06 — PHP Frameworks

Laravel

Laravel is "a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax." Laravel supports various features, including authentication, authorization, Eloquent ORM, database migrations, validation, notifications, e-mail, file storage, job queues, task scheduling, testing, events, and WebSockets. Laravel also has a number of packages for various different purposes:

• Forge
• Vapor
• Breeze
• Cashier
• Dusk
• Echo
• Envoyer
• Herd
• Horizon
• Inertia
• Jetstream
• Livewire
• Nova
• Octane
• Pennant
• Pint
• Prompts
• Pulse
• Reverb
• Sail
• Sanctum
• Scout
• Socialite
• Spark
• Telescope

Symfony

Symfony is "a set of reusable PHP components and a PHP framework for web projects." The Symfony Framework is "built on top of the Symfony Components." Currently, Symfony has more than 3,000 contributors, more than 600,000 developers, and more than 688,000,000 monthly downloads.

CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is "a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint." CodeIgniter is "built for developers who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications." CodeIgniter has a download size of 1.1 MB, and its user guide has a file size of 1.6 MB; this brings the total download size to just 2.7 MB — that's relatively small for a PHP framework. According to the official website, "CodeIgniter consistently outperforms most of its competitors." Additionally, CodeIgniter has quite a strong security system, with "built-in protection against CSRF and XSS attacks." Furthermore, CodeIngiter comes almost entirely pre-configured, with almost no setup required.

Summary

Laravel, Symfony, and CodeIgniter are excellent choices for a PHP framework. Each one excels in its own way.