Zend framework is open source, cross platform and object oriented framework licensed under BSD License is widely used to design web based applications in PHP5. Zend framework is also entitled Module based library offers advanced MVC (Model View Controller) is used to design structure of application.
Cake PHP is termed as a rapid development framework, and it is an offshoot of PHP it is absolutely free. Mostly PHP developers even consider it to be the basis of all PHP4 and PHP5 web applications. Which will be helpful for better understand the reasons behind the soaring popularity of CakePHP.
Yii is stands for "Yes it is" is based on object oriented framework that is used to develop efficient small to large size web applications in less time. Yii is open source php web programming framework that allows users to use code from third party and simplify your project development.
CodeIgniter,is a most powerful part of PHP framework which has very small footprint . Advantage is that it is simple in use and elegant toolkit such that to create full-featured web applications. This PHP framework is used by web development companies which deals with shared hosting accounts and meet the deadlines .
Laravel is one of the open source web framework in PHP that is used to create the web application in easy and simple way. Laravel is licensed under MIT license and helps developer to design model view controller web program using following features like bundles, expressive ORM, reverse routing, controller and many more.