Symfony is a mature, enterprise-grade PHP framework built on reusable components (bundles). Instead of one monolithic framework, Symfony provides loosely-coupled packages: routing, dependency injection, form handling, security, database abstraction, and more. This modular approach means you can use individual Symfony components in any PHP project, or use the full framework. Many PHP projects use Symfony's underlying components (Twig, Doctrine, Symfony DI Container) without using the full framework.