Phalcon - Overview

Phalcon is introduced as one of the recent frameworks of PHP, developed by a group of enthusiastic developers. Phalcon is a loosely coupled framework, which means it allows its objects to be treated like glue components, based on the needs of application.

Phalcon offers some unique features in comparison to other frameworks (traditional or existing) in PHP. Following are some of the most prominent features of Phalcon −

• It is a full stack open source framework.
• A user needs quite less amount of code to take advantage of several components.
• It can be used to create an independent framework as required. For example, if we just need Phalcon's Cache component, we can use it in any application written either in pure PHP or using a framework.
• For a developer having knowledge of Model-View-Controller (MVC) and Object- Relational Modeling (ORM), working with Phalcon is like a cakewalk.

Performance

The performance of Phalcon is a feature which distinguishes it from other traditional frameworks of PHP. Phalcon has a combination of both PHP and C; each of them can be used as a standalone module. The compilation of every request is considered on a higher speed in Phalcon which makes everything seem out-of-the-box.

C Language

Phalcon is compatible with C which increases the compilation rate. Also, C in combination with Phalcon provides Object Relational Mapping (ORM) which provides consistency with models created. Every model created in Phalcon is associated with the table of relational database. ORM in Phalcon is purely implemented in C.

Developer Tools

Developer tools are used for developing web application. These tools help in generating scaffold application with a combination of all features (C – Create, R – Read, U – Update, D – Delete). Developer tools also include extensible support for third party libraries to be implemented in Phalcon.

Object Relational Mapping

Phalcon supports a wide range of databases. It is not limited to access of relational databases. It supports both relational and non-relational databases which is like adding a feather to the cap of Phalcon framework.

Phalcon Vs Other Frameworks

The following table highlights how Phalcon differs from other popular frameworks such as Yii and Laravel.

	Yii	Laravel	Phalcon
Type of Projects	Yii helps in creating large scale projects like forums, portals, CMS, RESTful web services, etc.	Laravel is used for building web applications. It is known for exquisite and sophisticated syntax.	Phalcon is used to design variety of projects.
Database Support	Yii supports all relational and non-relational databases.	Laravel supports all relational databases.	Phalcon gives equal support to relational and non-relational databases.
Language	Yii framework is purely written in PHP.	Laravel is written in PHP and follows MVC pattern.	Phalcon includes both PHP and C.
Scalability	Yii is quite scalable for small and medium projects.	Scalability is high for Laravel with all kinds of projects.	Good for medium projects.
Performance	Comparatively low.	High but less in comparison with Phalcon.	High Performance.