The of which PHP framework is quite controversial & frangly. there is no right answer. Still, I would try to objectively compare them.
1) CodeIgniter:
Pros: Easiest learning curve, works on all shared hosting providers, great documentation
Cons the codebase although is PHP5 only but the code feels still stuck in PHP4 way of doing thing, e.g excessive use of $this or procedural style & not implementing OOP fully . Further, it does not have "cool" features like Dependency injection,anonymous functions etc.
2) KOHANA
Pros: It started as fork of CodeIgniter but now its a fully independent modern PHP5 framework. It managed to fix most of the negative things about CI. the codebase is fully Object-Oriented. Not like procedural crap in CI. Another plus, is Hierarchical-Model-View-Controller (HMVC) pattern which works better than tradditional MVC style available in CI; atleast for web projects.
Cons: Documentation is next to nil. So you are okay with reading the source code to figure out things work -- I highly suggest you go for KOHANA.
3) Symfony2
Pros: Has the cleanest code among all PHP framework. Has all the cool features like Dependency injection,anonymous functions, Bundles etc. Highly recommended for big projects
Cons: Requires PHP 5.3+ so might not run all Shared hosting providers as most of then are still stuck with 5.2 series:no:
PS: About this comparsion, Let me know how I did :bleh:
