Since most companies are taking their business online, it becomes imperative to have a well-designed and intuitive website in today’s competitive business world. So, how do you ensure that your website is responsive and attracts visitors regularly? Most developers rely on a combination of programming languages to design and build websites. Some of the most popular scripting and high-level languages used are Java, HTML, Python, JavaScript, Ruby and most importantly PHP. Being open-source, easy to use and extremely flexible, PHP is one of the most widely used languages to build websites, so much so that almost 80% of the world’s websites rely on it! So, what are PHP frameworks, why do we need them and which is the best one? Here’s a look at everything you need to know regarding PHP frameworks and the best ones around.
What are PHP Frameworks?
When it comes to software development, Framework is any library of useful files that include basic functionalities and widgets which help you create more complex applications. Hence, since it already contains basic functions, developers can make use of these snippets of code as and when required. This makes it easier for them to create large projects, as it provides them with a solid foundation. Since starting from scratch takes a lot more effort, having such a platform cuts development time by a large margin, while also making the entire process more efficient and productive.
Why Use PHP Frameworks?
Top PHP development companies in India, such as Xornor Technologies believe that the ever-changing environment of web design makes it difficult for developers to stay updated and relevant. Lines of code that could solve issues a few years ago may not be able to keep up with the complex coding problems of today. Therefore, inflexibility and lack of scalability are major issues that affect web development. As the complexity, size and processing capabilities of websites increase as the years go by, developers need to utilize suitable flexible platforms to build their website on, to ensure scalability. This is where PHP Frameworks come into the picture. Here’s why more and more developers are turning to PHP frameworks to make their websites more responsive and intuitive.
- Reduce workload when working on large projects
- Configure coding functionalities with ease
- Helps in recreating and re-using snippets of code
- Better efficiency and productivity
- Provides you with a solid foundation to develop your website or application on
- Easier to organize, group and reuse lines of code
- Ensures easier maintenance and upkeep
- Makes it easier to standardize operations
- Improves capacity to debug
- Improves the flexibility and scalability of the project
- Shorter development time and ensures a more responsive design
Should You Go for a Top PHP Development Company?
Since having a responsive website is an integral part of any company’s digital growth, it is always better to approach professionals when it comes to web design. Top PHP development companies in India, like Xornor Technologies, will be able to provide exemplary support, and will also help with site updation, maintenance, and upkeep. Since developing a website from scratch, requires a lot of effort, talent, and practice, to ensure that you obtain a good website that will ensure better engagement and customer conversion, make sure you seek help from PHP development companies if you do not have a dedicated web design team.
How to Choose the Right Framework
Since a Framework is the foundation of your project, you must make sure that you choose the right one to build your application. Here’s a look at some of the factors you need to consider in order to choose the right framework for yourself.
- The extent of documentation available
- Ease of scalability
- Flexibility in using
- User-friendliness of the platform
- Security features it provides
- Support of community involved
- Functionalities included
- Modular nature
- Stability of the platform
Top PHP Frameworks 2020
Laravel
- An open-source framework that supports MVC architecture and modeling
- Helps users segregate, organize and handle bits and pieces of code effectively
- Provides extensive documentation to users
- Since coming out in 2011, the community has tremendously improved its syntax design, which was earlier regarded as its most major flaw
- Can handle complex projects with ease, thanks to huge scalability and flexibility
- Allows users to make use of the dispatch module AfterResponse(), which helps you use code by bypassing the queue system
- Has its own Command-Line Interface, called Artisan, which makes it easy to schedule tasks
- Adept security features and functions
- Offers the capability of Object Mapping, which helps with creating database queries without using SQL code
- Most suitable for large B2B communication applications and websites
CodeIgniter
- One of the best frameworks for beginners
- Has a very small footprint, amounting to as little as 2 MB
- Simple and elegant documentation
- Comes with an efficient toolkit and several configured modules that make it easy to create more advanced applications
- Super-fast but light-weight at the same time
- Supports the Model View Controller mode of architecture
- Since being developed by EllisLab, this framework has been gaining traction from top PHP development companies in India due to its high functionality and ease of use
- Provides various error-handling tools, which makes debugging easier and less messy
- Generates extremely SEO compatible URLs, which makes it a dynamic yet SEO-friendly framework
- Most suitable for light applications that require fast processing speeds
Yii Framework
- Object-Oriented Programming framework that works on the Do Not Repeat Yourself methodology
- Considered one of the oldest PHP frameworks developed, and hence has extensive documentation
- Integrates itself with AJAX and Query with ease
- Quick loading times and faster processing speed
- Extremely easy to install and run
- Comes with an in-built code generator, called Gii, which makes it very extensible and scalable
- Allows for rapid and fast-paced development of code
- Contains several packages and security features
- Perfect for large-scale enterprise applications and large projects
Zend Framework
- Once again, this is an Object-Oriented Programming framework
- Contains a very user-friendly interface
- Highly extensible and scalable due to the feature of inheritance
- Works on the Agile model of architecture
- Comes with a variety of tools and components which makes customization easy
- Provides a drag-and-drop editor which makes it easier than ever before to code large applications
- Quite complicated and hence, not preferable if you are a beginner with regards to coding in PHP
- The interface works on a component-based methodology and supports MVC architecture
- Easy integration with extensive libraries of code to improve functionality
FuelPHP
- This platform came out with Laravel in 2011 and has since improved drastically since then
- Supports both MVC and HMVC architecture
- Comes with an advanced URL routing and caching system
- Extremely robust and secure with regards to features
- Provides extensive URL filtering capabilities
- Suitable for applications that require high-security and complexity