Explore the Ultimate PHP Library Collection: 55 Essential Tools for Developers

1. PHP Websites

PHP The Right Way – a quick reference guide for PHP best practices

2. Dependency Management

Composer / Packagist – a package and dependency manager

Composer Installers – a multi‑framework Composer library installer

pickle – PHP extension installer

Melody – a tool to build one‑file Composer scripts

3. Frameworks

Symfony2 – component‑based framework (SP2)

Zend Framework 2 – component‑based framework (ZF2)

Laravel 5 – elegant PHP web framework (L5)

Aura PHP – component‑based framework

Yii2 – high‑performance framework for large web applications

Nette – component‑based framework

PPI Framework 2 – interactive framework

CakePHP – efficient application development framework (CP)

Phalcon – framework implemented as a C extension

Yaf – C‑extension framework by “Bird”

4. Micro Frameworks

Silex – micro‑framework based on Symfony2 components

Silex Skeleton – project skeleton for Silex

Silex Web Profiler – web debugging toolbar for Silex

Slim – simple micro‑framework

Slim Skeleton – skeleton for Slim

Slim View – custom view collection for Slim

Slim Middleware – custom middleware collection for Slim

SlimMVC‑Skeleton – MVC implementation on top of Slim

Bullet PHP – micro‑framework for building REST APIs

Lumen – micro‑framework based on Laravel

Proton – a micro‑framework for PHP

5. Routers

Fast Route – high‑performance routing library

Route – routing library built on Fast Route

Pux – another high‑performance routing library

Klein – flexible routing library

Macaw – simple, lightweight, fast PHP router

6. Templating

Twig – comprehensive templating language

Twig Cache Extension – fragment caching for Twig

Mustache – PHP implementation of the Mustache templating language

Phly Mustache – another PHP Mustache implementation

MtHaml – PHP implementation of HAML

PHPTAL – PHP implementation of TAL templating

Plates – native PHP template library

Lex – lightweight template parser

7. Static Site Generators

Sculpin – converts Markdown and Twig to static HTML

Phrozn – converts Textile, Markdown and Twig to HTML

8. HTTP

Guzzle – full‑featured HTTP client

Buzz – another HTTP client

Requests – simple HTTP library

HTTPFul – chainable HTTP client

Goutte – simple web scraper

PHP VCR – records and replays HTTP requests

9. Middlewares

Libraries for building application middleware

10. URL

Purl – URL manipulation library

PHP Domain Parser – local suffix parser

Url – simple URL handling library

11. Email

SwiftMailer – mail solution library

PHPMailer – another mail solution library

Fetch – IMAP library

Email Reply Parser – email reply parsing library

Stampie – library for services like SendGrid, PostMark, MailGun, Mandrill

CssToInlineStyles – inline CSS for email templates

Email Validator – lightweight email validation library

12. Files

Gaufrette – abstract layer for file streams

Flysystem – another abstract layer for file streams

Canal – internet media‑type detection library

Apache MIME Types – parser for Apache MIME types

Ferret – MIME detection library

Hoa Mime – another MIME detection library

Lurker – resource tracking library

PHP File Locator – locate files in large projects

PHP FFmpeg – wrapper for FFmpeg video processing

CSV – CSV data handling library

13. Stream

Streamer – simple object‑oriented stream wrapper

14. Dependency Injection

Pimple – small DI container

Auryn – another small DI container

Container – flexible DI container

PHP DI – annotation‑based DI container

Acclimate – common interface for DI containers and service locators

Symfony DI – DI component from Symfony (SF2)

15. Imagery

Imagine – image manipulation library

PHP Image Workshop – another image manipulation library

Intervention Image – image manipulation library

GIF Frame Extractor – extracts frames from GIF animations

GIF Creator – creates GIF animations from multiple images

Image With Text – embeds text into images

Color Extractor – extracts colors from images

Glide – on‑demand image processing library

Image Optimizer – image optimization library

PHPThumb – thumbnail processing library

16. Testing

PHPUnit – unit testing framework

DBUnit – database testing extension for PHPUnit

ParaTest – parallel testing for PHPUnit

PHPSpec – specification‑driven testing

Codeception – full‑stack testing framework

AspectMock – mocking framework for PHPUnit/Codeception

Atoum – simple testing library

Mockery – mocking library for tests

Phake – another mocking library

Prophecy – powerful mocking framework

Faker – fake data generator

Samsui – another fake data generator

Alice – library for generating complex data

Behat – behavior‑driven development (BDD) framework

Pho – another BDD testing framework

Mink – web acceptance testing

HTTP Mock – mock HTTP requests in unit tests

VFS Stream – virtual file system stream wrapper for testing

VFS – virtual file system for testing

Locust – modern load‑testing library (Python based)

