Top Backend Frameworks for Web Development in 2022: PHP Frameworks

We have already discussed Front-End Tools for Efficient Web Development in 2022. Today we are going to touch on the topic of back-end development. It is a well-known truth that while the front-end focuses on the visual perception of the digital product, the back-end concentrates on providing and guaranteeing the cooperation of a user with inner data. Its main aim is to develop the product’s business logic. That’s why demands to backend developers are stricter and include a vast range of skills. They should have in-depth knowledge of programming languages, excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, and a profound understanding of all the nuances of back-end framework operation. The variety of frameworks is diverse, and each developer has their own preferences. Thus, according to the survey, more than 47% of software developers worldwide use Node.js while programming. Other data have shown that, for example, 62% of respondents dreaded using and learning ASP.NET. The question arises, what to choose and what to give preference to in backend development. Our team has prepared a list of the best BACKEND FRAMEWORKS for 2022 based on their accessibility, functionality, and relevance. 

PHP

PHP is a server-side, general-purpose, and cross-platform scripting language created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. Its advantages are vast for web development and include simplicity, high speed, stability, excellent community support, open source, and many available tools. It can be equally used for developing dynamic websites or web applications and performing administrative tasks due to server-side and command-line scriptings. The recent data has shown that the percentage of websites using PHP equals 77%, which allows us to talk about it as one of the most demanded and common. 

To write code, PHP developers often rely on PHP frameworks, which are platforms for creating PHP web applications with code libraries for the most frequently used functions. As shown in the graphic above, Laravel is taking a leading position now.

LARAVEL

General Facts

Laravel is a free and open-source PHP-based framework that uses a wide range of tools and resources to build custom web applications. Taylor Otwell launched it as a substitute for CodeIgniter, the older PHP framework, in 2011. Since then, Laravel has undergone numerous upgrades and improvements and remains one of the most common PHP frameworks among programmers. It follows an MVC (model-view-controller) design pattern and allows reusing available framework elements, making applications look more organized and practical. Its extensive set of features dramatically enhances the web development process, saving time for the project.

Target Projects and Confidence Level 

Laravel is used for various projects starting from low-traffic applications to those that will grow and scale. The list is rather big and includes: 

• small projects that need immediate implementation;
• E-commerce platforms and online stores;
• B2B websites;
• booking applications;
• e-learning platforms;
• blog platforms;
• forum software;
• CRM and CMS applications.

If we look at the companies that have decided to use the Laravel PHP framework as their primary tool or the list of popular products built with Laravel, the list is vast, and many of you have heard about them.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation built its multiple web TV and content production applications with Laravel due to its advanced features and development tools. 

 Pfizer

Pfizer is one of the leading international biopharmaceutical companies that has already been committed to improving the lives of its patients for over 170 years. The company has a large staff of Laravel developers whose main task is to develop and deploy various complex PHP and service-driven apps on its Cloud Development Platform.

The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University

The essential objective of this project is to collect diverse diet and nutrition data provided by health institutions and organizations worldwide. They establish a link between health outcomes and diets by comparing them with medical databases on diseases. Laravel framework perfectly complies with these requirements. 

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates (CEENTA)

The American Medical Group, located in North Carolina, provides otolaryngological and ophthalmological services. Its business website has a wide range of features and operates on Laravel. 

Bonappetour

This community marketplace connects travelers with local home chefs providing an exclusive home-dining experience. It was built with the Laravel framework enabling users to enjoy different features, including messaging, a payment system, and searching for menus and reviews. 

Koel

It is an audio-streaming website, enabling its users to sort, search, and listen to various songs by artists and their albums. After configuring it for scanning and syncing, people can stream music and mark songs as liked or disliked. 

Alison

The world’s largest free e-learning platform is built on Laravel, enabling seamless website sharing across several channels. It provides students with free courses in various fields, such as marketing, IT, or business and its development. The scalability feature of the Laravel PHP framework simplifies the website’s operation and supports the constantly growing community.

