PHP frameworks hand a team routing, request handling, templates and database access so none of it is rebuilt per project.
Nearly every entry here is open source and carries no price, so this guide ranks on licence clarity, who maintains the code, how long each version is supported, and how much the framework makes you adopt at once.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What PHP frameworks software does
A PHP framework is a code library and set of conventions for PHP web applications, supplying routing, middleware, templating, validation and database layers, so developers begin from a working structure.
Setup effort, true cost, data portability, exit options and buyer fit are the five tests, applied in that order to every PHP frameworks tool here. On top of them sits one rule. The top three places are for challengers, which means vendors outside the big names, where the category has any, and the household brands come in from fourth place. Why those five, and why there is no score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Small PHP router and middleware layer built around PSR-7 messages
Ranked #1 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
Josh Lockhart, Andrew Smith, Rob Allen, Pierre Berube and the Slim Framework Team are credited as creators and maintainers. Callbacks bind to HTTP methods and URIs with parameters and pattern matching, and middleware can alter requests and responses.
Any PSR-7 message implementation plugs in. Nothing paid is attached to the project itself, though maintainers work with Tidelift on commercial support. The cost is assembly time: each extra capability is another dependency you pick and keep current.
What stands out
HTTP router
PSR-7 middleware
Tidelift support
Where it costs you
The pages describe routing and middleware only, so database and view layers come from other packages.
Two security advisories sit in the news next to the 4.15.3 release.
Right for
Developers building compact APIs who prefer choosing their own libraries piece by piece
Wrong for
Teams wanting scaffolding, an ORM and templates in one box
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under MIT; no plans listed, community channels, support through a Tidelift subscription
Long-running PHP toolkit with Latte templates and Tracy debugger
Ranked #2 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The licence file in the nette/application repository is the New BSD License with copyright David Grudl. Latte is described as the safest and most intuitive template system, escaping by context.
Tracy handles debugging and a container handles dependency injection. The components target PHP 8. Sponsor and donate links are the only money-related items shown. A team depending on it should ask who else holds commit rights, because the footer names one person.
What stands out
Latte templates
Tracy debugger
DI container
Where it costs you
No current version numbers are listed, so a buyer cannot read a support horizon from the site.
Support is a sponsorship appeal, not a plan with terms.
Right for
Developers who value built-in debugging and template escaping in one coherent toolkit
Wrong for
Buyers needing a contractual support plan or a vendor service agreement
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under the New BSD licence; sponsorship programme, no support plans shown
Community-backed PHP framework whose modules share one API pattern
Ranked #3 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The homepage stats bar lists MIT and open source, and the footer shows copyright from 2019 to 2026. Structure is predictable: controllers take requests, models query data, views draw the interface.
Modules are described as free to install, and money enters only through OpenCollective sponsorship. The honest risk is governance, since the page names a creator and a community but no entity that could be held to a support commitment.
What stands out
Consistent modules
MVC structure
Community backed
Where it costs you
The GitHub repository could not be fetched during checks, so the licence rests on the vendor site only.
No formal maintenance policy is described.
Right for
Solo developers and small teams who want one uniform API across modules
Wrong for
Organisations that need a documented maintenance policy before adoption
Not stated by the vendorNo prices; modules install at no cost, support invited through OpenCollective sponsorship
C-extension framework now moving to a pure-PHP version 6
Ranked #4 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The README states BSD 3-Clause and the team maintains versions 5 and 6 in parallel. Volt compiles templates to plain PHP, and the ORM offers declarative relationships plus PHQL, a database-agnostic query language.
Hosting, consulting and sponsorship are linked but carry no prices. Plan for install friction: PECL releases continue only until PECL is retired or version 5 reaches end of life, so the install method itself is changing underneath you.
What stands out
C extension
Volt templates
PHQL queries
Where it costs you
Version 5 needs an extension, which rules out plain shared hosting.
Version 6 is still a release candidate, so the shared-hosting path is not yet stable.
Right for
Teams on their own servers who want an ORM and templates from one project
Wrong for
Shared-hosting users who need a stable release today
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under BSD-3-Clause; non-profit funded by sponsors, hosting and consulting linked without prices
Convention-led framework with scaffolding and paid CakeDC support
Ranked #5 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
MIT is stated on the homepage and shown in the official repository. Built-in input validation, CSRF protection, form tampering protection and SQL injection prevention are listed as standard.