Peridot – event‑driven testing framework

17. Continuous Integration

Travis CI – CI platform

SemaphoreCI – CI platform for open‑source and private projects

PHPCI – open‑source CI platform for PHP

Sismo – continuous testing server library

Jenkins – CI platform with PHP support

JoliCi – Docker‑based CI client for PHP development

18. Documentation

Sami – API documentation generator

APIGen – another API documentation generator

PHP Documentor 2 – documentation generator

phpDox – documentation generator for PHP projects (not only API)

19. Security

HTML Purifier – standard HTML filter

RandomLib – random numbers and strings generator

True Random – generates random numbers via www.random.org

SecurityMultiTool – PHP security library

PHPSecLib – pure‑PHP security communication library

TCrypto – simple key‑value encryption store

PHP IDS – structured PHP security layer

PHP SSH – object‑oriented SSH wrapper

IniScan – tool for scanning PHP INI file security

SensioLabs Security Check – Composer dependency security checker

Zed – integrated penetration‑testing tool for web apps

php‑jwt – JSON Web Token library

jose – library for JSON signing and encryption

20. Passwords

Password Compat – compatibility library for PHP 5.5 password functions

phpass – portable password hashing framework

PHP Password Lib – library for generating and verifying passwords

Password Policy – password rule library for PHP and JavaScript

Password Validator – validates and upgrades password hashes

Zxcvbn PHP – PHP implementation of Zxcvbn password strength estimator

GenPhrase – generates secure random passphrases

21. Code Analysis

PHP Parser – PHP written parser for PHP

PHPPHP – PHP implementation of a PHP virtual machine

PHPSandbox – sandbox environment for PHP

Dissect – collection of lexical and syntactic analysis tools

PHP Mess Detector – scans for bugs, sub‑optimal code, unused parameters

PHP Code Sniffer – detects coding standard violations for PHP, CSS, JS

PHPCPD – detects copy‑and‑paste code

PHP Analyser – analyses PHP code for errors

PHP CS Fixer – code‑style fixing library

PHP Manipulator – analyses and modifies PHP source code

PHP Metrics – static measurement library

PHP Refactoring Browser – command‑line tool for refactoring PHP code

UBench – simple micro‑benchmarking library

Athletic – annotation‑based benchmark library

Mondrian – code analysis tool using graph theory

Scrutinizer – web tool for checking PHP code

PHPLOC – fast tool for evaluating PHP project size

PHPCheckstyle – helps enforce specific coding rules

PhpDependencyAnalysis – creates customizable dependency graphs

Code Climate – automated code review

PHP Error – converts standard PHP error messages for debugging

22. Architectural

PHP Option – option type library for PHP

Ruler – stateless rule engine

Finite – simple finite‑state machine for PHP

Compose – functional composition library

Monad PHP – simple monad library

Patchwork – library for redefining user functions

Galapagos – language evolution tool

Design Patterns PHP – library of design‑pattern examples in PHP

Functional PHP – functional programming library

Lib Accessor – library simplifying property access

Iter – iterator primitives using generators