Strengths and Weaknesses of The Laravel PHP Framework

Benefits of The Laravel PHP Framework

Eloquent ORM	With Eloquent ORM, Laravel facilitates the developer’s interaction with databases, tables of which have their own “Model.” These Models enable programmers to do various manipulations with tables, such as inserting, deleting, or updating data. They do not require the knowledge of SQL for working with databases anymore.
MVC Architecture	Being based on the design pattern MVC, which separates the model, view, and controller processes, Laravel allows writing code more accurately and clearly, increasing performance and simplifying scalability.
Powerful Templating Engine	Laravel includes an effective templating engine Blade, which, unlike some other PHP templating engines, enables developers to compile templates into plain PHP code and keep them cached until their modification. Its possibility to easily integrate with modern front-end libraries and frameworks also contributes to achieving the best results and meeting all clients’ demands.
Thoroughly Maintained Packages	Laravel’s ready-made packages help to customize various processes for developing applications.  Their list includes more than 850 items, and the ecosystem of the Laravel framework has a considerable number of open-source bundles, among which are Breeze, Horizon, Cashier, Mix, Nova, Telescope, and many others.
Flexibility	Laravel is easy to install and implement due to its adaptability. It enables programmers to extend the framework by writing custom drivers and adding some advanced functionality. The built-in multiple file system, which supports local and cloud storage systems, guarantees moving between them just with the help of a single API, thus delivering seamless processes.
Seamless User Authentication	The current registration and authentication system of the Laravel framework is designed to allow users to register and get authorization through both in-built web forms and social media with the help of OAuth mechanisms. Moreover, developers can quickly adapt or change any parts of these components per the requirements. Users, on their side, are allowed to reset their forgotten password. The application’s authentication configuration file with tangible options enables modifications in the behaviour of authentication services provided by Laravel.
Security	The high level of security makes Laravel one of the best back end frameworks. It protects data from severe vulnerabilities, including  CSRF, XSS attacks, and SQLi. ORM concept and shielding of prohibited HTML tags contribute to it a lot. Outputting the shielded string as plain text eliminates the possibility of executing malicious tags. Besides, a message authentication code for signing values excludes any changes after entry.
Automated Testing	Laravel positions itself as “built with testing in mind.” And it really works. PHPUnit tests are incorporated out of the box. In addition to module tests, the Laravel PHP framework introduces functional testing designed to check the application’s operation on the part of users. It simulates all their actions, for example, filling out and sending a form. Laravel Dusk helps to write end-to-end tests and does not require the installation of JDK or Selenium on the local computer.
Close-Knit Community	Laravel gathers enthusiasts around it, regardless of their experience or education. Their community is diverse and welcomes any member. A person can find Blog, Forum, Laravel News sections as well as Laracasts, streaming endless knowledge, and a Laravel job board connecting jobs with top talented applicants. Such extensive support simplifies the search for developers needed for the project or maintenance of the code relevance and compliance with the latest demands.

Weaknesses of The Laravel PHP Framework

Upgrade Issues	Though updates are frequent, which should be regarded as a positive aspect, Laravel lacks seamless transactions between different versions. Thus, products developed with the previous version can get buggy.
Limited built-in support	Laravel is a lightweight framework which means that it offers minimal inherent support if we compare it with other more heavyweight back end frameworks.
Incomplete documentation	In general, documentation is remarkable and covers many issues. However, it might be better and provide users with information on methods and functions that are open but not described. Also, developers should be careful and always keep track of what version they use to read the relevant online documentation.
Learning Curve	Getting an expert in the Laravel framework is impossible in a day or week. A developer has not just to read the documentation but also experiment and practice much to catch the concept.

SYMFONY 

General Facts

Symfony is an open-source PHP framework for web and console applications designed for developers who prefer a feature-rich but still simple toolkit in their work. Symfony was initially developed by Frenchman Fabien Potencier in 2005 and later maintained by his web development agency, SensioLabs. It has almost everything a developer can expect from a web framework, including an ecosystem of full-featured plugins and other components that speed up building professional and easy-to-maintain web applications. The central conception of the Symfony framework is its modular system and cooperation with Composer, a project manager, which allows assembling a project piece by piece. Developers are allowed to choose modules that they need for a particular project. 

