Comments on: PHP MVC Framework Performance – Part 1

By: admin

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:29:39 +0000

Writing simple procedural PHP without includes, pooled DB connections, etc only works well when you are writing something very simple. In that case there is not really a need for a framework. However the moment you get into a complex application you really get to appreciate what a framework has to offer. If you just need to write a Hello World app or something very simple then just use straight PHP but if you are writing a real application with the complexities that it brings then its stupid to use straight PHP without a framework. You either have to come up with some sort of a framework yourself (more efficient code generally as you only need to do things one way, but takes a long time and lots of expertise) OR you can use an existing framework like Zend, Yii, Codeigniter or others.

By: George

George — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:10:33 +0000

I prefer to use simple PHP as it’s the fastest without any caching, or making exceptions into rules. I do ONE database connection per page, and try to minimize my requires as it’s pointless to have a require_once if you ONLY use the module / pagelet ONLY once throughout your website.

I also remember when PHP was a simple language that didn’t require a framework. There was nothing wrong with it being procedural. We keep forgetting that a web page is an island. Request comes in, php renders stuff into html using the database, and then the page is done and pushed back to the client. It’s really simple. Zen is a bit overkill.

Always remember the rule of keeping it simple (KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid). No reason to complicate code. Keep it well documented and in an logical order and your team will thank you.

By: tonydspaniard

tonydspaniard — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:20:45 +0000

If the benchmarks are done with Yii 1.0.2, then forget those benchmarks and make sure the benchmarks you look at are properly done…

By: admin

admin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:12:50 +0000

PHP 5.3 support could be a bit of an issue but as I said before you really need to look at other factors such as community, documentation and so on. Symfony2 is probably not a bad choice but I personally prefer Zend and Yii.

By: MJ

MJ — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:41:05 +0000

Do you guys have any insights on Prad, Lithium and Symfony2 (been two weeks after the stable release)?

I am in the process of chosing right now and trying every FW is a bit time-expensive. Symfony2 screams for APC right out of the box and my shared hosting solution does not provide currently

*eagerly awaiting PHP 5.4*

By: admin

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:17:11 +0000

I had had a bit of a look at that Communities Comparison and I don’t think that it’s right by any means. I’m certain Symfony has a much smaller user base than either Codeigniter or Zend and the number of watchers and forks means absolutely nothing. I for one don’t do either and yet I use Zend, Yii and Codeigniter.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:14:41 +0000

Yes, communities are a very important aspect of any open source project including the PHP Frameworks. That actually weighed heavily on my decision of firstly going with an existing framework rather than rolling one myself (even though I would certainly be able to come up with something more efficient for my needs than any generic framework) and secondly chossing Yii, Zend and Codeigniter as front runners. I think ultimately, the architectural quality of the framework, the documentation and the community are among the most important things with a framework.

By: Tobias Sjösten

Tobias Sjösten — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:32:29 +0000

I think something equally important when picking a framework for long term investment is its community. This is sadly often an overlooked aspect. To get an overview I wrote up a comparison between the communities between the top PHP frameworks.

http://vvv.tobiassjosten.net/php/communities-comparison-for-php-frameworks

Do you consider the frameworks’ communities when choosing one for your next project?

By: admin

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:59:29 +0000

Perhaps Symfony 2 is faster, but at the time of writing it wasn’t even in production. There are many others who have done performance tests on Symfony 1.4 and found it not to perform all that great, so not much point me repeating the tests.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:27:55 +0000

You state: “I didn’t bother testing Cake PHP or Symfony as it’s well know that they are even slower than Zend Framework.”

The problem is that Symfony is MUCH faster than ZF, by leaps and bounds. It would be good to run the tests before throwing out unsupported statements. It would make the rest of your statements have legitimacy.