INFO:

Kohana is basically Codeigniter on steroids (I’m sure I’m not the first person who has said that). Codeigniter, which I’ll discuss further on, is a fantastic framework. However, Kohana is modular which means you can quickly “bolt” parts onto your applications. The code is also slicker and more compact than with Codeigniter. On paper it has everything going for it!

Personally speaking, I wanted this to be my framework of choice, and I wanted it to be number one on this list, but alas, Kohana has one major drawback which – coming to think of it – is virtually the opposite scenario that we see with CakePHP. Kohana’s community is small, elite (perhaps I ought to say ‘elitist’) and somewhat non contributing.

Now, before anyone from the Kohana community comes along and shoots me down in flames for saying that, let me just say in my defence these three words – NO KOHANA MANUAL!

Yes indeed – as I write there is no manual for the Kohana framework. There is merely a partial manual which nobody from the community seems to be willing or able to finish. So, if you want to do even basic things like read and display database information using a model, then the basic vibe is – go figure it out yourself and if you can’t figure it out, tough luck!

I hope the Kohana community get their act together and starts behaving in a somewhat less elitist manner. Until that day comes, they are forth place. As far as I can tell, however, it’s a really great and powerful framework.

PROS:
Fast page loads
Modular
Similar to Codeigniter (which is considered to be one of the easiest frameworks to learn)

CONS:
No manual
Lack of support
Small, non vocal community

3rd place