Drupal is a free, open-source web development platform for online content and user communities
What can You create with Drupal?
With Drupal you can create:
o   Simple n-number-of-pages static website
o   Simple personal homepage
o   Company website
o   Weblog
o   Dating website
o   Myspace-like website

Why you should use Drupal?
o   Easy to use (even if you don't know html, php...)
o   Lots of modules
o   Lots of themes
o   Great established user community
o   You can make a website in terms of hours, even minutes

SMARTY:
Smarty is a template engine for PHP. More specifically, it facilitates a manageable way to separate application logic and content from its presentation.

Some of Smarty's features:
•   It is extremely fast.
•   It is efficient since the PHP parser does the dirty work.
•   No template parsing overhead, only compiles once.
•   It is smart about recompiling only the template files that have changed.
•   You can make custom functions and custom variable modifiers, so the template language is extremely extensible.
•   Configurable template delimiter tag syntax, so you can use {}, {{}}, <!--{}-->, etc.
•   The if/elseif/else/endif constructs are passed to the PHP parser, so the {if ...} expression syntax can be as simple or as complex as you like.
•   Unlimited nesting of sections, ifs, etc. allowed.
•   It is possible to embed PHP code right in your template files, although this may not be needed (nor recommended) since the engine is so customizable.
•   Built-in caching support
•   Arbitrary template sources
•   Custom cache handling functions
•   Plugin architecture

WHAT IS ZEND?
•   Zend is an open source scripting engine developed by company named Zend that wrote PHP as well.
•   The Zend scripting engine provides a modular architecture, and can  also be used in applications outside of PHP.

Are you considering using a PHP framework for your next project? If so, this article's for you. I've narrowed down my choices to CakePHP and the Zend Framework and have documented my findings here.

Four or five years ago I began researching PHP application frameworks. At the time, the pickings were very slim, especially when compared to those available to Java developers. On the advice of an ex-Coldfusion developer, I settled on the PHP port of Fusebox, the de facto Coldfusion framework. Fusebox 3 provided a convenient set of loose conventions for structuring applications, organizing code, naming files, and controlling flow. It served my development team well and applications we built with it are still up and running.

I took a two-year "break" from development and upon my return I found more PHP frameworks than you can shake a stick at. Now I need to find a solid MVC-based framework and after reading dozens of articles and completing a few tutorials, I've narrowed my focus to CakePHP and the Zend Framework.

Before going further, let it be known that my point of view is that of someone with plenty of application development experience but without a formal IT or CS degree. I can't go on about the merits of one design pattern vs. another. I do, however, understand the need for convention, the advantages of modularity, and the efficiency of easily repeatable processes.

Please note that symfony, Prado, Code Ignitor, and many of the other PHP frameworks all look quite capable of meeting most project needs. If you're a fanboy of another framework, please don't espouse it's merits here. I am, however, interested in hearing about your general experience in learning a framework, particularly in the context of your professional background.

Here's a comparison and a few conclusions after spending a bit of time with both CakePHP and the Zend Framework. Please note that my quality scale range is: poor, fair, good, excellent.