23. Debugging and Profiling

xDebug – debugging and profiling tool for PHP

PHP Debug Bar – debugging toolbar

PHP Console – web debugging console

Barbushin PHP Console – web debugging tool using Chrome

PHPDBG – interactive PHP debugger

Tracy – simple error detection, logging and timing library

Z‑Ray – debugging and performance analysis tool

xHprof – Facebook’s open‑source PHP performance measurement tool

Blackfire.io – low‑overhead code profiler

Kint – debugging and profiling tool

24. Build Tools

Go – simple PHP build tool

Bob – simple project automation tool

Phake – PHP cloning library

Box – tool for building PHAR files

Phing – PHP project build system based on Apache Ant

25. Task Runners

Task – pure‑PHP task runner inspired by Grunt and Gulp

Robo – object‑oriented PHP task runner

Bldr – PHP task runner built on Symfony components

26. Navigation

KnpMenu – menu library

Cartographer – site‑map generation library

27. Asset Management

Assetic – asset management pipeline library

Pipe – another asset management pipeline library

Munee – asset optimization library

JShrink – JavaScript compression library

Puli – library for detecting absolute resource paths

28. Geolocation

GeoCoder – geocoding library

GeoTools – geolocation‑related tools library

PHPGeo – simple geolocation library

GeoJSON – GeoJSON implementation

29. Date and Time

Carbon – simple date‑time API extension

ExpressiveDate – another date‑time API extension

CalendR – calendar management library

30. Event

React – event‑driven, non‑blocking I/O library

Rx.PHP – reactive extensions library

Ratchet – WebSocket library

Hoa WebSocket – another WebSocket library

Elephant.io – another WebSocket library

Hoa EventSource – event‑source library

Evenement – event dispatch library

Event – event package for applications or domains

Cake Event – event dispatch library

Broadway – event‑sourcing and CQRS library

31. Logging

Monolog – comprehensive logging library

KLogger – easy‑to‑use PSR‑3 logger

Analog – micro logging package using closures

32. E‑commerce

OmniPay – multi‑gateway payment processing framework

Payum – abstract payment library

Sylius – open‑source e‑commerce solution

Thelia – another open‑source e‑commerce solution

Money – PHP implementation of Fowler’s Money pattern

Sebastian Money – library for handling monetary values

Swap – exchange‑rate library

33. PDF

Snappy – PDF and image generation library

WKHTMLToPDF – tool converting HTML to PDF

PHPPdf – library converting XML to PDF and images

34. Office

PHPWord – library for handling Word documents

PHPExcel – library for handling Excel documents

PHPPowerPoint – library for handling PPT slides

ExcelAnt – library for operating Excel documents

35. Database

Doctrine – full DBAL and ORM

Doctrine Extensions – collection of Doctrine behaviors

Propel – fast ORM, migration and query library

Eloquent – Laravel 5 ORM (L5)

Baum – nested set implementation for Eloquent

Spot2 – MySQL ORM mapper

RedBean – lightweight, easy‑configuration ORM

Pomm – object model manager for PostgreSQL

ProxyManager – tools for generating proxy objects for data mapping

Cake ORM – object‑relational mapper implementing data‑mapper pattern (CP)

