PHP Frameworks - Choosing Between Symfony and Yii

The features, libraries, and utility modules provided by PHP frameworks help developers to speed up web application development. The developers also have option to use open source PHP frameworks to build web applications rapidly without increasing project overheads. Both Symfony and Yii are open source PHP frameworks. Both Symfony and Yii are also used widely by modern web developers.

Symfony is designed as a collection of reusable PHP components. It enables developers to simplify web application development and maintenance by choosing from 30 standalone components. On the other hand, Yii simplifies web application development by providing features like MVC, caching, scaffolding, authentication, role-based access, and testing. It further enables programmers to create custom web applications by following 3 simple steps.

Hence, both Symfony and Yii come with features to help developers build a variety of web applications rapidly. But the two frameworks differ from each other in terms of design, features, and performance. The web developers must understand major differences between Symfony and Yii to choose the right PHP framework for their project. Also, they must keep in mind the precise needs of each project while comparing the popular PHP frameworks.

Understanding Important Differences between Symfony and Yii

Standalone Components

Unlike Yii, Symfony is designed as a collection on reusable and standalone collections. It allows developers to choose from 30 standalone components based on the precise needs of each project. Hence, the developers can speed up web application development by availing components like asset, config, console, debug, finder, form, routing, security, templating and validator. They can further use the standalone components independent of Symfony.

Full-Stack Framework

Unlike Symfony, Yii is designed as a full-stack web framework. It comes with features to speed up development of both front-end and back-end of a web application. Also, it simplifies web application development by providing features like caching, testing, scaffolding, authentication, and role-based access control. Yii further allows programmers to work with multiple template systems and receive user input efficiently through forms.

MVC Programming Paradigm

Yii simplifies web application development and maintenance by supporting helper model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. The developers can take advantage of MVS design to build complex web applications rapidly by keeping their business logic and user interface layers separated. On the other hand, Symfony does not claim to be a MVC framework. But it allows developers to simplify web application development and maintenance using standalone components.

Performing Repetitive Tasks

Often web developers opt for a PHP framework that enables them to perform repetitive tasks efficiently. In comparison to Symfony, Yii enables programmers to perform repetitive tasks more efficiently. It further makes it easier for programmers to create elements like forms, active record classes, controller, and new classes for controllers by providing a special code generation module. – Gii.

Templating System

Web developers take advantage of the template engines provided by the PHP frameworks to write and maintain front-end code efficiently.  Symfony requires developers to use Twig. As a modern template engine, Twig helps Symfony programmers to keep the front-end code clean and concise. On the other hand, Yii supports several third-party templating engines including Twig. Hence, the users have option to choose from multiple templating engines while developing web applications with Yii.

Database Support

Both Symfony and Yii allows web developers to work with a number of popular SQL and NoSQL databases including MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft BI, PostgreSQL, and MangoDB. But symphony supports more databases than Yii. It enables developers to work with databases like Apache Jackrabbit, CouchDB, DynamoDB, GemFire, GraphDB, MemBase, and MemCacheDB.

Testing

Both PHP frameworks help developers to test the web application elaborately. Symfony 2 comes with integrated PHPUnit library. The developers can use PHPUnit to run all tests with a single command. On the other hand, Yii enables programmers to perform acceptance testing with Codeception. However, the developers have to install Codeception globally and configure it properly to perform acceptance testing efficiently.

Performance

Yii is considered to be faster than other PHP frameworks including Symfony. However, the developers can boost the speed and performance of Symfony by using it properly. According to PHP framework benchmark, Yii2 processes 410.08 requests per second, whereas Symfony 3 processes 131.50 requests per second. Hence, Yii2 is processed more requests per second than Symfony 3.

Usage

Both Yii and Symfony can be used for development of large and complex web applications. But many programmers prefer Symfony to Yii while developing large websites. Yii lacks the built-in extensions provided by other modern PHP frameworks. Symfony makes it easier for programmers to manage all aspects of the web application efficiently, while protecting it from varying security threats. Also, Symfony is considered to be more scalable than other Yii.

On the whole, both Yii and Symfony have their own pros and cons. A web developer must keep the pros and cons in mind while comparing the widely used PHP frameworks. However, it is also important for the programmers to evaluate Symfony and Yii based on precise needs of each project.