TOP 5 PHP Frameworks to Learn in 2022

Advances in technology are growing by leaps and bounds and new developments emerge practically on a daily basis, but we still can assume what exactly will be relevant next year. Trends of technology development are moving towards full automation of processes that would improve people’s lives. It already can be anticipated what PHP frameworks will be highly demanded in 2022:

• Code Igniter;
• CakePHP;
• Symfony;
• Laravel;
• Zend;
• Yii2;
• FuelPHP.

Frameworks allow simplifying the work on apps and sites significantly, as most processes are automated due to them. Moreover, frameworks are a lot more accessible than various programming languages. It’s easier for a general user to master and start using them in developments. Frameworks can help partially automate coding, simplify structure formation, and minimize the complexity of the software component of any project. The majority of frameworks provide as rapid integration as possible and allow setting up the product and its work with other services on your own.

Working process optimization with the use of frameworks is available even to beginners, which unlike complicated programming languages holds great promise for all developers regardless of the qualification level. There is a lot of PHP frameworks, but their popularity and rating among the programmers are most closely reflected in the following graph:

These are the five most sought-after frameworks, which will be popular in 2022; unless, of course, more advanced technologies emerge by the end of 2021, which will become a breakthrough in PHP 2022. It’s pretty hard to study technologies from a development perspective, but some of them are a huge field for research already, so they are very promising.

AI implementation

Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more firmly entrenched in all spheres of human life – clearly, this technology is the future. A large number of programs of house level and scientific level are already using AI as a basis for the work. All «smart» technologies are based on the implementation of artificial intelligence and are meant to make life easier and automate the intermediate process of work with programs.

Artificial intelligence is easily integrated into any program, which measurably simplifies its use for an end customer. This technology may be called a basic one for further programming development because a lot of operations in the development of web products can be transferred to a robot system without compromising the quality. This reduces the costs of creating the program and helps to achieve the required result in the short term. Nowadays there are many technologies with AI – automatic transport control, search for information with the help of voice commands, the «smart home» system, and even such household appliances as a robot vacuum cleaner. All these systems are using artificial intelligence and its significance will only increase in the future.

From the perspective of programming, AI will allow making the product as client-oriented as possible, making the user experience good, and lowering the risk of problems while working with the web service.

PHP programming

PHP language is by far the most demanded for the creation of web resources. It’s not enough to learn how to work in that language, it’s necessary to examine trends of frameworks and assess their prospects.

PHP hasn’t always been among the top languages and it lagged far behind Javascript, but its benefit lies in the ease of use. PHP in 2022 is quite simple, which is why it’s available for use even by beginners in programming. It makes programming available almost to everyone, who’s interested in the creation of his programs and websites. The use of frameworks dramatically accelerates and simplifies the development process. Let’s consider top 5 php frameworks, which are worth studying and using in your work.

Laravel

Laravel is the most demanded and popular framework despite its quite ancient origin by standards of technology development as it came out 10 years ago back in 2011. It makes it possible to develop even very complicated sites and structures, which could have been achieved only by rapidly evolving. This is how Laravel has become the most convenient and advanced tool for app creation.

We can note the following advantages of this framework:

1. It’s at a very high level because the work on Laravel for so long since its creation allows anticipating all weaknesses of this framework. ORM Laravel eliminates any possibility of a raw SQL query as it normalizes all parameters when building a query. It guarantees information security because everything that can harm it gets through preliminary treatment. Cross-site scripting is also considered one of the main problems while working with frameworks, but to avoid it, the developers have provided escaping the html tags, which are on the list of forbidden ones. Thus, the output is plain text and the possibility of execution of screen lines is excluded at a basic level.
2. The use of a templating engine Blade. It guarantees the creation of unique templates of web resources, the design can be easily harmonized with the structure, and you can use the same template on different parts of a program code. Mechanism of templates doesn’t limit the developer’s freedom of action and allows making changes to native templates of a programming language. Due to Blade, you can standardize the development and not worsen it at that because the component isn’t difficult to work with. It improves the developer’s performance in website creation.
3. Proper architecture. Architecture in Laravel is subject to strict regulations, due to which the difference between basic components of the program is clearly seen. Each next layer doesn’t depend on the previous one and a programmer can work with each of them separately. As a result, the possibility of a situation is leveled out in which the correction of bugs in the logic destroys old developments resulting in even more errors arising. A person is simply not able to predict and take into account each of them, as a result of which it is easier to get rid of such connections.

