So having looked into php frameworks a bit. There are 2 main packages of reusable components in php. Symfony and Zend. Somewhat confusingly Zend and Symfony

So having looked into php frameworks a bit. There are 2 main packages of reusable components in php. Symfony and Zend. Somewhat confusingly Zend and Symfony also make frameworks built on top of these components. But you can use the components on their own. Use the Composer to install the ones you need. You don't even need a framework to use them. Laravel is built on top of Symfony components. I think the main advantage to Laravel is people who use it really tend to like it... a lot. I hear a lot of complaining about other frameworks, but Laravel people enjoy. People that figure it out tend to get sites up really quickly. The main downside I hear about is performance. For me documentation is key. I tried using Zend components, and while they worked I find the documentation really lacking. Zend have some great stuff like an api builder, but documentation is really important and its why I'll probably end up trying Laravel