Symfony: the open-source PHP framework for your development projects

The Symfony framework allows you to create custom, modular, and high-performance business applications. Thanks to its reusable components and robust architecture, it meets the specific needs of PHP developers and optimizes development time and maintenance.

Introducing the Symfony framework

Developed in PHP under the MIT license, Symfony has established itself as the leading PHP framework on the market. Launched as open source by Fabien Potencier in 2005, it now boasts a community of over 600,000 developers worldwide, including more than 4,000 active contributors. Symfony is both a framework and a set of components that can be reused at will.

At Smile, we have been following the evolution of Symfony for many years, both for its central role in the open source ecosystem and for the privileged relationship we have with SensioLabs , the company behind the framework.

Our technical team harnesses the full power of Symfony to design custom , high-performance, sustainable business applications perfectly suited to your challenges, as well as to design web pages.

Why a framework? Why Symfony?

Using a framework like Symfony has become essential for accelerating application development and web page creation. By leveraging ready-to-use software components, teams benefit from significant time savings while ensuring code quality, security, and maintainability.

In addition to being used directly by developers, Symfony serves as the technical foundation for a rich ecosystem :

• Drupal : the open source CMS recognized for its flexibility and advanced content management.
• Ibexa : the CMS and DXP platform adapted to the specific needs of businesses.
• WordPress : the very popular CMS for fast and modular websites.
• Adobe Commerce : the robust e-commerce solution for managing catalogues and transactions.
• OroCommerce : the B2B e-commerce platform for complex business processes.
• Sylius : the open source e-commerce framework based on Symfony, modular according to specific needs.
• Shopware : the flexible and high-performance e-commerce solution for online stores.
• Akeneo : the product information management (PIM) tool to centralize and enrich product data.

Today, it is estimated that 20% of the world's web is based on Symfony , which is among the most popular open source projects on GitHub.

Its users include large companies such as Suez , Bein Sports , BNP Paribas, BBC News, Amazon or Vattenfall, startups like Yuka and Spotify, as well as government organizations such as the Presidency of the French Republic or the European Commission.

The strengths of Symfony

Symfony has established itself as a strategic choice for web, application, and e-commerce development projects , thanks to its technical strengths and the maturity of its ecosystem. These strengths enable PHP developers to design high-performance and modular business applications and web pages .

• A rich ecosystem : thousands of bundles facilitate the integration of advanced features, such as APIs, rights management or e-commerce, accelerating application development and saving time .
• A robust and modular architecture : each component is independently reusable, offering flexibility to meet the specific needs of each project.
• A structuring framework : Symfony respects the MVC paradigm, normalizes code and efficiently manages dependencies thanks to its dependency injection container, guaranteeing a clear project organization.
• A predictable release cycle : a new major version every two years and a minor version every six months ensures stability and innovation .

Symfony at the heart of your IT system modernization

A benchmark in web and e-commerce, Symfony has become a key driver of IT system modernization. Our clients use it both to integrate existing software components and to develop secure, custom applications.
Symfony allows them to create robust and efficient internal business applications .

Symfony fully integrates artificial intelligence through Symfony AI, which provides artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to PHP applications and offers a unified interface for working with different AI platforms.

The ideal framework for smooth development

Symfony stands out for its modularity . It's a collection of loosely coupled components, bundled together as a distribution. The standard edition offers a full-stack framework including:

• Doctrine ORM : simplified and uniform database management, facilitating queries and integration with business processes .
• Twig templating engine : rapid creation of dynamic and modular web pages and user interfaces .
• Mailer component : sending and managing secure emails, optimizing notifications and communication with users.
• Security component : robust authentication and permission management, ensuring the protection of sensitive applications and data.

By adhering to the HTTP protocol and the MVC paradigm , Symfony offers PHP developers a complete development environment with an integrated debugging tool. This ensures consistent access to databases, controllers, and views. The framework also provides a large library of utility functions, allowing developers to effectively address the specific needs of their projects.

Security and performance: the guarantee for your applications

Symfony meets the demanding needs of the largest development projects by offering a professional SOA architecture around the Dependency Injection Container component as well as optimal performance with its Varnish-compatible HTTP caching system.

Symfony integrates preventative security measures to combat vulnerabilities and attacks such as XSS, CSRF and SQL injection .

Smile & Symfony

A technological choice aligned with our DNA

At Smile, we chose Symfony from the very beginning, convinced by its robustness, flexibility, and perfect alignment with our commitment to open source. Time has proven us right. Over the years, Symfony has established itself as a leading framework for developing custom web and business applications, meeting our clients' performance, security, and scalability requirements. Symfony is a 100% open-source success story of French origin that integrates perfectly into the digital autonomy strategy we advise our clients to adopt.

A long-standing relationship with SensioLabs

In 2019, SensioLabs , the company behind Symfony, joined the Smile Group , reinforcing our position as a European leader in open-source digital solutions. This strategic alliance, based on the values of openness, passion, and agility, was a key milestone for our group. It solidified our commitment to the Symfony ecosystem and our ability to support our clients with unparalleled expertise in the framework.

Why does Smile recommend Symfony?

• Proven expertise on large-scale projects : we have supported many clients in the creation of critical platforms, ranging from e-commerce sites to strategic business applications, relying on the power of Symfony.
• Strong involvement in the ecosystem : our 80 experts actively contribute to the Symfony community, developing open-source bundles and participating in conferences. The presence of SensioLabs, the creator of Symfony, within the group guarantees you a response of the highest quality.
• A common foundation for many open-source solutions : major e-commerce CMS and frameworks like Drupal, Magento, and Sylius, for which Smile has strong expertise, are based on Symfony. Symfony's open-source nature perfectly complements our digital autonomy offering.
• An ability to adapt to new challenges : with the rise of internal business applications using Symfony, we have strengthened our expertise in IT architecture by exploiting the full potential of Symfony to build scalable and high-performance platforms.

Make Symfony a key driver of your digital transformation

The integration of SensioLabs into the Smile group, combined with our expertise in open-source technologies, allows us to support Symfony projects throughout their entire technical lifecycle. This includes application architecture, performance, and industrialization challenges.

Symfony can be used to modernize an information system , design a custom business application , or optimize an existing web platform . In these contexts, we apply the framework's best practices to ensure robust, maintainable applications that are adapted to business constraints.

Adopt Symfony

Let's discuss your Symfony project, contact us !

Are you using a different technology and want to switch to Symfony? We've written a white paper with SensioLabs on how to migrate from a legacy system to Symfony. Download it here .

See our PHP Symfony references here .