What Yii does

Yii is an open-source PHP web application framework in active development since 2008, maintained by an international team of contributors spanning at least 10 countries. The product line centers on two parallel generations: Yii2 (mature, PHP 7.4+) and Yii3 (modern, modular, PHP 8.3+), with Yii3 structured as a collection of standalone PSR-compliant packages (yiisoft/*) that can be adopted independently. Core technical components include MVC architecture, the Gii code generator, ActiveRecord ORM with soft delete and upsert, a full RBAC system, an extensible Validator, an asynchronous Queue supporting AMQP/Redis/Valkey drivers, and runners for FrankenPHP and RoadRunner. The framework also ships UI extensions (Bootstrap5, HTML helpers), security tools, and integrates with MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, S3-compatible storage, and several front-end stacks (React, Vue, Svelte, Inertia.js). The ecosystem includes thousands of third-party extensions, multiple published books, a wiki, a forum, live chat, and a Facebook group, with named ecosystem dependents including Craft CMS, HumHub, and LUYA.

The business model is non-commercial: Yii is released under the BSD-3-Clause license at no cost, distributed via Composer/Packagist and GitHub, and is marketed entirely through community channels. Revenue, where it exists, is limited to voluntary donations and sponsorships routed through Open Collective, GitHub Sponsors, Boosty, Sponsr, and the Tidelift Subscription. The project is operated by Yii Software (also referred to as YiiSoft), a non-commercial coordinating entity. The target user base is individual PHP developers, freelance developers, and engineering teams building web applications, APIs, CMS platforms, e-commerce, and enterprise software, with an explicit horizontal segmentation across use cases rather than by industry vertical.

Operational cadence is consistent: 80–92 news items per year in 2022–2025, ongoing patch releases on both Yii2 and Yii3 lines, and a security patch (Yii 2.0.55, CVE-2026-39850) issued in 2026. Strategic priorities evidenced in the data are the Yii3 architectural transition, AI-adjacent reference integrations (Document Summarizer demo, June 2026), and broadening maintainer funding channels via Tidelift and Open Collective.

Name

Yii

Legal name

Yii Software

Website

https://yiiframework.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Yii is a non-commercial, open-source PHP web application framework maintained by a global community since 2008. It serves PHP developers building web apps, APIs, CMS, and enterprise software via Yii2 and the modular Yii3 package set, distributed free through Composer and GitHub.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Web Application Framework

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud-Native Application Development (Containers/Kubernetes/Serverless) (BPAEAFAE)

Keywords

• PHP framework
• Open-source web framework
• MVC web development
• Developer tooling
• Code generation tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Sponsorships: Yii is a non-commercial open-source project. Revenue comes entirely from voluntary donations, sponsorships, and community support. Available donation channels include Open Collective, GitHub Sponsors, Boosty (for Russian users), and Sponsr (for Russian users). Yii is also part of the Tidelift Subscription, which provides a way for companies to fund open-source maintainers.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Yii is an open-source PHP framework for web application development. It provides Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, a built-in code generator (Gii), database migrations, ActiveRecord ORM, RBAC, caching, authentication, and debugging tools. Available in Yii2 (PHP 7.4+) and Yii3 (modular PSR-compliant packages for PHP 8.3+).