Target Projects and Confidence Level 

Symfony is generally used for developing projects with more than the average level of complexity. It is better to use Symfony while developing industry-standard applications, enterprise, and large-scale applications, customizable marketplaces, applications that need real-time data synchronization, social networks, CRM or PIM, and others. 

Symfony is a popular backend framework many businesses and brands use to build digital products like websites or applications. Let’s examine them in more detail. 

BlaBlaCar

BlaBlaCar is the world’s most influential online service for searching for a fellow traveler uniting more than 100 million members across 22 markets. Being set up in 2006, it has already saved over 2 million tonnes of CO2. The BlaBlaCar team of developers uses Symfony to manage the back-end of their mobile application and website. 

Trivago

Trivago is a metasearch engine used to compare accommodation prices. It works with a huge amount of data represented by offers from various booking websites. Its visitors count dozens of millions, and they visit the resource regularly. It led to heavy traffic, and Trivago’s team opted for Symfony to meet this challenge and provide smooth interaction between users and the website.  

Winnipeg in Focus

The City of Winnipeg Archives’ database, Winnipeg in Focus, contains information about their digital collections and archive descriptions. It has a complicated structure with numerous photos and printed materials. It enables users to search and browse the City of Winnipeg Archives’ collections as well as view digital copies of archival records. 

OpenSky

OpenSky is a social shopping platform connecting people with their friends to find, buy, and share exclusive items. It allows sellers to save time and effort. Its services and goods range is vast, from apparel and accessories to electronics and wellness. 

eRepublik

If you are looking for the most appropriate example of a Symfony-powered online multiplayer game, eRepublik is the best. It is a browser-based online strategy and social network developed by eRepublik Labs and launched in 2008 on a free basis. A person can assume charge, invite the disciples to join their squad, and start a battle. 

GOG.com

GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for DRM-free games and movies. It allows parallel games running on different machines from the same online account and provides sharing games with people without an account on the platform. 

Dailymotion

Dailymotion is a French video-sharing technology platform enabling users to find, watch, and share the most favored videos with their friends. As it includes video material from all over the world, visitors are representatives worldwide. It means massive traffic – more than 40 mil visitors browse it daily. Not to lose the quality of UX, Daylimoon’s developers have used the Spotify framework. 

Strengths and Weaknesses of The Symfony PHP Framework

Benefits of The Symfony Framework

Flexible Architecture	Symfony’s architecture allows developers to build easily-maintainable applications with less effort due to its good organization and painless usage. The structure of the PHP framework is strict and precise, with simple navigation in various codes written by different programmers. The developer can use Symfony components separately and add custom modules without breaking the architecture of the entire product.
Interoperability	Being a crucial feature of many web projects, Symfony’s interoperability guarantees the building of web applications that meet the demands of any business. This framework supports current PHP standards, such as PHPUnit, and enables users to refer to external libraries, including Swiftmailer or Doctrine. It is also possible to use only specific components of the framework, which significantly simplifies the development process.
Expandability	As Symfony framework belongs to the PHP environment, one of its distinguished attributes is the ability to find and use many third-party plug-ins and packages (bundles), which are used to implement core functionalities and add new features to the application. Developers can add them to their projects or share them with other team members. For example, they cover support for all the databases, including MySQL and MongoDB, automation of validation forms and data provided by a user, etc. No matter what server you use, Linux or Windows, you can easily install the framework on it for its stable operation.
Customization	Symfony operates with your convenience and product promotion in mind. That’s why they pay special attention to project customization, designed to satisfy the customer’s unique demands. Symfony’s exceptional customization features comprise:  Full stack: ideal for sophisticated multi-functional products  Brick by brick: for an application that has particular features and picky functions Micro framework: for building an application with certain features composed of bricks used separately where necessary.
Commercial Sustainability	SensioLabs has established itself as a company producing reliable and multifunctional products. They guarantee their support for the majority of versions for under three years and lifelong support for all security issues that developers can face. To help you understand various aspects, the company has prepared special tutorials. If you need a certificate, you can also do it without problems by finding upcoming worldwide conferences.
Community Support	As the official website declares, the Symfony community includes more than 600,000 developers from over 120 countries. With many such followers, Symfony is dedicated to creating a welcoming environment for everybody. Each programmer is welcome to contribute back to Symfony. Its contribution section is divided into subsections – Code and Doc Contributors- where you can either propose changes, report bugs or contribute fixes and new content. You can enter Symfony discussions and ask any questions you like. Symfony Downloads Stats shows that 198 packages are downloaded 20,137,187 times daily.

