Telegram Bot SDK is a PHP library for building Telegram bots against the HTTP-based Telegram Bot API, with Laravel support available out of the box.

What it is

Telegram Bot SDK is a PHP SDK distributed through Composer that wraps the Telegram Bot API, the HTTP-based interface Telegram provides for building bots. It targets PHP applications and ships with first-class integration for the Laravel framework, reflected in its package topics covering laravel, laravel-package and laravel-telegram. The project is released under the BSD 3-Clause licence, credits Irfaq Syed as author alongside its contributors, and states plainly that it is neither associated nor affiliated with Telegram itself. Documentation lives on its own site at telegram-bot-sdk.com, and the README points developers at the official Telegram bot introduction and Bot FAQ for API background.

The concrete problem it solves is the raw plumbing of talking to the Bot API. Without an SDK, a PHP developer writes HTTP calls, assembles request payloads by hand, and wires all of that into the framework's own conventions. This SDK replaces that manual layer with PHP-native building blocks, and the Laravel integration means a Laravel project does not need bespoke glue code to get started. It is the PHP-and-Laravel answer to the same job other bot frameworks do in other languages, and the topic list marks it as part of the Composer package ecosystem rather than a standalone binary or hosted service.

Key capabilities

• Build Telegram bots in PHP against the HTTP-based Telegram Bot API.
• Laravel support out of the box, tagged with laravel, laravel-package and laravel-telegram.
• Installed and versioned as a Composer package, following the conventions of that ecosystem.
• Version 3.x is the current supported release; 2.x is marked unsupported but retains full documentation.
• Version 4.x is in development in a separate repository, telegram-bot-sdk/telegram-bot-sdk.
• Backward-incompatible changes are rarely made, to keep upgrades manageable for existing users.
• Public issue tracker on GitHub for issues, feedback, suggestions and questions.

Who uses it and how

• PHP developers who need to author Telegram bots without hand-writing Bot API HTTP calls.
• Laravel teams that want bot functionality inside an existing Laravel application rather than as a separate service.
• Bot authors already running 3.x, who are expected to track only the latest released version because older releases are not supported.
• Projects still on 2.x, which must plan an upgrade path since that line is unsupported but fully documented.
• Contributors submitting pull requests, who are directed to review the project's CONTRIBUTING guidelines first.
• Teams wanting visibility for their bot work, invited to list projects on the companion Awesome Telegram Bots repository.

The registry record shows 3,302 stars, 677 forks and 29 open issues, which indicates an active but not enormous user base relative to larger framework projects, with a single credited maintainer at the core.

Getting started

Installation is through Composer, and the README directs developers to the documentation at telegram-bot-sdk.com to begin writing bots; the same site hosts versioned docs, with 2.x documentation complete and 3.x documentation still in progress.

How it compares

The facts provided do not name any paid products this project replaces, and no competing PHP SDK is named either, so within this registry it stands alone as the PHP and Laravel SDK for the Telegram Bot API, with botkit appearing only as a topic tag rather than as a documented alternative. Its differentiators from generic bot frameworks are therefore the language and framework fit rather than a licensing contrast, since it is BSD-3-Clause rather than commercial.

When to use it — and when not to

Pick it when the bot is a PHP or Laravel project and the current 3.x line is acceptable. Avoid it if you need stable, complete documentation for the version you are installing, since the 3.x docs are still marked in progress, or if you depend on the 2.x line, which is explicitly unsupported. Note also that 4.x has no documentation yet and lives in a separate repository, so it is not a production choice today.