Glossary
Zend Framework
Also: ZF1 · ZF2 · ZF3 · Laminas
A PHP framework that continues as Laminas since early 2020 and is no longer developed under its old name. The route across depends on the major version you run.
Zend Framework was the standard framework in many enterprise applications for years. In early 2020 it was absorbed into the Laminas project; nothing has shipped under the old name since, and every package is marked as abandoned on Packagist. One figure misleads here: the meta package zendframework/zendframework ended back in June 2016, but only because ZF3 moved to per-component releases. The components themselves kept shipping until the end of 2019.
Laminas is not a rewrite but the continuation under a new name and new stewardship. For versions 2 and 3 the move is essentially a rename: Zend namespaces become Laminas namespaces, Composer packages become the matching Laminas packages. There is an official tool for it.
Version 1 is a different case. It reached end of life on 28 September 2016, and the migration tool explicitly covers version 2 and later only. ZF1 predates Composer, with its own MVC and its own database layer. Anyone talking about migration here means replacement.
What matters in practice is how this interlocks with the language version: ZF1 applications are almost always stuck on old PHP versions that no longer receive security updates themselves. Changing both at once makes every fault impossible to trace, so the two are kept apart.
How you notice it
- Composer reports the Zend packages as abandoned.
- The code contains namespaces starting with Zend.
- The application is stuck on a PHP version without security updates.
- Developers with experience in this framework are almost impossible to find.
Frequently asked
Is Laminas the same as Zend Framework?
It is the continuation of the same project under a new name. For ZF2 and ZF3 your own code stays largely unchanged; what gets swapped are namespaces and package names, and there is an official tool for that.
Is there a migration path for ZF1?
No automated one. The tool covers version 2 and later. ZF1 is therefore replaced step by step rather than migrated: a router in front of the application, one area after another moved onto a maintained stack.
Can we simply stay on the old version?
Technically it keeps running. There are just no fixes any more, including security fixes, and the old language version underneath blocks every further update. It becomes a topic at the next audit at the latest, or the next time you try to fill a position.