INFO:
If we were ranking all of the PHP frameworks in terms of which one gives you the best employment opportunities then Zend would be first, hands down. If we were placing a bet on which framework would have the most longevity then Zend would surely be our safest bet.
Built by the makers of PHP, Zend is currently the PHP framework of choice for big business. Like CakePHP, it comes packed with tonnes of advanced features, plugins and free optional downloads.
Personally speaking, I haven’t spent a great deal of time using Zend. However, I have a close friend who swears by Zend and has used it to build some absolutely fantastic web applications. As far as I can tell, Zend has pretty much everything you could hope to find in a good PHP framework. It’s powerful, fast and scalable. The demand for Zend developers is immense and knowing how to use Zend is like having a guarantee that you’ll never be out of work.
One of the biggest, though seldom discussed, advantages of Zend is on the IDE front. Users of Zend can enjoy all sorts of auto complete functionality (with software packages like Eclipse) that those of us using other frameworks can only dream of.
Sadly, for me, Zend has a couple of drawbacks. One of which is the somewhat commercialised atmosphere that seems to swamp all things Zend. For instance, the moment you visit the Zend homepage they try to sell you stuff. Expensive stuff. Sure, you can go down the freebie road, like most frameworks. However, if you want to take advantage of the best that Zend has to offer then you’d better have deep pockets.
I also find it disturbing and somewhat perplexing how silent and, for want of a better work, dormant the Zend community seems to be. For example, the last time I checked on YouTube there was only a tiny handful of tutorials on the subject of Zend – all of which were conducted by a guy who sounded disturbingly like Borat!
As far as I can tell, the makers of Zend have been dragged into the open source world kicking and screaming. For this reason, in spite of a range of impressive features and specifications, I have Zend in 3rd place.
PROS:
Zend is currently the PHP framework of choice for big business
Expert Zend developers usually enjoy outstanding employment opportunities
Being built by the guardians of PHP virtually guarantees that Zend is here to stay
CONS:
Users of Zend can expect to receive a tidal wave of sales pitches from the makers of Zend
Zends users need to purchase (very!) expensive add ons to get the best from Zend
Severe lack of community generated tutorials