Medoo – lightweight ORM for rapid development

36. Migrations

PHPMig – migration management library

Phinx – database migration management library

Migrations – another migration management library

Doctrine Migrations – migration library for Doctrine

37. NoSQL

MongoQB – query builder for MongoDB

Monga – abstraction library for MongoDB

Predis – fully‑featured Redis library

38. Queue

Pheanstalk – Beanstalkd client library

PHP AMQP – pure‑PHP AMQP library

Thumper – RabbitMQ pattern library

Bernard – abstract library for multiple back‑ends

php‑resque – Redis‑based message queue

Gearman – task distribution system

39. Search

ElasticSearch PHP – official client library for ElasticSearch

Elastica – another ElasticSearch client library

Solarium – client library for Solr

SphinxQL query builder – query library for Sphinx search engine

40. Command Line

Boris – micro PHP REPL

PsySH – another PHP REPL

Pecan – event‑driven, non‑blocking shell

GetOpt – command‑line option parser

OptParse – another command‑line option parser

Commando – simple command‑line option parser

GetOptionKit – command‑line option parser

Cron Expression – library for calculating cron run dates

ShellWrap – simple command‑line wrapper library

Hoa Console – another command‑line library

Shunt – library for parallel command execution on multiple remote machines

Cilex – small framework for building command‑line tools

CLImate – library for colored and formatted output

41. Authentication and Authorization

Sentinel – authentication and authorization framework

Sentinel Social – social‑network authentication library

Opauth – provides OAuth authentication support

OAuth2 Server – OAuth2 authentication server, resource server and client library

OAuth2 Server – OAuth2 server implementation

PHP oAuthLib – another OAuth library

TwitterOAuth – Twitter OAuth library

TwitterSDK – fully tested Twitter SDK

Hawk – Hawk HTTP authentication library

HybridAuth – open‑source social login library

Lock – Access Control Lists (ACL) system library

OAuth 1.0 Client – OAuth 1.0 client library

OAuth 2.0 Client – OAuth 2.0 client library

Sentry – authentication and authorization system

EvaOAuth – unified interface OAuth login PHP library

42. Markup

Decoda – lightweight markup parser

PHP Markdown – Markdown parser

CommonMark PHP – Markdown parser supporting the CommonMark spec

Parsedown – Markdown parser

Ciconia – GitHub‑flavored Markdown parser

Cebe Markdown – fast, extensible Markdown parser

HTML5 PHP – HTML5 parsing and serialization library

Emoji – simple library for handling emojis

43. Strings

ANSI to HTML5 – converts ANSI to HTML5

Patchwork UTF‑8 – portable library for handling UTF‑8 strings

Hoa String – another UTF‑8 string library

Stringy – multibyte‑aware string manipulation library

Color Jizz – library for handling and converting colors

UUID – library for generating UUIDs

Slugify – converts strings to slug format

Urlify – PHP port of Django’s urlify.js

Text – text processing library

SQL Formatter – library for formatting SQL statements

UA Parser – parses User‑Agent strings

Device Detector – another User‑Agent parsing library

Mobile‑Detect – lightweight library for detecting mobile devices (including desktops)

Browser – detects browser environment information

44. Numbers

Numbers PHP – library for handling numbers

Math – library for handling large numbers

ByteUnits – parses, formats and converts byte units between binary and metric systems

PHP Units of Measure – library for converting measurement units

PHP Conversion – another library for converting measurement units

LibPhoneNumber for PHP – PHP implementation of Google’s phone‑number handling system

45. Filtering and Validation

Filterus – simple PHP filtering library

Respect Validate – simple validation library

Valitron – another data validation library

Cake Validation – another data validation library

php‑readability – content analysis algorithm

Upload – library for handling file uploads and validation

DMS Filter – annotation‑based filtering library

MetaYaml – schema validation library supporting YAML, JSON and XML

ISO‑codes – library for validating various ISO and ZIP codes

46. REST and API

Apigility – API builder using Zend Framework 2

Hateoas – HATEOAS REST web service library

HAL – Hypertext Application Language building library

Negotiation – content negotiation library

Drest – library exposing Doctrine entities as REST resources

Restler – lightweight framework exposing PHP methods as RESTful web APIs

fractal – library for consistent data transformation in API responses

47. Caching

Alternative PHP Cache (APC) – open‑source opcode cache for PHP

Doctrine Cache – caching library

Zend Cache – another caching library

Cake Cache – caching library

Stash – another caching library

CacheTool – command‑line tool for clearing APC/opcode caches

PhpFastCache – PHP caching library

48. Data Structure and Storage

Ardent – data‑structure library

PHP Collections – simple collection library

Serializer – library for serializing and deserializing data

Zend Serializer – another serialization library

PHP Object Storage – library for object storage

Fractal – library for converting complex data structures to JSON output

Totem – library for managing and creating data modification sets

PINQ – PHP real‑time LINQ library

JsonMapper – maps embedded JSON structures to PHP classes

Cake Collection – simple collection library

49. Notifications

Nod – notification library

Notificato – library for handling push messages

Notification Pusher – standalone library for device push notifications

Notificator – lightweight notification library

50. Deployment

Pomander – deployment tool for PHP applications

Rocketeer – fast and simple PHP deployment tool

Envoy – tool for running SSH tasks using PHP

Plum – deployment library

Deployer – deployment tool

51. Internationalisation and Localisation

Aura Intl – internationalisation library

Cake I18n – translation and localisation message library

52. Third Party APIs

Libraries for accessing third‑party APIs

54. Extensions

Zephir – compilation language between PHP and C++ for developing PHP extensions

PHP CPP – C++ library for developing PHP extensions

55. Miscellaneous

pinyin – library for converting Chinese characters to pinyin

Pinyin – library for converting Chinese characters to pinyin

class.upload.php – file upload handling class

php‑paginator – pagination handling class

Underscore.php – PHP implementation of Underscore.js

Flexihash – consistent hashing library

Eden – rapid‑development library with components for autoloading, events, documentation, caching, templating, i18n, database, web services, payment gateways, loading and cloud services

html‑parser – HTML parsing tool

PHPCrawl – PHP web crawler framework