Symfony vs. Zend framework

           Framework provides better security, code redundancy, MVC, better Templating to our web applications. Here is difference between the most powerful and popular frameworks Symfony and Zend released on www.symfonydriven.com .

           In fact Zend and Symfony frameworks are amazingly different. Nevertheless they both are called “framework”.

In Zend there are a wide range of functions providing improved interfaces to the challenging tasks web developers face with daily. The main feature of Zend is that you should pick out libraries on your own. There is no sole specific approach to do things.

There are also common features between these two frameworks. They are both PHP5-native, heavily object-oriented and both apply the front controller model.

As opposed to Symfony Zend framework does not use much code generation and its configuration is situated in the front controller. Symfony’s directory structure is required and created along with modules while in Zend it is not required to create command-line modules.

·         Getting Started

Symfony is more suitable for beginners. There are tons of guides provided by both the communities and the authors. Zend does not actually have the same support and its documentation is aimed at proficient users.

·         Unit Testing

As for unit testing Symfony has an integrated support for it, whereas Zend does not though every component of the framework requires unit testing.

·         Templating

In Zend templating cannot be called mature compared to Symfony’s one which is immensely mature using caching for quick delivery of the content. Using layout scripts one has the ability to customize the templates in Symfony as much as he wants.

·         Plugins

In the wiki community extension community and extensive plugin belong to Symfony framework while Zend does not have none of them. Remember that one can always pull in the functionality of Zend framework with Symfony with the help of Zend plugin for Symfony.

·         Database Modules

If users of Zend can use the only database manager that is ActiveRecord model, Symfony users are allowed to plug in any database manager.

·         Conclusion

Symfony is definitely more mature and feature complete than Zend is. A developer can evaluate the use of Symfony while working in a group of developers when he can always get advice, where to find this or that thing.

Zend framework increasingly coincides with initial goal of PHP which is creation of a loose structure which one can easily get into and develop in and should not learn a huge number of structures and commands unless setting them up. The Zend framework is more suitable for professional training