Survey: Which PHP Frameworks Are Actually Used in Production in 2024

Survey: Which PHP Frameworks Are Actually Used in Production

The PHP ecosystem continues to be one of the most in-demand in web development. Despite the growing popularity of Go, Rust, and other languages, PHP holds its ground firmly in the areas of CMS, CRM, and corporate portals. But which framework is being chosen today for production projects? To answer this question, we analyzed data from a survey of 1500 PHP developers from Russia and the CIS countries, conducted in September 2024 on specialized forums and Telegram communities.

Survey Methodology

Respondents were asked to indicate the main framework used in their current project (production environment). Only one option could be selected. Participants were backend developers with at least 2 years of experience. The results were distributed as follows:

• Laravel — 52%
• Symfony — 24%
• Yii2 — 12%
• Phalcon — 4%
• CakePHP — 3%
• Others (Zend, Slim, CodeIgniter) — 5%

Why is Laravel the Undisputed Leader?

More than half of the respondents named Laravel as their primary tool. The main reasons are its developed ecosystem (Forge, Vapor, Horizon), built-in Eloquent ORM, and extensive documentation. Laravel is especially popular for developing SaaS platforms, marketplaces, and API services. Additionally, the community releases a huge number of packages, which speeds up development significantly.

Symfony: The Choice of the Enterprise Sector

A quarter of respondents use Symfony. This framework is traditionally preferred in large companies where requirements for scalability, security, and long-term support (LTS) are critical. Symfony is often chosen for developing corporate ERP systems, government service portals, and banking applications. Surprisingly, 8% of respondents noted that they use Symfony together with API Platform to create REST APIs.

Yii2 and Phalcon: Niche Scenarios

Yii2 remains popular among developers who maintain legacy systems or create high-load projects — its performance is still considered a benchmark. Phalcon, despite its low percentage (4%), is gaining traction in projects where speed is important: the extension is written in C, providing a performance gain of up to 30% compared to alternatives.

What About Microframeworks?

Interestingly, Slim and Lumen (the micro version of Laravel) together scored less than 2%. This confirms a trend: developers prefer full-featured solutions even for microservices, to avoid creating unnecessary infrastructure. However, they are still used for simple APIs and lightweight integrations.

Forecasts and Conclusions

The survey showed that the market for PHP frameworks in production environments has stabilized. Laravel continues to dominate, but Symfony firmly holds the enterprise niche. Yii2 and Phalcon remain the choice of professionals who need maximum performance without compromise. If you are just starting to learn PHP for commercial development — bet on Laravel or Symfony. They will definitely not lose relevance in the next 3–5 years.

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