PHP Trends to Dominate in 2022: Top Frameworks For Web Development

Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is one of the most widely preferred server-side programming languages. Being an open-source, extensible and platform-independent programming language, it is simple to use, and easy to understand and learn. Since PHP is open source, developers do not need to wait till the next update is released. You must be always be updated with the changing PHP trends. The maintenance and web development costs are highly affordable.

Why Choose PHP And Latest Trends in PHP

PHP programming language helps you to develop web applications that are complex, reliable and faster. Based on your business requirements, hosting plans, experience level, app needs, and development timeframes, there are a large variety of PHP frameworks to choose from. But as we are nearing the end of the year 2019 and the beginning of 2020, it is important to have a clear understanding of what actually our business needs on the basis of the latest PHP trends.

Trending PHP Frameworks

After a brief research and discussions with our PHP experts, we have found out that there is a certain pattern that is being followed by developers when choosing PHP frameworks and hence some of these are trending while others are not. So with the ease of development and a large number of benefits that it offers, we have handpicked a list of PHP frameworks that are trending now and would go ahead to set aside records in 2020:

1. Laravel

Being highly popular and the first preference of developers gives us a reason to include Laravel at the first position in this list. This all-inclusive framework helps in speeding up app development integrating it with the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. It has a wide community of developers, which means that you can always find help whenever you get stuck somewhere during the app development process. Some of the highlights or features of Laravel that make it so appealing are its ORM, RESTful controllers, the lightweight Blade template engine, unit testing, and its comprehensive packaging systems.

Also, excitingly Laravel is the first of its kind to present routing in a nonconcrete manner. When working with Laravel, you have the perks of automatic code management by the framework. Another interesting feature of Laravel is that it offers query management, which takes control of all tasks running in the background and logs the activities without causing any interference to the tasks that are being executed in the front-end.

An in-built robust composer is available to help add the packages with ease, which can be integrated with Gulp and Elixir such that the rpm packages and bower packages can be directly summoned via ssh. It is easy to work with NoSQL structures, such as MongoDB and Redis when you are using Laravel.

If you are planning to learn Laravel, then you can find help online through Udemy courses and other online tutorials and videos. Also, it has extensive documentation, which makes it easier for developers to work with it without getting stuck at any point.

2. Phalcon

Phalcon has been around since 2012 and is one of the other popular PHP frameworks and highly trending in 2019, and is believed to be one of the preferred choices of developers over the upcoming years.

Again, another MVC-based PHP framework, Phalcon has a C-extension structure, which means it works at a tremendous speed. When compared with other frameworks, Phalcon utilizes only a few resources, which helps in the quick and speedy processing of HTTP requests, which helps developers to integrate with systems that come with lesser functionalities and features. Phalcon’s unique features include ORM, caching, auto-loading components and MVC architecture. One of the long-term and latest updates to its functionality packages include support for PHP 7. And other interesting features are:

Phalcon comes with a set of data storage tools, including a self-contained SQL dialect – PHQL, Object Document Mapping for MongoDB.

3. Codeigniter

One of the most preferred frameworks, which is used for developing apps at a greater speed. This lightweight framework is easy to use and comes with a small footprint, which can be uploaded without any hassles straightaway to your hosting. During installation, you need not to enter any special command line arguments or commands, and no specific software installation is recommended. You just have to upload the files and you are done.

It is easy to build web applications that are fully functional with Codeigniter. If you are a fresher or a beginner, you need worry, you can easily become an expert in the framework within no time. It supports a wide range of libraries. The documentation support is marvelous as it is extensive. Also, it has a highly supportive community. The British Columbia Institute of Technology backs up Code Igniter, which means that there are a continuous development and growth happening at all times.

Some of the features of Codeigniter includes:

4. Symfony

The French SensioLabs is the brain behind Symfony.

Symfony is one of the other highly popular PHP frameworks that has been in the trend for a while now and will be for years to come. Some of the highlights include extensive and comprehensive documentation, stability, reliability, high performance, and modular project model.

Some of the popular and big organizations, such as BBC have been using Symfony for the stable and consistent nature that it owns. And open source projects such as Drupal and eZpublish are also using Symfony. The community support is huge and unbelievable. It offers an excellent performance. Thanks to its wide range of features, which makes it possible to develop both REST APIs and other web apps.

5. CakePHP

If you are a beginner, then this would be the ideal place to start. This helps in the fast and rapid development of the commercial web apps. Since it offers the code generation and scaffolding functionalities, all apps that are developed using CakePHP can be developed faster and these apps are highly scalable and reliable. It offers MVC conventions that will help you through the development process with ease. All common functionalities are handled and managed by the numerous packages that come with it.

CakePHP is always under development, which means that the documentation is fair and comprehensive. You are saved from the complexities of the XML or YAML config files. You can easily build apps using it. There are no security concerns as it comes with features that prevent CSRF, SQL injection and XSS. It also has tools that take care of form validation with ease.

6. Zend Framework

This is one of the best frameworks that is widely used for developing enterprise-level apps while ensuring that this exhibit a highly reliable performance. All factors, such as performance, security, and extensibility is taken care of with the Zend framework, which is the reason why it is one of the latest PHP trends. It is the best choice for mainly enterprise apps, thanks to the numerous components that support authentication along with tools for form validation services, feeds and so on.

Though it is widely used for developing enterprise level apps, it might not be the best suit for the rapid app development process. It offers the Zend Studio IDE, which helps to ease a developer’s job.

7. Fuel PHP

This is one of the most modern and highly trending PHP frameworks. It is modular, extensible and MVC PHP framework that brings HMVC architecture into the bigger picture. The ORM support is highly powerful and lightweight with a satisfactory authentication framework, security enhancement, and template parsing. It has a strong community support and is always undergoing development. It is fully object-oriented. Visit Fuel PHP for downloading it.

8. Slim

Inspired by Sinatra from Ruby, Slim is another minimal micro framework. It comes with a number of in-built standards, add-on capabilities, including HTTP caching, and URL handling and routing. You can use it to create both RESTful API and other apps. It is well-documented.

9. Phpixie

One of the new frameworks, Phpixie is modular and lightweight. It can be compiled faster and is easy to learn and understand. It comes with a number of tools for help with cryptography, security, and support for MongoDB. It allows for code sharing with the composer.

10. Fat free

Just as the name suggests, Fat free is free of fats. This is one of the most popular and trending PHP micro frameworks that comes with a number of packages. It comes with features, such as data validation, CSS compression, unit testing, image processing, Open ID and others. It supports both SQL and NoSQL databases, supporting the development of web apps with ease.

11. Aura

It is a set of decoupling libraries that can be used for developing basic apps. These self-contained libraries can be easily integrated with any projects and the best part of these libraries is that they have no dependencies. All the libraries are flexible, compliant and well documented. Visit Aura to download.

12. Yii

One of the fast and secluded PHP frameworks, Yii is trending these days. This framework has a component bundle that makes it lightweight and more proficient.

These are some of the ongoing trends in PHP and believed to continue in the upcoming years as per expert views. But let us wait and see what lies ahead of the New Year 2020.

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