Weaknesses of The Symfony Framework

Time Consuming	Symfony design patterns are quite complex and need specific architectural knowledge to master them, so the time of launching can be a little bit longer compared to other frameworks. Besides, testing also takes more time due to the necessity to pre-compile the code for multiple uses.
Dependency	When you use the Symfony framework for building a web application, you will need to depend on other technologies rather often. It hampers the developing process to some extent, and there is no complete guarantee that it will not affect the entire project.
Effort-consuming learning	Before starting to master Symfony, a developer must have basic PHP knowledge and an idea of object-oriented programming. Without this basis, a person will get into trouble. Also, statistics show that the entry threshold for Symfony developers is higher than for other PHP frameworks.

Yii 2

General Facts

Yii 2 is a modern, high-efficient, component-based PHP framework with elaborate cashing support explicitly created for developing various web applications. Released in October 2014, it is a thoroughly improved version of Yii, which was presented to the public in December 2008. Designed with PHP beginners in mind, it has become one of the most popular PHP frameworks quickly enough. The significant speed, performance, and flexibility are among its main advantages. Countries such as the USA, China, Germany, and Ukraine are among the top 10 countries that use this PHP framework when developing websites. 

Target Projects and Confidence Level 

Yii2, as its predecessor, is widely used for building large-scale projects that cannot be implemented with simple CMS, such as various business applications or websites and enrolls:

• health applications;
• social networks;
• online stores with complex logic;
• large forums. 

Top industries that use the Yii2 framework include Science and Education, Computer Electronics and Technology, Health, Government and Law, Marketing and Advertising, and Financial Services. Now let’s examine famous companies and projects that prefer this PHP framework in their work.

SkillShare

SkillShare is an online learning platform uniting curious people to explore different topics, from design and photography to freelancing and creative writing. It encourages users to master new skills and achieve set goals. More than 25,000 SkillShare courses focus on the interaction between learners, whose primary goal is to complete a project to acquire the necessary knowledge.

Investopedia, LLC 

Founded in 1999, Investopedia has become one of the primary online sources of financial and investing information. Its editorial team helps newcomers in the world of finance and experienced business people, investors, advisors, financial experts, and various executives to gain and enhance their skills. 

Lenovo Group Limited

Lenovo Group Ltd. is the world’s giant personal computer and other electronic deviceі manufacturer. It is also the biggest provider of improved professional services to enable its clients to be more productive and competitive in the market. In 2021, Lenovo took the leading position among PC world vendors regarding unit shipments, which equaled 84 million PCs, overtaking such giants as HP Inc., Dell, and Apple. 

Bank of America 

Bank of America is one of the top financial institutions in the world, whose main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of various financial services, including investment management, banking activities, and risk-management resources. The clients represent a diverse community, from individuals to government organizations. 

CAIXA 

CAIXA is a Brazilian State Savings Bank specializing in mortgage lending and savings deposit acceptance. Having a rich history, it has always focused on improving the population’s lives by offering high-quality services. It is included in the 100 top of the world’s largest banks.

iRobot  

Being the leading consumer robot company in the world, iRobot takes care of the global community by empowering them with technologies to simplify their routines both inside their homes and outside. According to statistics, in 2021, the company had 14 mln connected customers, which is 44% more compared to the end of 2020.

Blackfriars Group 

The history of the large UK-based insurance broker goes back over 40 years. They embrace personal, commercial, and business insurance. They provide quick and extensive insurance solutions to businesses and individuals within the country and abroad. 

