So, what makes PHP so popular? PHP is so popular because it is relatively easy to learn compare to other language. Furthermore, there are a lot of great tutorials for beginner to get started. Although there are a lot of resources for us, but coding a site from scratch is very tough. Luckily, there are a lot of reliable PHP Framework which can shorten the development time. These frameworks are supported by huge community and they are willing to help if you face any problems.

Without talking much, let’s start to look into these 22 open source PHP frameworks:

Most Promising Frameworks

1. Zend Framework

Zend Framework is an object oriented framework written in PHP 5. It is based on simplicity, corporate friendly license, and a rigorously tested agile codebase. The loosely coupled architecture also allow developers to use Zend components within other framework.

2. Symfony

Symfony is a PHP 5 framework which provides an architecture, components and tools for developers to build complex web applications faster. The official site provides a practical tutorial for Symfony beginner too.

3. CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is another popular PHP framework. It has the advantage of having a wiki for easier navigation. New users can get started easily by referring to its documentation. It supports PHP4, which makes it can’t take full advantage of PHP5.

4. CakePHP

Using commonly known design patterns like MVC  and ORM  within the convention over configuration paradigm, CakePHP reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.

5. Prado

Prado require PHP5 and above to run, and it is a component-based and event-driven programming framework for developing Web applications. There is a quick start tutorial for beginner too.

6. Kohana

Kohana is a PHP 5 framework that uses the Model View Controller architectural pattern. It aims to be secure, lightweight, and easy to use. Kohana is originally based on CodeIgniter, but it is strict PHP5 OOP, which i think is more suitable to use in building new and large scale projects.

7. Solar Framework

Solar is a PHP 5 framework for web application development. It is fully name-spaced and uses enterprise application design patterns, with built-in support for localization and configuration at all levels.

8. Fuse

FUSE is a Model View Controller framework for PHP. Taking influence from other web frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and CakePHP, then adding in custom, intuitive features of our own design, FUSE has developed into a robust, stable platform for MVC development using object oriented PHP.

9. Yii PHP Framework

Yii is a high-performance component-based PHP framework best for developing large-scale Web applications. It has a full stack of features and written in strict OOP(require PHP5 and above).

10. Akelos PHP Framework

The Akelos PHP Framework is a web application development platform based on the MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern.

Other alternative PHP frameworks

11. Recess
12. Agavi
13. Qcodo
14. Zoop
15. QPHP
16. Seagull PHP
17. PHPDevShell
18. PHPOpenBiz
19. WASP
20. evoCore
21. Lion
22. Flow3