very easy and informative framework for php: http://limbercode.com have very nice error report show easy to learn - have a helpful documention

I would highly recommend CakePHP, it has excellent documentation and an active PHP framework community.

I would personally go with Laravel, but let's gather statistics and vote which would you guys personally choose for future seekers: codering.info

As suggested Shankar, learning all the components a framework has is a good way to start. I would then recommend starting with smaller/micro frameworks so you can gently transition to a full-stack framework.

Some micro-frameworks worth mentionning:

• Fatfreeframework : It is easy, small and well-featured/documented
• Slim : One of the most popular ones on the web
• Silex : The Symfony little brother

Check this if you want a nice list & review of a few of them! gajotres.net/best-available-php-restful-micro-fra…

I have tried Phalcon, which can be either Full-stack or micro-sized framework, and if you care about speed, it's one of the fastest framework around. It is also decoupled, meaning you don't have to stick to a programming pattern, unlike other frameworks. Plus, if you like to use another framework, its Volt templating engine works a lot like Twig. Only drawback can be its difficult installation, but that can be countered as well if you use Vagrant :)

Laravel is mainly #1 for all the marketing behind, Symfony is great and has Long Term Support, Phalcon is awesome (and soon has LTS, Laravel doesn't, which can be decisive for a project)!

Laravel

I have used most of them and In my Experience,

1. Symphony is probably the best right now. Specifically v 2.x +
2. Zend Framework was an overkill.
3. CakePHP and Codeignite was way too simple and not suited for big applications(Just my opinion/experience)
4. Drupal was always under-estimated as a CMS - But it is a good enough framework for almost anything. and it was/is my favourite.

I have not used Laravel myself but I have heard only good things about it.

I don't do PHP anymore, but I would like to add my 2 cents. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner, if you want to do something serious with PHP (establishing business, develop apps for clients) you should use Laravel. I agree many open source projects and enterprise apps are built with Zend, but time has changed. Laravel is slowly becoming the de-facto PHP framework. I have also heard that Zend 2 (I have only used Zend 1) has a huge learning curve. So, I would suggest you to go ahead with Laravel and trust me it will be a pleasant experience.

See SitePoint's survey on popular PHP frameworks of 2015 and notice how Laravel is killing the competition.

Go with Laravel, but before choosing the framework, have a hands on experience with MVC, Routing, ORM, emailing, encryption and decryption and other common features of Frameworks. Once you are done with this, if you start learning the framework you could able to understand its capacity.