The framework promotes convention over configuration, which suits scaffolding but means you follow its layout. Commercial help is routed to CakeDC, whose services span building, advising, teaching and auditing code, and none of them shows a price, so budget by asking before you rely on them.
What stands out
Code generation
Scaffolding
CakeDC support
Where it costs you
No support policy or end-of-life dates appear on the pages read.
Paid help exists only through one commercial entity, with no prices listed.
Right for
Teams building database-driven applications quickly from generated code and scaffolding
Wrong for
Buyers who need published end-of-life dates before they commit
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under MIT; paid support sold by CakeDC, no prices shown
Zend Framework continuation under LF Projects, with MVC now security-only
Ranked #6 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
BSD 3-Clause is shown in laminas-mvc and on the site. Components cover dependency injection, event dispatching, input validation and filtering, pagination, navigation and feed handling. A Commercial Vendor Program lists companies that support Laminas projects.
The fair reading is that Mezzio is the forward path and the MVC package is a maintenance commitment, so the useful question is which Laminas packages your project would actually depend on.
What stands out
Mezzio middleware
Zend successor
Security-only MVC
Where it costs you
laminas-mvc receives security fixes only.
The homepage shows no release version or support dates, only a link to a maintenance overview.
Right for
Teams maintaining Zend-era code or building middleware stacks from standard interfaces
Wrong for
Greenfield projects wanting an MVC package that still gains features
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under BSD-3-Clause; commercial vendor directory and donations, no prices
PHP framework with a dated release calendar for each generation
Ranked #7 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The yiisoft/yii2 repository shows BSD-3-Clause. Yii 2.0.50 and later gets security fixes only from 2026-11-23 and ends on 2027-11-23. Yii3 packages are versioned independently under semantic versioning, with major releases at most yearly.
No paid tiers exist on the site, only a partner list for developer help. The calendar is the real asset: it lets a buyer schedule upgrades, but it also shows how little time old installs have left.
What stands out
Dated lifecycles
Yii3 packages
Partner list
Where it costs you
Older lines reach end of life within weeks of this guide.
The homepage lists no features, so evaluation needs the documentation.
Right for
Teams that want support dates written down before they choose
Wrong for
Anyone running Yii 1.1 or early 2.0 releases without an upgrade plan
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under BSD-3-Clause; no paid services listed, partner list and donation links
Near-zero-configuration PHP framework published under CodeIgniter Foundation copyright
Ranked #8 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The footer and the repository agree on MIT. The user guide has introduction, tutorial, how-to and reference material. Security features are named plainly: CSRF and XSS protection, context-sensitive escaping and CSP support added in version 4.
Links lead to the download page, forum, GitHub and Slack and no sponsorship tiers. That keeps cost at zero but leaves support to community channels, which is a trade the buyer should accept knowingly.
What stands out
Little configuration
CSRF and XSS guards
User guide
Where it costs you
No supported-versions list or release policy appears on the user guide page.
The site names no paid edition, so commercial help is not described.
Right for
Small teams wanting a light framework with a documented guide
Wrong for
Buyers who need a published support schedule before adopting
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under MIT; no paid edition or sponsorship tiers shown
Compact framework with a flat-file Jig database and GPL licence
Ranked #9 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The core lives under the f3-factory organisation, and the bcosca repository describes F3 as having a stable enterprise-class architecture. The site lists release 3.9 with 3.8 to 3.5 below it and describes the framework as free to get started with.
No paid services are named. Licence terms are the first thing to review here, because GPL-3.0 differs from the permissive terms that most competing frameworks use.
What stands out
Jig database
GPL-3.0
Template engine
Where it costs you
The site does not state a licence; only the repository does.
The official repository shows no latest release.
Right for
Developers prototyping small sites who like a flat-file database option
Wrong for
Teams whose policy rules out GPL-licensed dependencies in products
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under GPL-3.0 per the repository; no paid services or prices named
Component framework with long-term-support versions and a paid product ring
Ranked #10 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The homepage and the symfony/symfony repository both show MIT. Release rules are described as a strict schedule, extended maintenance for LTS versions and monitored CVEs.
Beyond the framework the site lists SymfonyInsight, Symfony Certification, Upsun for Symfony, Blackfire, SensioLabs services and SymfonyConnect. A buyer gets breadth, at the price of a larger surface to learn and a commercial ecosystem whose offers all sit behind unlisted prices.
