PHP Framework Comparison 2014

This is the first time for my unconventionally PHP Framework Comparison 2014 in english. In the last two years i’ve done it in german and this year i will also translate it in english.

So please forgive me my not perfect english.

As in the last two years my comparison is not about features, functionality and performance, but about frequency of use, popularity and activity of the community.

So, imagine that you have the fastes PHP Framework with the most features, but you come often to the point you need help and only a few people are working with this PHP Framework. So a strong community is much more important.

Only a few selection processes take care about these strong decision guidance, but at some point of the development process you will see it clearer.

The losers 2014

In the last comparison i took out Zoop, PHP on Trax, Akelos, ezComponents, PHPDevShell and Prado. This time it is Seagull. The search results are fewer and the last stable version was at the beginning of 2013.

The Yii Framework stucks also a little bit. Version 1.1.14 is 10 month old and 1.1.15 was only a bugfix. The development of version 2.x is still in progress. So we can look forward the next weeks and month.

The winners 2014

Laravel is one of the winners of the PHP Framework Comparison 2014 which is at version 4.1 now. In August 2014 there is the Laracon in Amsterdam, Nederlands. This shows that there is a active community behind the project.

phalcon, the PHP Framework as PHP C-Module is also a winner of the 2014 comparison. The version 1.2.0 is still in development and the community is active. That there is a C module will lift phalcon up a little bit from the other PHP Frameworks.

PHP Framework Comparison 2014 – Results

Recommendation

In my oppionion Laravel is a good choice. Also Symfony helps during fast prototyping with a bunch of bundles (modules).

Zend Framework 2 has a high hurdles of learning and because of that some developlers left the Zend Framework Community and joins Symfony or Laravel. If i have to choose between Zend Framework 2 and Symfony, i would take Symfony.