Product overview

Yii is an open-source PHP framework for web application development. The core product is the Yii PHP Framework, available in Yii2 (for PHP 7.4+) and Yii3 (modern, modular architecture for PHP 8.3+). The Yii3 ecosystem consists of standalone packages (yiisoft/*) including yiisoft/html for HTML generation, yiisoft/bootstrap5 for UI components, yiisoft/validator for data validation, yiisoft/active-record for ORM, and yiisoft/queue for asynchronous job processing. Community extensions extend functionality with user management (Voyti), reCAPTCHA integration, Tabler UI components, IDE helpers, and more. The framework provides Gii for code generation, database migrations, and comprehensive documentation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Yii PHP Framework (Yii2) An open-source PHP framework for web application development, providing MVC architecture, code generation tools (Gii), database migration support, caching, authentication, RBAC, and an active community ecosystem. Used by PHP developers worldwide.
• Yii3 The next major version of the Yii PHP framework featuring modular architecture with standalone PSR-compliant packages, modern PHP 8.3+ support, and interoperability following PSR-15, PSR-11, PSR-17, and PSR-18 standards. Targeted at PHP developers building modern web applications.
• Yii Bootstrap 5 Extension Official Yii3 extension providing Bootstrap 5 UI components including Button, Collapse, and form widgets with tabIndex support. Used by Yii developers building UIs with Bootstrap 5.
• Yii HTML Extension Yii3 extension for generating HTML markup with methods for form inputs, checkboxes, radio buttons, and related UI elements. Used by developers building HTML forms and widgets in Yii3.
• Yii Runner RoadRunner Yii3 extension enabling application deployment on RoadRunner high-performance PHP application server with worker mode support and PHP 8.5 compatibility. Used for high-throughput Yii3 applications.
• Yii Validator Yii3 validation library with rules for files, images, and data validation including SplFileInfo support, extension/MIME type checking, and i18n translations. Used by Yii3 developers for input validation.
• Yii Active Record Yii3 ORM implementation providing ActiveRecord pattern for database operations with soft delete support, upsert operations, relation management, and hooks. Used for database access in Yii3 applications.
• Yii Queue Yii3 queue library supporting multiple drivers including AMQP, Redis, and Valkey for asynchronous job processing and background task management.
• Yii RBAC PHP File Storage Role-based access control storage implementation using PHP files for Yii3 applications. Used to persist RBAC roles, permissions, and rules.
• Yii2 HTTP Client Yii2 extension for making HTTP requests with support for various authentication methods and response handling. Used by Yii2 developers for outbound HTTP communication.
• Yii2 Redis Extension Yii2 extension providing Redis database connectivity with Predis package support for caching and session management.
• Yii2 Debug Extension Yii2 debugging extension providing debug toolbar and panel information for application development.
• ApiDoc Extension Documentation generation extension for Yii2 with PHP 8.2+ support, intersection types, nullable types, PHPStan/Psalm syntax, and improved type extraction.
• Voyti (Yii3 User Management) Highly customizable user management, authentication, and authorization extension for Yii3 featuring social authentication, two-factor authentication, RBAC management, GDPR compliance, and REST API.
• yiirocks/recaptcha Extension Google reCAPTCHA v2 and v3 integration for Yii3 with field widgets and server-side validation support, configurable thresholds for v3 scoring.
• bestyii/yii2-tabler Extension Tabler UI framework components for Yii2-based applications providing Bootstrap core components, admin components, charts, datepickers, and form elements.
• chinaphp/yii2-ide-helper Extension IDE helper extension providing PhpStorm code completion support for Yii2 components, ActiveRecord models, and ActiveQuery with PhpStorm meta file generation.

Named customers3 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration16 records

AI capability2 records

Feature10 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• WordPress: WordPress is the dominant PHP-based content management platform. While it is a broader incumbent rather than a direct framework competitor, it shapes the PHP developer ecosystem that Yii draws from, and competes with Yii-based CMSes (Craft CMS, LUYA) for the same end-customer use cases.
• Drupal: Drupal is a large-scale open-source PHP-based CMS/platform. While not a direct framework competitor, it is built on PHP and overlaps with Yii-built platforms like Craft CMS in the content management market, representing an alternative stack for similar end-user problems.

Direct peers

• CodeIgniter: CodeIgniter is a lightweight PHP MVC framework. Like Yii, it targets developers who want a fast, pragmatic framework with minimal overhead, making it a direct peer for the same 'fast and lightweight' segment of the PHP framework market.
• Laravel: Laravel is the most widely adopted PHP web application framework. It is the most direct competitor to Yii, serving the same developer persona (PHP web developers) with a similar MVC architecture, ORM (Eloquent), and code generation tooling, but with substantially larger community and ecosystem.
• Symfony: Symfony is a mature PHP framework and set of reusable PHP components. It is a direct peer to Yii, with a comparable modular architecture (especially relevant to Yii3's PSR-compliant modular design) and overlapping target audience of professional PHP developers building enterprise and SaaS applications.
• Slim Framework: Slim is a lightweight PHP micro-framework. It is a direct peer to Yii in the PHP framework space, particularly competing for developers building APIs and small-to-medium web services where minimal overhead is valued.
• CakePHP: CakePHP is a PHP framework following the MVC pattern with code generation scaffolding (Bake). It overlaps directly with Yii on developer productivity tooling, conventions-based development, and rapid application generation.
• Phalcon: Phalcon is a PHP framework delivered as a C-extension for high performance. It is a direct peer to Yii in targeting the 'fast PHP framework' segment, with a different technical approach (native extension vs. pure PHP) but the same value proposition of speed and low overhead.
• Laminas (formerly Zend Framework): Laminas is a PHP framework and component library maintained by the Linux Foundation. Like Yii, it targets enterprise PHP development and emphasizes modular, PSR-compliant components — particularly comparable to Yii3's standalone-package approach.

Others

• Tidelift: Tidelift is an enterprise open-source subscription platform that pays maintainers for guaranteed maintenance and security. Yii participates in Tidelift as a partner; Tidelift is a relevant adjacent/ecosystem player because it represents one of the few channels through which Yii's maintainers can monetize enterprise usage of the framework.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/yiisoft
• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• Xx.com/yiiframework

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Yii