What stands out
LTS versions
Full-stack components
Symfony UX
Where it costs you
The LTS and security promises give no version numbers or dates.
The homepage does not say who maintains the code.
Right for
Teams building large applications from reusable components with long-term support versions
Wrong for
Small projects that need only a router and nothing more
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under MIT; paid products around it, none priced on the pages read
Coroutine runtime with built-in HTTP and WebSocket servers
Ranked #11 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Pricing on requestAsia-Pacific
Coroutines, introduced in Swoole 4.0, make synchronous-looking code run asynchronously. Atomic counters, Table, Channel, Lock and inter-process communication are included.
Download offers swoole-cli builds such as v6.2.4 and v6.2.2 with no price shown, and no free plan or trial is named. The homepage states no licence or maintenance policy for the main project, so rely on the repository for licence terms.
What stands out
Coroutines
HTTP/2 server
IPC primitives
Where it costs you
The repository Releases section is empty, so no version is visible there.
It supplies no routing or ORM layer of its own on the pages read.
Right for
Developers adding long-running, concurrent servers to an existing PHP stack today
Wrong for
Teams wanting a conventional page-request framework with routing and ORM
ChinaApache License 2.0 per repository; commercial products listed without prices, donation link
Framework whose pages now stress Laravel Cloud hosting and AI tooling
Ranked #12 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The legal index covers Laravel, Laravel Cloud, Nightwatch, Forge, Vapor, Envoyer and Nova without naming an entity. Cloud has base pricing per organisation with unlimited applications and custom domains, WebSockets and autoscaling.
Laravel Boost is an MCP server for AI-assisted development, alongside a first-party AI SDK. Private Cloud is a dedicated Kubernetes cluster in a private AWS account. The gap is documentation: confirm the licence and the contracting party yourself.
What stands out
Laravel Cloud
Boost MCP server
AWS-hosted
Where it costs you
The framework licence could not be confirmed on the pages fetched.
Laravel Cloud runs on AWS, with private options sold through sales.
Right for
Teams that want first-party hosting and AI tooling attached to their framework
Wrong for
Buyers needing a stated licence and legal owner before approval
Not stated by the vendorCloud hosting billed on usage with Flex and Pro compute plans and spending limits; enterprise by contact; framework licence not confirmed
Interactive-page layer for Laravel, not a standalone PHP framework
Ranked #13 of 13 in Best PHP Frameworks in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The site cites more than 23,000 GitHub stars and over 80 million Composer installs, and gives no version or release status. One attribute syncs a component property with the URL query string.
Flux UI lists a single-project price, an unlimited-project price for one developer and a team price with re-assignable seats, all one-time, with no recurring plan shown. Treat Livewire as a Laravel decision, not a framework comparison.
What stands out
Laravel add-on
wire:model
Flux UI
Where it costs you
It depends on Laravel and cannot replace a PHP framework.
The paid Flux UI components are a separate product with their own pricing.
Right for
Laravel developers wanting reactive screens without writing separate JavaScript by hand
Wrong for
Projects choosing a PHP framework from scratch today
Not stated by the vendorLivewire shows no price; companion Flux UI components sold per project, developer or team
A PHP framework is a code library and set of conventions for PHP web applications, supplying routing, middleware, templating, validation and database layers, so developers begin from a working structure. Products in this area look alike on a feature list, so we would decide these questions first.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
Every vendor here sells by quote, which means any cost comparison starts with a conversation.
02
Ask which country the contract runs through
The vendors on this page are based in 2 countries (Elsewhere 12, Asia-Pacific 1). The country of the contracting company sets which authorities can ask it for your data, whatever the hosting region.
03
Decide if open source matters
10 of these are open source: Slim, Nette, Phalcon, CakePHP, Laminas, Yii, CodeIgniter, Fat-Free Framework, Symfony, Laravel. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
Reading licences across PHP frameworks
Licence text decides what you may ship, so read it in the repository and not on the homepage. Slim, Symfony, CakePHP and CodeIgniter state MIT. Yii, Phalcon and Laminas state BSD-3-Clause, and the Nette repository carries the New BSD licence. Fat-Free Framework shows GPL-3.0 on GitHub while its site states no licence, and Swoole's repository gives Apache License 2.0 where its homepage is silent.
Leaf's licence was seen only on its own site because the GitHub page returned 404, and Laravel's framework licence was not confirmed on the pages read. Different pages giving different answers is normal here, so a procurement note should record the repository address and the date of the check before the framework enters a client contract. That one habit prevents most later disputes about what was actually agreed.