STAY 

Stay is a digital platform designed to improve the interaction between tourists and hotels during their stay. Its clients get easy and pleasant living with optimized sleeping and working conditions and conditions for relaxation. The developers have recently improved the solution by optimizing it for every device. 

Strengths and Weaknesses of The Yii 2 PHP Framework

Benefits of The Yii2 Framework

Adaptability	Yii 2 can be easily adapted to small, medium, and large projects because of many built-in features, allowing developers to build a project in the shortest period. Besides, Yii 2 provides the opportunity to expand and improve the project while working with it.
Cashing	As a highly efficient method of enhancing a web application’s performance, caching lowers the response time and improves the web app’s speed and efficiency. The Yii2 framework supports four caching mechanisms: Data, Fragment, HTTP, and Page Caching. The framework’s cache components include: cDummyCache for facilitating the code that requires checking the cache’s accessibility.  cMemCache that serves as a memory cache for commonly accessed data. cFileCache for storing cached data.
Interaction with Databases	Database Access Objects in Yii2 delivers an object-oriented API to reach relational databases and supports seven databases (MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, CUBRID) out of the box. The Yii2 framework has a migration feature designed to observe any changes in a database due to its migration and is controlled by both a version and the source code. A developer can also significantly reduce the number of executed SQL statements by implementing the Active Record.
Authentication and Authorization	The Yii2 framework is regarded as one of the most secure PHP frameworks handling cooking attacks, cross-site scripting, the flow of data, cross-site request forgery, SQL injections, and others. To reach these goals, the framework supports  Access Control Filter (ACF) used mainly for apps that require simple access control and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) used in large companies to restrict network access for employees based on their roles. One user is allowed to have several parts depending on the tasks.
Extensive Documentation	Yii2 creators took care of the developers by providing a wide range of different documentation, both for those who are just starting their way in Yii2 development and for those who want to improve their knowledge or find an answer to a question that has arisen during their work. Material feed is clear and structured, which significantly facilitates the search for the necessary data.
Easy to Learn	If developers wish to master the Yii2 framework, they can do it without any problems and additional movements. Thanks to its detailed and diverse documentation, including in-depth tutorials for every method, a person can find any data needed for working and improving skills with this framework.
Active Developers Community	The Yii2 support is well organized and supports a variety of sources, including discussion groups, chats, forums, news, and many others. If developers need help or have ideas, they can share their experiences by joining Yii communities. Thematic forums can also provide you with any support regarding any issues. If your English knowledge is not good enough, Yii translators keep the translation of documents and guides into many languages up to date. You do not need to be shy; just ask your questions, and community members will answer them.

Weaknesses of The Yii 2 Framework

The Ajax features	The Yii2 allows developers to revise and change some parts of a page without reloading the page itself with AJAX. However, the Ajax features that the system contains are not so well-compiled, and programmers need additional efforts to perform the coding.
Weak updating	Most developers note update issues as the main weak point of the Yii2 framework. Yii2 does not have updates regularly. The framework’s creators focus on light additions and some minor changes rather than large-scale modifications. Moreover, they rarely update bugs described in detail on forums and GitHub. Thus, the framework does not keep up with modern technologies, which may cause some troubles in the future.
Backend and frontend connection	When we talk about the “backend-frontend” relationships, we mean their too-tight gluing. Many Yii2 widgets instantaneously provide ready-made views. However, many immediately insert scripts into the body of the page, mixing HTML and PHP, which looks bad and is difficult to manage.

Final Remarks

We have discussed PHP frameworks in this part of our article on the best frameworks for web development in 2022. PHP is the best server-side programming language that provides developers with more flexibility and freedom, and PHP frameworks are a development foundation for relaxed and seamless programming. 

Our list of most popular PHP frameworks includes Laravel, Symfony, and Yii2, which have their peculiarities, and strong and weak points. You do not need to search for information from countless sources; our specialists have done it instead of you. We can help you and tell which is the best for your project if you contact us and give your requirements and essential features. 

Stay tuned for our updates and wait for the following parts about top backend frameworks regarding Node.js and Python.