# Symfony

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/symfony/

16 people recommended Symfony in Hacker News comments, 3 had mixed feelings and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 13 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Mature PHP framework with reusable components and predictable releases, recommended for solid long-term projects. Caveat: a learning curve for newcomers.

Summary written by Claude from 19 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 18 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Keeps PHP relevant as ecosystem anchor (2 comments in the sample): "Symfony is singlehandedly keeping PHP relevant, to the point that every other framework depends on its packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47797820)) "You may want to check Symfony and its ecosystem and what is being cooked outside Laravel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49639053))
- Solid, flexible framework to build on (2 comments in the sample): "Plus Symfony is quite flexible on how you want to organize your code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47347702)) "the Symfony framework is solid and easy to build on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50183988))
- Independently usable components (2 comments in the sample): "each of its components can be pulled in individually with no bearing on the architecture of your application" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48022540)) "I'm spoiled by the Symfony framework which has a robust Secrets Component" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173842))
- Predictable releases and breaking changes (1 comment in the sample): "a popular framework with planned depreciations and releases the ecosystem tends to sync fairly well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45992230))

## Other web frameworks people recommend

- [Ruby on Rails](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruby-on-rails/): 227 recommend, 75 mixed, 129 criticize
- [Django](https://hackerapproved.com/p/django/): 200 recommend, 48 mixed, 82 criticize
- [Phoenix Framework](https://hackerapproved.com/p/phoenix/): 66 recommend, 14 mixed, 10 criticize
- [Laravel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/laravel/): 57 recommend, 9 mixed, 22 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Symfony", https://hackerapproved.com/p/symfony/ (16 recommend, 3 mixed, 4 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.