Record the repository URL the licence came from
Compare Fat-Free Framework's GPL-3.0 with your policy
Confirm Laravel's licence yourself before approval
Support dates for Yii, Laminas and CodeIgniter
Support windows differ sharply, and only some vendors publish them. Yii lists dates for each generation: Yii 1.1 ends on 2026-12-31, Yii 2.0.49 and earlier ends on 2026-11-23, and Yii3 runs to 2035-12-31. Laminas states that laminas-mvc is security-only until 31 December 2028. CodeIgniter and CakePHP show current versions but no end-of-life dates on the pages read, and Symfony describes LTS versions without dates.
Phalcon runs versions 5 and 6 in parallel. Ask which line you would install today, then find the date its fixes stop, because a framework without a published date leaves the schedule to guesswork. Also note that security-only maintenance, as with laminas-mvc, is a different promise from active feature work, and the two should not share one risk line in your plan.
Find the end-of-life date of the exact version you install
Treat security-only status as a maintenance mode, not growth
Note which vendors publish no date at all
Hosting needs of Phalcon, Swoole and Slim
Where the code runs narrows the field early. Phalcon 5 is a C extension, so it needs a VPS, cloud or dedicated server, or cPanel with EasyApache 4, while Phalcon 6 is pure PHP 8.1 or later and runs on shared hosting but is still a release candidate. Swoole adds coroutines and its own HTTP and WebSocket servers, which suits long-running processes more than ordinary page requests.
Slim and Leaf describe no such requirement on the pages read. Ask your hosting provider what it permits before choosing, since a framework you cannot install on the agreed server is a cost no licence comparison reveals. Write the hosting constraints down next to the shortlist, because they remove candidates faster than features do, and they are cheap to check before any code is written.
Check whether the framework needs an extension
Confirm the host allows long-running processes for Swoole
Test the pure-PHP route on the target server
Paid services around free PHP frameworks
Most framework code costs nothing, but vendors sell services nearby, and the prices are mostly hidden. CakeDC offers development, consultancy, training and code review for CakePHP. Symfony lists SymfonyInsight, Blackfire, Upsun and training. Slim points to a Tidelift subscription. Laravel Cloud bills on usage after credits, and Flux UI, promoted on the Livewire site, sells one-time component licences.
None of the open source frameworks here shows a price for support, so request a quote before you count on it. Separate the framework, which you can start with today, from the hosting or help you may need in year two. Writing those two budgets as separate lines keeps a zero-cost framework from hiding a real running cost, and it makes a later switch between vendors easier to price.
Ask for a written quote before relying on support
Keep the framework choice apart from the hosting choice
Check whether add-on components are priced separately
What goes wrong most often when buying PHP frameworks software
Choosing a micro framework such as Slim for a project that will need an ORM, templating and auth, then spending weeks wiring packages together.
Starting a new project on laminas-mvc or an old Yii line without checking that its fixes are limited to security or about to end.
Treating Laravel Livewire as an alternative to a PHP framework when it is an add-on layer that depends on Laravel.
Assuming the homepage licence statement covers the code, when Fat-Free Framework, Swoole and Nette state theirs only in the repository.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best PHP frameworks in 2026?
Slim takes first place among the 13 we reviewed. Slim is maintained by a named team under the slimphp organisation and does one job: map URIs and methods to callbacks, then wrap them in middleware. The repository README gives the MIT licence.
Smallness is also the limit, because the pages describe a router and PSR-7 support rather than an ORM or templating, so you assemble those parts yourself. The news lists two security advisories beside the 4.15.3 release.
Which PHP frameworks tools publish their pricing?
0 of the 13, with the pricing model each one publishes:
None of them publish a price.
The remaining 13 sell by quote.
Is there a free PHP frameworks tool?
No. None of the 13 offer a usable free tier.
Where are these PHP frameworks vendors established?
In 2 countries across 2 regions: Elsewhere 12, Asia-Pacific 1.
Second is Nette, which suits Developers who value built-in debugging and template escaping in one coherent toolkit. Third is Leaf, which suits Solo developers and small teams who want one uniform API across modules.
Who should not buy Slim?
Teams wanting scaffolding, an ORM and templates in one box. The pages describe routing and middleware only, so database and view layers come from other packages..
If your PHP frameworks product belongs among these 13, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
