification but it is not widely used by expert programmers. You can get more information by visiting the GitHub and phpspec websites.

SabreDAV

Official Website: http://sabre.io/

It is one of the best tools in the PHP framework list that is used to create WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV servers. Moreover, SabreDAV also supports a wide range of internet standards related to these protocols.

Swoole

Official Website: http://www.swoole.com/

Swoole has built-in async support and PHP coroutine, multiple threads I/O modules with the ability to write the applications or create thousands of lightweight coroutines within a single PHP process. It also enhances the efficiency of the R&D team and enables them to focus on the development of innovative projects.

Workerman

Official Website: http://www.workerman.net/

Workerman is an asynchronous event-driven PHP socket framework that supports HTTP, Websocket, SSL, and other custom protocols.

Behat

Official Website: http://docs.behat.org/en/v2.5/

Behat is an open-source Behavior-Driven framework that supports you in delivering software that matters through continuous communication test automation and deliberate discovery.

Opauth

Official Website: http://opauth.org/

Opauth provides a set of APIs that allows programmers to create strategies that work predictably across PHP frameworks and applications.

Joomla Framework

Official Website: http://framework.joomla.org/

The Joomla Framework is an open-source software that is used for writing web and command-line PHP applications.

Medoo

Official Website: http://medoo.in/

Medoo is a lightweight PHP database framework used to accelerate development and with other full-stack PHP frameworks together to enhance the overall functionality.

Kohana

Official Website: https://kohanaframework.org/

Kohana is an HMVC PHP5 framework used to provide a rich set of components for the development of different web applications.

Solar Framework

Official Website: http://solarphp.com/

Solar is an open-source PHP framework (released under Apache license) that is used to make it possible to create your camera pose estimation solution to develop Augmented Reality applications.