Among other advantages, the information about Laravel is freely available so both programmers and clients, who work with apps on Laravel, can read it. On the web, it’s easy to find not only basic data about the framework but also recommendations, manuals, and developers’ comments, which significantly simplifies its use. Among shortcomings, we can mention a lack of automation of the framework. You’ll have to perform a big part of the work manually, which is obviously not a good thing. Although manual labor allows showing flexibility when developing a program, it takes a lot of time.

Symphony

Symfony is a very convenient and stable structure for the creation of websites and apps. Most often developers choose it for the reliability of work and process simplification at a high level. The above-mentioned Laravel was created on the basis of this framework, which only adds to its popularity points not only among professional developers but also among beginners. We can mention the following benefits of the PHP framework Symfony:

• opportunities to expand and scale the project in the early stages of functionality development;
• accessibility of integration with most services and CMS. The proper level of a developer’s professionalism provides all opportunities of optimization of an internet resource;
• simplification of integration with JS frameworks.

At the moment, Symfony is used by many services, in particular, the most popular of them such as Drupal, PHP BB, and others.

CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is one of the frameworks, which can brag about impressive productivity and simplicity. Its configuration is as convenient as possible to provide speedy coding during the creation of apps and sites. Overall many developers consider it a nearly perfect framework, which solves basic programming tasks quickly and elegantly. Its benefits are undeniable:

1. Simple interface. A well-managed and intuitive interface attracts beginners and professionals because it’s easy to work with.
2. A programmer can view it, change it, correct errors, and verify the presence of vulnerabilities in software solutions, which guarantees quick work on the project without delay. Moreover, due to such openness, it’s easy to see and exclude the possibility of tracking user data and actions by the resource. All that allows modifying the product and using the fragments of the created code to develop future apps with the consideration of the compatibility of licenses, algorithms, methodologies of interfaces and technologies.
3. Simplified coding. It’s one of the main benefits of this framework, which causes the high performance of the platform and availability even for beginners.
4. A low number of bugs when developing. Due to the clean source code, it’s easier for the programmer to foresee possible malfunction in the work of a web resource.
5. Availability of complex testing of the product at each stage of the development. Peculiarities of the platform make it possible to test apps and sites.
6. MIT License. Although it’s the earliest of free ones, which might arouse suspicions of its liquidity, it adheres to the basic principles of licensing. In particular, it permits to use the licensed code in proprietary software only if the text of this license is included in the software. A great solution, which the specialists skillfully use regardless of experience in working with the source code.

The platform provides a possibility of data refactoring in the most convenient form. In such a way, you can improve the project, maintaining functional semantics and information. Refactoring combines a wide range of features, which the developers and users appreciate above anything else in all modern products. Among other things, CodeIgniter supports a set of standard PHP objects and it's compatible with other platforms and frameworks. Such a universality enables to get access to various databases.

The CodeIgniter platform demonstrates high effectiveness during sessions, offers a programmer great opportunities of the encryption library, and allows to create projects of any complexity. This framework’s convenience, functionality, and universal approach to solving programming tasks ensure popularity among developers.

CakePHP

Each framework is good in its own way, but the previously mentioned ones are the most convenient, simple, and have a better interface design. CakePHP is an undisputed leader in stability and reliability. It has earned a title of a gold standard due to these benefits. Here are its advantages:

1. Architecture flexibility. This factor is responsible for the possibility of scalability and modern auxiliary components of the FlashHelper and FlashComponent classes.
2. Ease of work with projects of any complexity – starting with apps for smartphones and ending with multi-page websites, which are complex to implement.
3. Competent session management. The mere possibility of this approach guarantees that the developer will be able to expand the functionality of his product and speed up data processing substantially.
4. High performance. It’s always good because it allows to save developer’s time and effort significantly, speed up the setup process of software solutions, and enhance the impact of the project. The performance has a direct impact on the speed of routing, creation of templates, and platform downloading in general.
5. Inclusion of new software components in the infrastructure. The use of innovative solutions has reduced the likelihood of problems and errors when writing a code. This is due to the statistical class, which was used to manage sessions. All of that also had a positive effect on the platform’s popularity.
6. Optimization of interaction between separate components of the framework. When getting familiar with the framework, developers pay attention to the unity of plugins and the project right away.

A no less important benefit, due to which CakePHP is well ahead of the above-listed frameworks, is a conversion of themes into plugins. It has led to the creation of the best themes compared with all frameworks that ever were on the top. Using plugins as themes significantly simplifies the process of integration of the product components and opens access to a wide selection of features.

Yii

While speaking about the top best frameworks to learn in 2022, we must not forget Yii, which was originally created in order to simplify and optimize the process of developer’s interaction with the AJAX platform. It’s simple, effective, and it copes well with caching, which opens quick access to the platform at any time if necessary.

