1. Choose a PHP Framework for Your Next
Project

2.  What's the primary focus of your application?
 What will your hosting environment be?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
developer(s)?

4.  If you still need to write PHP4 compatible code, CakePHP is a
great option.
 This PHP 4 & 5 MVC framework is one of the oldest and most
popular on our list.
 Cake PHP has built up a reputation as a formidable and
capable framework. It also has many avenues for support
(groups, message boards, IRC) and excellent tutorials.
 There are also built-in tools for unit testing, XML-RPC and
feed parsing for integration with web services as well as
scaffolding for rapid prototyping.

5.  The Zend Framework is for more experienced developers and
those building enterprise-level applications.
 The framework is highly modular, meaning you can use as
little or as much of the Zend code as you need. Several
libraries can easily be extracted for stand-alone use.
 There is a lot of built-in support for tasks such as integration
with existing web services, localization and extensive unit
testing.
 While the Zend framework may be a large overhead for small
projects, if you're building large-scale applications it is
typically considered the framework of choice.

6.  CodeIgniter is (as of v2.0) a PHP5.2+ MVC framework with a
small footprint and great documentation.
 CodeIgniter is nonetheless flexible and powerful.
 The framework has a large community surrounding it, so it's
fairly easy to find an existing CI library for just about
anything you could dream up.
 CodeIgniter is best suited for content sites and small-to-
medium web applications. You'll likely see a performance
drop with very large numbers, but there is some built-in
caching to help with that.

7.  Symfony is one of the oldest PHP frameworks, and is
designed for enterprise-level web applications.
 For all its power and performance, however, Symfony has a
small footprint and is easy to configure on a variety of PHP
hosting environments.
 Symfony uses command line generators for quick project
setups and automatic code generation, which allow you to get
up and running with your code in very short order.
 It offers internationalization, URL routing, test suites, a robust
templating engine and a powerful plug-in API for extending
Symfony's features, or adding your own.

8.  Kohana began as a fork of CodeIgniter, though it’s much
more than a simple branch off.
 Like CI, Kohana strives to be a lightweight, easy-to-use
framework that performs well for small-to-medium web
applications and custom content management systems.
 Unlike CodeIgniter, Kohana requires PHP 5.3.
 The 5.3 requirement also means less code can accomplish
some of the same tasks with less concern over backwards
comparability.

9.  Yii is a highly modular, high-performance PHP5 framework
designed specifically for developing web applications.
 Yii uses a lot of command line generators and tools to get
you up and running quickly; therefore, it's best used by
people that aren't intimidated by a terminal window.
 It's easy to extend Yii and add in your favorite third-party
libraries.
 Yii also supports templating, themes and widgets, and
includes tools for testing, libraries for internationalization
and web service integration. The automatic code generation
makes it a great framework for rapid development.