Know Why The PHP Micro Frameworks Are Rising Now

As everyone knows, PHP is a leading web development language used by millions of developers around the world for projects of almost every niche. It is dominating the web development market since it has been launched twenty years back. PHP would have been the first web development language for many as it helped them learn many valuable tricks. Many refuse to use PHP as they find it blunt, but still, PHP stands as the top priority for every web project. PHP has multiple and multi-level frameworks, and they are classified into the following

• Micro frameworks
• Package-based frameworks
• Full-stack frameworks

These packages are not intended to alter the application architecture rather they are more focused on performing a limited number of tasks. Before choosing a framework, test coverage and testing ability has to be concentrated as it will the most important part of developing websites and web applications using PHP.

PHP Micro Framework:

PHP micro frameworks are minimalistic web frameworks used only to perform a particular task as it is not like the fullstack frameworks that offer everything to develop fully functional websites or web applications. Fullstack frameworks are the best for handling the complex and extensive website, and when it comes to developing simple projects, the fullstack framework didn’t as it was little complicated. This is where the micro frameworks took the call. They helped in developing simple websites and also few specific use cases. It provided faster-developing schemes and also improved quality testing.

Comparing Fullstack Frameworks with Micro Frameworks:

Direct to the point, fullstack frameworks allow the developers to do a complete task i.e. from interfacing with the user to the data store. Micro frameworks don’t include few of the major components of fullstack framework and here are some

• Input validation
• Roles, accounts, and authentication
• Web template engine
• Database attractions

For example, fullstack frameworks are like Hummers used for off-roading challenges as it can face any difficulties, and micro frameworks are like the taxis in the city. They can only be used for simple tasks like transportation. The following are few key points on how to choose between micro frameworks and fullstack frameworks.

• Micro frameworks are used for simple and easy web projects while the fullstack frameworks act as an all-in-one framework, but it is not useful when it comes to simple projects.
• Fullstack frameworks don’t offer any flexibility whereas the micro frameworks have many flexible options.
• Micro frameworks don’t have many libraries, structures and helpers as that of the fullstack frameworks.

Top Three Popular Micro Frameworks:

Almost 80% of the servers connected to the internet uses PHP code in one way or the other, the need for PHP frameworks has never gone down as they are accessible and useful. Here are some of the most popular and programmer’s favorite PHP Micro Frameworks that are useful

1. Slim:
   One of the most popular and widely used PHP micro frameworks is Slim. Slim made it to the top 15 PHP frameworks listed by SitePoint last year as it has over 960,000 installs as of 2015. The most attractive features of this micro framework are that it has a powerful router, helper methods for easy caching, request and response abstractions, session support and much more.
2. Lumen:
   Lumen is the child from the house of the Laravel developers. For the programmers experienced in Laravel, Lumen will be an easy micro framework. It allows the developers to many of the Laravel components like middleware, caching, validation, service container and much more. Lumen was developed by Taylor Otwell in 2014.
3. Phalcon micro framework:
   This is the micro-stack version of the fullstack Phalcon framework. As the fullstack version is making heads turn in the PHP community, without any surprise, Phalcon micro stack is one of the widely trusted and used PHP micro framework. As it bigger brother, Phalcon micro framework is the fastest available micro stack available in the market.

Since the increase in the website and web applications, there arises a need for many simple website developments. This is the main reason behind the rise in the micro-stack framework, and the choice depends on what project it is going to help.