Community fork over corporate control of CodeIgniter. Died ~2016 as Laravel took the PHP ecosystem.
Kohana was a PHP 5 web application framework using the HMVC (Hierarchical Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. It featured a cascading filesystem for transparent class extension, convention-based autoloading, database query builders, ORM, validation, and a module system. It emphasized 'community, not company' governance and strict coding standards.
In the mid-2000s, CodeIgniter was the PHP framework that people actually used. In a landscape of overwrought Java-inspired frameworks and spaghetti-code WordPress plugins, CodeIgniter was refreshingly simple: small footprint, clear documentation, and it just worked. But it was also controlled by EllisLab, a company that moved at its own pace and didn't take kindly to community demands for modern PHP features.
On May 31, 2007, a group of CodeIgniter community members started a fork called BlueFlame, quickly renamed to Kohana (Sioux for 'swift'). Their grievance was governance: EllisLab made all the decisions about CodeIgniter's direction, PHP version requirements, and feature additions. The community wanted strict PHP 5 support (CodeIgniter still supported PHP 4), proper OOP patterns, and a more transparent development process.
Kohana 1.0 shipped in July 2007, and version 2.0 followed in November, built purely on PHP 5 with a modern OOP framework. The project attracted enthusiastic developers and built a reputation for clean, well-designed code. Kohana embraced conventions that CodeIgniter resisted: autoloading, cascading filesystem, and proper namespacing.
Then came Kohana 3.0 in September 2009, and this is where things went sideways. The new version was a complete rewrite with incompatible changes to classes, folder structure, and syntax — and no migration path or adequate documentation. The community fractured. Developers who had built projects on Kohana 2 felt abandoned, and the documentation gap meant newcomers couldn't figure out how to use the framework.
The final nail was Laravel. When Taylor Otwell released Laravel 3 in 2011 and Laravel 4 in 2013, it captured exactly the audience Kohana was targeting: developers who wanted a modern, elegant PHP framework with excellent documentation. Laravel's documentation was world-class; Kohana's was famously sparse. The choice was obvious. Kohana was officially deprecated on July 1, 2017, a victim not of CodeIgniter but of a newer, shinier competitor that simply executed better.
BlueFlame fork of CodeIgniter started by community members
Project renamed to Kohana
Kohana 1.0 released
Kohana 2.0 released, fully PHP 5 with modern OOP
Kohana 3.0 released as incompatible rewrite; community fractures
Laravel 1.0 released, beginning Kohana's decline
Laravel 4 cements dominance; Kohana development slows
Kohana officially deprecated
Kohana pushed the PHP framework ecosystem toward modernity. By demanding PHP 5, proper OOP, and community governance, it validated the frustrations that many developers had with CodeIgniter and helped shift expectations for what a PHP framework should look like. Several patterns Kohana pioneered — cascading filesystem, HMVC architecture — influenced the broader PHP ecosystem.
But Kohana's ultimate impact was indirect: it demonstrated the market demand that Laravel would later satisfy. The lesson for PHP framework history is that being first to identify the right problems doesn't guarantee you'll be the one to solve them. CodeIgniter survived (and was eventually open-sourced to the community). Kohana didn't. Laravel won. The PHP framework wars were brutal.