PHP frameworks - Which one is Most Suitable for you?

Edit - There is a very nice conversation going on between some heavyweights of RoR and PHP framework developers as comments of this post and I will highly advice you to read it. If you don't have time to read both article and the comments than forget the article and read the comments, you will learn more from them --

PHP frameworks is the newest buzz word that is spreading the PHP community due to the threat posed by the famous Ruby on rails. Now everyone seems to look like working on such frameworks. The problem with this there is so many frameworks out there with different pros and cons that it is a hectic job to choose the right one. Please note, choosing the “right” framework is fully dependent on personal and project needs. I will not go through what features each has. I will refer to two articles for showing the framework’s pros and cons. You will find a feature chart here and a benchmark report here.

I have short listed frameworks that I think are the most promising/useful/practical. They are CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Zend framework, Prado and Symfony. But there are plenty of others that may satisfy your likings.

The Pros and cons- Each one at a glance

Zend Framework: The most hyped framework. Why not; it’s by Zend which develops PHP itself. It has just got out of beta. You will also find it is rich with features too. It was also the fastest. No doubt it has all the corporate stuffs but I still felt it’s a bit tough. Just a little too much for most. It doesn’t have PHP 4 too. But it will definitely more provide support and professional code being backed by a corporate company. This is for those who want to build apps for big enterprises. They will have pro coders and will also be benefited from the components it provides.

Symphony: As stated in the above mentioned comparison chart. This framework is the most feature-packed; as it uses separate modules to handle things like a DB layer. You will find it really useful for projects with big feature needs. But it’s also the slowest. All these features tend to cost some server power isn’t it?

Prado: This is the most unique of them all. It is not a “rails clone”. Rather can be said as “ASP.net in PHP”. It provides event based web apps like ASP.net. ASP.net is known as the choice for the big enterprises. This one is still new and obviously not as powerful as ASP.net. But it can be a good lesson for those who are coming from an ASP.net background or want to go there.

CakePHP: To me, the best port of rails in php. CakePHP is definitely looking the most promising. It provides all the ease of use of rails yet its speed has gone down. It has a very active community and the difference of this framework from others is, it is actually used by many companies and websites. Even popular CMS mambo has decided to use cake in their next version. All in all, suitable for all types of apps. And also has a huge code base of components and plug-ins.

CodeIgniter: Last but not the least, this framework can be called “the easy CakePHP”. It does not enforce strong MVC pattern like rails or cake. So it is easier to learn for beginners. I also think it is a good candidate for porting existing code as it follows a more traditional php coding style. It also has a very strong community and lots of additional components. It also very fast than most frameworks.

I personally liked CakePHP and Django(It is python based, hence not listed). CakePHP is suitable for any projects and also development is also truly rapid. But it can be a bit tricky at first; also lot people may not like its love for conventions. So I will suggest beginners or “convention haters” to use CodeIgniter. The big enterprises will use Zend and people willing for new challenges will use Prado. So choose your one or if not interested good old procedural is not that bad is it? Infact I still prefers to work on Drupal to buid fast sites. Always remember, in most of the projects, using Web Frameworks can be a overkill so choose them wisely keeping the learning curve in mind.