Top PHP Framework List for Freelancers in 2022

PHP is the most used web language on the web. So it has many rapid application development frameworks, also known as web frameworks. These frameworks have revolutionized programming in PHP.

They offer so much more than just a way to reuse the code. Some of each framework’s salient features include MVC architecture, security, scalability, ease of database handling, security with database connectivity, caching, etc.

Because the frameworks are free and opensource, the adaption is faster, making the community of developers working with the framework grow at a much faster rate. So getting help on any issue for the framework is much easier over the Internet.

On top of it, they also provide tutorials and documentation to make the onboarding framework much easier.

Also Read: 7 Ways College Student Can Make Money Programming Remotely.

As the new frameworks are being developed, the old frameworks lose their popularity if they don’t keep pace. The same is seen in Google Trends.

Being a PHP developer for a decade, I have dealt with most of them in some form or the other. Here are the most popular PHP Frameworks.

1. Laravel

Laravel has taken the PHP programming world by surprise with its ever-increasing popularity.

As a freelancer, the choice of programming should be based on its popularity and competition. Laravel is one such opportunity for PHP developers where the popularity is on the rise, and the competition isn’t as fierce.  It is one of my PHP framework choices for any new freelancer looking to get in PHP and want to explore frameworks.

Here is a course on Laravel by Edwin Diaz, “PHP with Laravel for beginners – Become a Master in Laravel,” which I have recommended to many of my friends and colleague who wanted to get started programming in PHP with Laravel.

2. CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework, and yet it doesn’t too much overhead. The reason for its popularity is its simplicity with a lightweight footprint.

CodeIgniter 4 is in the alpha stage for quite some time now, but even the CodeIgniter 3 is a major enhancement over version 2.

Here is a “PHP MVC Framework CodeIgniter Tutorial for Beginners” on Udemy.

3. Symfony

Google trends indicate there is not much of a difference in the popularity of CodeIgniter and Symfony. The best part of the Symfony framework is it isn’t only a framework out of the box but also provides components and reusable PHP libraries to get started building the skeleton of an application even faster.

The components and used by many CMSes. As an example, Laravel uses many Symfony components.

4. CakePHP

CakePHP has lost some of its popularity to Symfony and CodeIgniter, but it is still one of the popular frameworks that make building websites simpler, faster, and require less code to write.

The best place to start learning CakePHP is from the official CookBook available at CakePHP.org.

5. YII

The name Yii Framework is an acronym of ‘Yes It Is.’ It is a powerful component-based PHP framework for large-scale web applications. The best part of the Yii framework is that they have hundreds of extensions (both by the Yii Official team and user-contributed extensions) that make the YII framework really popular among its community.

The community is growing really fast, and it can be one of those frameworks that have a very high potential to grow.

Here is the Beginning YII course on Udemy.

6. Phalcon

Phalcon is a relatively new framework but gaining popularity because it is a full-stack PHP framework delivered as a C-extension. It has gain popularity in a concise span of time because of its focus on high performance.

7. Zend Framework

Zend Framework 3 is gaining popularity as they have made a significant performance improvement. It runs 4x faster than version Zend Framework 2. Zend framework is popular among freelancers, but Zend certifications are a must when applying for many PHP jobs.