Best PHP Frameworks in 2020: Laravel, CodeIgniter, Symfony, Yii

Frameworks rating
Laravel

This free platform is one of the most common PHP frameworks due to its active development and ease of learning. Newcomers who decide to master it for the first time are provided with comfortable conditions for a stepwise immersion in web development on a wide range of problems: from ordinary routine tasks to complex integration projects and application scaling. With such advanced functionality, Laravel can assist you in dealing with a whole range of backend tasks, even without extensive experience.

Laravel features

• Well-structured and thorough documentation. The structure is based on MVC architecture.

• Artisan console for working with the basic elements of the framework - migrations, authorization, controllers and models.

• Blade's own templating engine, which makes it possible to use PHP code in views, but at the same time does not slow down the work of the framework.

• Install jQuery and BootStrap out of the box. The compiled packages after installation can be found in the app.js and app.css files.

• There are validation and data structures according to specific rules that allow you to generate your own rule templates.

• The Inversion of Control (IoC) principle has been successfully implemented.

• Leader in the number of available extensions (packages).

CodeIgniter

This open-source framework is distinguished by its elegance of code and ease of writing. Ease of learning and freedom of coding provide excellent conditions for a quick start of a project. CodeIgniter is great for building small PHP applications that can scale quickly.
Features of CodeIgniter

• Support for MVC architecture, as well as databases MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, SQLite, Oracle.

• The ability to add third-party plugins to increase the functionality of the app.

• The framework has pre-installed libraries with extensive functionality.

• The ability to use third-party and self-written libraries (using the Sparks manager) allows the system to scale quickly.

• It is possible to install modularity support add-ons (HMVC).

• CodeIgniter has detailed platform documentation to help newbies get up to speed quickly.

Symfony

In addition to the sonorous name, this framework has flexible functionality based on a modular approach to building a system. This allows you to choose the necessary PHP functions or operate the entire infrastructure as a whole.

This framework will be a balanced solution for a developer who appreciates modularity and the advantage of using separate components. Symfony web applications have impressive performance and are used for complex enterprise tasks.

Symfony features

• Twig's own templating engine allows you to create a clean code and add PHP functionality.

• It can be installed using Composer.

• A large number of extensions available for installation.

• Support for additional formats: PHP, YAML, and XML.

• Codeception compatibility makes it easy to write tests.

• Using the Doctrine relational projector allows you to work at a more advanced level.

• Became the basis for many popular CMS (Magento, Drupal, Opencart).

• An active community of user support.

Yii

PHP framework Yii is considered the leader in terms of production and is often chosen for high-load applications. Since its first release in 2008, the framework has evolved continuously over the years. Yii is usually in the best PHP frameworks due to its highly developed user community.

Features of Yii

• Flexible mechanisms for generating source code.

• Full implementation of the MVC paradigm.

• Database interfaces - DAO and ActiveRecord.

• There is a function of full or partial page caching.
  There is a possibility of operational modeling of a project prototype for a pre-sale demonstration to customers.

• Like Laravel, it supports installation using the Composer package manager.

• Fast code generation with the Gii browser element.