What is Symfony?

Symfony is a PHP framework, that is, a set of basic components that allows you to create Internet resources of almost any complexity and direction: from blogs and corporate websites to Internet portals and other systems used to meet the internal needs of enterprises, for example, CRM systems and other high-loaded solutions.

Symfony is open source software and it is available for free download and commercial use.

When can Symfony be used?

Due to the wide range of possibilities and the high barriers of entry, it makes sense to use Symfony for complex and/or high-loaded projects of any direction, to automate business processes. It is recommended to combine such tools with a sufficient level of production culture (using repositories, the approach of continuous integration), including system administration. In other cases, it makes sense to turn to specialized CMS-systems. CMS – content management system, for example: Magento, OpenCart, WordPress, etc.

How to determine if web development requires using a framework or CMS

The choice of platform is carried out by the performer, based on the technical task. For a general understanding of choosing one solution or another, we present several theses:

• In most cases, to meet the needs of small businesses on the trading platform on the Internet, it is enough to use simple specialized platforms. So, if we are talking about an online store, we recommend using systems from the OpenCart series and preferably with the least amount of changes in the initial period of a project’s life. This is due to the speed of launching the project, correctness and stability of its operation, as well as obtaining and analyzing information about the effectiveness of a tool used on the website. Further improvement is recommended to conduct only on the basis of market research and then to test again.

• An aspiring entrepreneur should pay attention to the fact that, one way or another, the website will have to be improved over time, and upon reaching a certain amount of improvements, even develop a completely new product.

• Websites development on the basis of the framework requires more time and financial investments than development on the basis of CMS.

• Development on the basis of the framework should be carried out in the case, if the possibilities of the CMS are exhausted or their insufficiency is obvious, based on the technical task.