Would you recommend learning Zend framework from a freelance perspective?

Question

I'd like to know what you think. Is it worth it to become proficient with Zend or adapt it as my common solution?

Do you find it widely supported enough to build applications with which you can mass distribute?

Any input would be great.

I am not looking at this from a career perspective, more a business perspective as a freelancer, or software developer.

EDIT 1:

Anybody know of any widely distributed commercial scripts which are built on Zend?

What about other frameworks, like CI or CakePHP?

Answer 1

Zend is a framework, a tool. So being a freelancer, it might be the tool for the job on a special situation, according to your own criteria.

It is widely supported, quite active in development, and popular. And it won't hurt to learn the Zend way. I've been sent to check Zend code on several occasions, when looking for design/programming/convention decisions, so I guess it's pretty well written code.

From a business perspective, I guess it adds to your CV, since it's one of the widest used PHP Frameworks.

If you come to feel comfortable with it, you could use it regularly as a common solution. But don't rely completely on a framework. I guess you already feel comfortable enough on PHP that you want to widen your toolset, so this might come as an obvious advice.

Just my two cents.