PHP frameworks can really speed up your development process. They provide you with a stable foundation to start from, so that you can spend time developing the important parts of your application rather than reinventing the wheel.

But the proliferation of different PHP frameworks also means that there's a learning curve involved. As well as learning PHP, you need to learn the workings of each framework, or at least of the ones you're planning to use.

So we've got you covered in this article, with details of 11 courses that will get you up to speed with Laravel, Lumen, Phalcon, Symfony, and a range of other PHP frameworks.

1. Get Started With Laravel 5

Laravel is a PHP framework for modern web apps. Recently upgraded to version 5, Laravel is a mature system that continues to win support due to its elegance and stability. Laravel ships with built-in support for database migrations, object-relational mapping, routing, and authentication, making it easier for developers to start and maintain their work.

In this course, you'll start by learning the basics of the Laravel framework with instructor Jason Lewis. You'll begin by preparing a dev environment and learning how to configure Laravel. Then you'll move on to learn foundational topics such as routing and requests, responses, views, sessions, emails, forms, and using databases.

2. Build a CMS With Laravel

In this course, Jason Lewis will show you how to build a functioning content management system (CMS) with the Laravel PHP framework. You’ll understand some of the tasks and problems that are common to so many web development projects and explore different possible solutions to them. 

You’ll be starting your CMS from scratch—a great way to expand your knowledge of the Laravel framework. This course will teach you the fundamentals required to develop top-notch Laravel applications.

3. Authentication With Laravel

Authentication is extremely important, and as a result, authentication is extremely difficult to get right. But Laravel's built-in authentication system makes it easier to protect the portions of your web application that need protecting.

In this course, Envato Tuts+ instructor Jeremy McPeak will show you how to use Laravel's basic authentication system, and how to customize this system to fit your own application's needs. You'll see how to create users, user providers and guards to customize every aspect of Laravel authentication.

4. Get Started With Lumen

Lumen is the fast new PHP micro-framework from the Laravel project. It allows you to use the power of Laravel, including the Eloquent ORM and features such as routing, middleware and validation, with the flexibility and low overhead of a micro-framework. If you like Laravel, or just want to use a cutting-edge server-side platform for writing microservices and REST APIs, Lumen is a great choice.

In this course, Envato Tuts+ instructor Simon Bacquie will help you get started coding with Lumen. You'll start with a blank, boilerplate Lumen app, and build it out into a full web app that manages books and authors. Along the way you'll learn about some of the key Lumen features, such as Eloquent, routing, controllers and more!

5. Create a REST API With Lumen

In this course, Jeremy McPeak will show you how to get started building REST APIs with the Lumen framework. You'll start by setting up a Lumen development environment and go on to build a complete API for a music store, including routing, MySQL database connectivity, and security.

6. Get Started With Phalcon

What makes Phalcon unique and exceptional is its speed and the way it loads and runs. The reason it is so fast is that it is implemented as an extension written in C language that will load into your RAM as a PHP module.

In this course, Manish Kumar will show you how to get started coding with the Phalcon PHP framework. You'll get hands-on experience with most of Phalcon's core features—think of it as breaking the ice between you and Phalcon. The course project will be to create a simple phonebook application.

7. Create a REST API With Phalcon

In this course, Manish Kumar will teach you how to get started with the Phalcon PHP framework by building a simple REST API. You'll learn how to set up a development environment, how to define a database schema and API endpoints, and how to implement create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations to persist data to an SQL database.

8. First Look at Slim PHP

Slim PHP is an excellent framework for building micro applications in PHP—the kind of app that does one thing, and does it well.

In this Coffee Break Course, Matthew Setter will give you a quick introduction to Slim and show you how a standard Slim application is built. You'll see how to work with GET and POST routes, and how to retrieve data from the environment. Naturally, you'll also learn how to use templates in Slim and how to manipulate template variables. 

Along the way, you'll gain a thorough understanding of how a Slim app is put together, specifically configuring application settings, dependencies, and routes.

9. Getting Started With Symfony 2

Symfony 2 is one of the most popular modern PHP frameworks. It has the advantages of being modular, extensible, and full of useful features. 

This course is designed for first-time users of the framework, and will walk you through all its basic coding features. Andrew Perkins will cover everything you need to get started, such as bundles, templating with layouts, routing, building forms with validation, and how to build a full CRUD app with database interaction. 

By the end of the course, you'll have the fundamental skills necessary to use the Symfony 2 framework to build basic, database-driven web applications.  

10. Build a CMS in Symfony 2

Building your own Content Management System (CMS) can be surprisingly simple. In this course, Andrew Perkins will show you exactly how to build a feature-packed content management system from scratch using the popular Symfony 2 PHP framework.  

11. Beginning Testing in Symfony 2

To continue our series of courses about the popular PHP framework, Symfony 2, this course will take you through all you need to know to get started with testing. 

Andrew Perkins will explore the basic concepts of functional and unit tests in the context of a Symfony 2 application with PHPUnit. Then you'll dive into some practical examples of testing in action.

Start Learning With a Free Trial

You can take all of these and more PHP courses with a free 10-day trial of our monthly subscription. So get started today, and start getting up to speed with the PHP frameworks that will enable you to work smarter, faster, and better.