which Framework Would Have The Most Longevity

The big question that a lot of developers are asking these days is, “What is the best PHP framework?” And the answer is lengthy but easy to understand. Let’s take a look. A good PHP framework should improve security, make websites easier to upgrade and should also dramatically reduce the time it takes you to build websites and web applications. A good PHP framework, however, should help you to keep on top of everything that’s new and hip in the world of web development – without having to learn a bunch of brand new technologies. Need a PDF generator? Your framework should be able to handle that. How about an RSS feed? No problem! Or, how about one of those fancy auto complete features for a search form? Well, sure enough, these frameworks that can produce those too.

If you look at the statistics, CakePHP is one of the slowest PHP frameworks out there. It’s also rather difficult to learn and has a somewhat cumbersome feel. I must confess that I have not spent much time working with CakePHP. However, the time that I did spend working with it was rather uninspiring. The form generation and validation methods, for example, seemed slower and more awkward to me then straight “out of the box” PHP methods, using OOP.

Kohana is basically Codeigniter on steroids (I’m sure I’m not the first person who has said that). Codeigniter, which I’ll discuss further on, is a fantastic framework. However, Kohana is modular which means you can quickly “bolt” parts onto your applications. The code is also slicker and more compact than with Codeigniter. On paper it has everything going for it!

If we were placing a bet on which framework would have the most longevity then Zend would surely be our safest bet. Built by the makers of PHP, Zend is currently the PHP framework of choice for big business. Like CakePHP, it comes packed with tonnes of advanced features, plugins and free optional downloads.

Last but not the least comes symfony. Sponsored by Sensio, symfony helps to speed up the creation and maintenance of Web applications, and to replace the repetitive coding tasks by power, control and pleasure. The symfony framework has been used worldwide in a number of enterprise-level applications, perhaps most notably Askeet and Yahoo! Bookmarks. Odds are that if someone you know has installed, used, or played around with a PHP framework, that framework was symfony.