In the past, there was a big challenge to keep a package-based PHP project up to date. We had sort of package managers like PEAR and PECL, but frequently they caused more challenges rather than provided a handy possibility to install and manage packages quickly. Fortunately, the dark age of the mentioned managers is history now, as the Composer comes to fix difficulties. With every new version, Composer has seen significant improvements, and many modern platforms/frameworks like Symfony, Laravel and Magento use Composer as a part of their systems.