Yii makes it possible to reduce time on the development of websites and apps thanks to its effectiveness. The framework has an impressive set of tools to form new and unique interfaces and software solutions. This increases its rating among the developers of the interface component of web resources. Almost instant load and high performance are a calling card of the platform and the specialists appreciate it very much.

Yii is easily integrated with jQuery, which eases the main stages of the work on the program and contains everything needed for fast programming, but it’s not suitable for novices. The Yii platform has an overestimated entry threshold and a set of features and tools that would easily confuse specialists without adequate experience. Consequently, this framework is suitable only for professional developers, programmers, and creators of the programming code. The slightest mistake in coding may lead to serious problems, which will be difficult, if not impossible, to solve. Mishandling might immediately affect performance, which is initially stated as the main advantage of the platform. Nevertheless, if you have the proper level of professionalism, you can safely get to work on the basis of this framework.

Besides the best and most demanded frameworks discussed above, less popular ones are worth mentioning but still decent options.

Zend

Zend is an utterly object-oriented environment using functions like succession and interfaces, which make it very scalable. Zend has open-source code, easy-to-use, and versatile web applications of the enterprise level. Furthermore, Zend has a lot of opportunities for setting and using the best PHP methods. 

Now Zend transfers to the Laminas project. Zend will not be updated anymore, and this is why we recommend the developers start using Laminas.

Main Zend advantages:

1. Zend has a well-structured and versatile code, making it a perfect tool for creating complicated software at the corporate level.
2. Some key features are MVC components, cloud API, encryption, and session management.
3. It can be integrated with other libraries and templates. The developers can use only those components they need.
4. Zend provides excellent productivity, security, and scalability. 
5. Zend has detailed documentation and a vast community of developers and users. 

The disadvantages are that the mobile application developers who use Zend will need to do a lot of studying. Zend's plugins also cost a lot, making them a bad fit for projects on a tight budget.

Phalcon

Phalcon is a highly productive and multifunctional PHP framework that uses the MVC architecture. It functions as an extension for web servers written n C (to use it, you will not need to know C). 

Phalcon advantages:

1. Phalcon is easy to install, and it is a perfect tool to create web applications with vast setting opportunities following advanced enterprise development methods. 
2. Key features are high working speeds, asset management, decent security level, and caching.
3. Phalcon creates space for optimization since it effectively uses memory. It also does not use read files and statistics, which further improves performance.
4. Phalcon is loosely compiled, allowing developers to create their directory structure. 
5. The Phalcon (Volt) emulating engine is high-speed and comes with helper classes to quickly create views.

Phalcon is updating and fixing the issues rarely. Hence, it is a lousy solution for applications that need a high level of security. And this is the only disadvantage.

FuelPHP

FuelPHP is a very flexible PHP framework managed by the community. It supports the MVC projecting template. Also, it has its version of the hierarchical model view controller — HMVC, which adds another level between the controller and representative. Duplicating content with HMVC does not require displaying it on several pages, which helps to save time and memory. 

FuelPHP usage features:

1. FuelPHP key features include HMVC realization, RESTful services, URL routing system, good security, and caching strategies.
2. Some of its security features include output encoding, CSRF protection, and URI and XSS filtering.
3. FuelPHP has a good code organization system, greater modularity, and extensibility compared to other frameworks.
4. FuelPHP has its command-line utility (oil) that you can use to run tasks, debug code, and generate components.

FuelPHP is a relatively new framework; it offers less support and may be challenging to learn compared to other frameworks. It can be the main disadvantage if choosing this framework to work over an application or a website.

Slim

Slim is a popular micro-PHP framework. It is a solution that helps developers create simple yet powerful web applications. It is focused on receiving HTTP requests, callback function triggering, and HTTP response returns. Slim usage advantages:

1. Slim is straightforward and understandable. Its code base is scanty because it has no third-party dependencies, which makes it very fast.
2. Key features include URL routing, session, and cookie encryption, client-side HTTP caching, and more.
3. Slim is a perfect instrument for minor web applications which do not require complete PHP frameworks. For more complicated assignments, Slim can be integrated with third-party components.

Slim is not the best fit for complicated and extensive web applications. The integration process is relatively weak, which makes it bad for corporate-level applications.

TOP 5 PHP Frameworks to Learn in 2022 key takeaways:

1. AI implementation
2. PHP programming
3. Laravel
4. Symphony
5. CodeIgniter
6. CakePHP
7. Yii
8. Zend
9. Phalcon
10. FuelPHP
11. Slim