Is the back end your core business? Are you looking for a PHP framework that is powerful, well documented and backed by a huge community? Then stop everything and read this article!
Symfony is today the most sought-after PHP framework on the market. And there is nothing surprising about that: it combines performance, flexibility and a remarkable ecosystem.
A 100% French framework
A few lines of history are in order. Symfony was launched in 2005 by a French web agency (SensioLabs, at the time simply called Sensio), which first developed it for its own client projects. Back then, the framework was named Sensio Framework.
The code was later made public, the project was shared with the community and it was renamed Symfony. It went on to enjoy worldwide success: around 8% of live websites use it.
On 5 September 2017, the agency announced that downloads of the framework had passed the one billion mark — more than the entire population of Europe. And growth has not stopped since, with roughly 5 million additional downloads every month.
Note for the English version: these figures date from 2018 and should be refreshed before publication. Symfony has since reached version 7, and the download and market-share statistics quoted here are no longer accurate.
What features does Symfony offer?
Symfony provides a particularly complete toolbox for back-end development:
- A clear separation of concerns thanks to the three-layer MVC pattern (Model, View, Controller).
- Optimised performance, with a built-in cache system.
- Management of friendly URLs, which are more readable for users and better for SEO.
- Cascading configuration handled through YAML files.
- A back-office generator and scaffolding, to build administration interfaces quickly.
- Native internationalisation support for multilingual projects.
- AJAX support.
- An extensible architecture, ready to welcome plugins and bundles.
Who are Symfony’s most notable users?
The first projects built with the framework include Askeet, Delicious and Yahoo! Bookmarks.
Symfony is also used at the heart of many major open-source solutions: Laravel, Drupal 8, Magento and PrestaShop all rely on it.
Notes for the English version: Delicious and Yahoo! Bookmarks no longer exist and should probably be replaced with current examples. The claim about Magento should also be corrected: Magento 2 uses Symfony components, not the full framework.
On the company side, the list is impressive: Auchan, BlaBlaCar, Spotify, Dailymotion and the BBC have all placed their trust in Symfony.
A fine source of French pride, then, for a framework that has become a global standard.
Are you convinced?
