Frameworks are becoming more and more popular among programmers, so it is all the more worth learning a little more about them. This article is an ideal choice for people who want to learn about the biggest advantages of the most popular PHP frameworks and at the same time find out which of them to bet on.
What are PHP frameworks?
A framework, to put it simply, is nothing more than a set of advanced tools, libraries and special scripts, thanks to which you can significantly speed up your programming work. One of the main tasks of frameworks is to standardize work and solve the most popular problems that programmers struggle with every day. In the case of PHP language, there are many popular frameworks to choose from. Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, so it is worth getting to know them thoroughly, so it will be much easier to choose the best work tool for yourself. If you are interested, feel free to read more.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of frameworks?
One of the biggest advantages of PHP frameworks is of course the effectiveness of creating new applications. Thanks to the fact that you do not have to write unnecessary code, you can save a lot of valuable time. Thanks to the framework you can significantly improve code quality. The biggest advantages are also the reliability of the frameworks. As far as defects are concerned, for some frameworks, their complexity may turn out to be a problem. These tools are very flexible, so frameworks can be quite difficult to master. For large projects, the huge price for flexibility is lower performance.
What is Laravel and what do you need to know?
Nowadays one of the most popular PHP frameworks is of course Laravel. In 2011 it came onto the market, and you didn’t have to wait long for its huge rise in popularity among programmers. Contrary to appearances, it is an excellent tool not only for beginners but also for experienced programmers. Laravel’s universality and simplicity have been adapted into a host of additional resources. We are talking of a framework composed of a number of approaches that make it easy to enforce and manage the application process. It is also worth mentioning that Laravel framework can boast its own ORM called Eloquent, or its own template system (Blade). Thanks to many ready-made out-of-the-box solutions, you can significantly speed up your work and focus on the key elements of the project. Suits the structure of the Model View Controller. Laravel is known to be the architecture of the future because it gives fantastic opportunities to develop apps and easily adapts to new business trends.
Symfony from A to Z
PHP lovers can also use the popular Symfony framework, which actually consists of many independent modules. To a large extent, it is on these modules that such solutions as Drupal CMS or the very popular phpBB forum work. While Symfony is third in popularity due to some of its specific functionality, some programmers consider it to be the best PHP platform. For example, it helps you to reuse PHP components and packages, which ultimately gives you more flexibility to work on other main features. Thanks to the ready-made and expanded modules, you can significantly accelerate work on simple and advanced websites.
Framework Symfony can also boast a very broad community, which is a very critical metric that you can remember when choosing any PHP framework so that in case of any problems you can always take advantage of professional advice. Symfony Network has more than 2000+ active members on official accounts, helping new developers to find easy expert solutions. Reliability and stability is a significant problem when it comes to specialized websites or web-based applications. Many popular PHP frameworks have crashed in the past, but thousands of developers still trust Symfony because of its continued high-end support from the backers.
The Symphony framework is also known to provide developers with a neat user interface. It’s crucial that when you start designing a project in a neat interface, the risks of making errors are very limited.
No matter how good the website is, you are still at high risk if the security is not tight. However, this would not be the case when creating mobile apps or websites based on the Symphony platform. You will receive daily updates on the framework components that will improve your security.
Laravel vs Symfony – what differences?
Unlike Laravel, Framework Symfony was designed for large scale projects, so it was used to write PrestaShop or Magento. Symfony is written as a modular solution, that’s why we are dealing with a collection of many different elements (bundle). Of course, we are talking about special packages, which are installed separately and have specific functionality that we want to use. If you need a payment system, it is enough to install the appropriate package. This is a very convenient and extremely practical solution. The choice of specific elements has a great impact on the performance of the framework. As for Laravel, it is worth mentioning that it is actually built on Symfony components. It is the best choice for people who put intuitive and fast code writing in the first place. Laravel is ideal for smaller projects that need to be done in a very short time.
What PHP framework is worth betting on?
In order to choose the best PHP framework, you should first answer the question of what is really important for us and which elements we use most often. From a practical point of view, the frameworks being compared have a very similar set of functionality and ready-made libraries to use. The situation is similar when it comes to the size of the community. Looking at the job offers on the market it is easy to notice that both technologies are in great demand. For beginners, the best choice seems to be Laravel, which is not only easier to learn but also boasts an extremely pleasant syntax. Contrary to appearances, it is a very modern PHP framework, which is constantly being developed.
