Is using sessions the best practice for managing authentication in PHP?

Using sessions is a common and effective way to manage authentication in PHP. By storing user authentication information in a session variable, you can easily check if a user is logged in on subsequent page loads. However, it is important to ensure that sessions are properly secured to prevent session hijacking or other security vulnerabilities.

// Start the session
session_start();

// Check if user is logged in
if(isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    // User is logged in, perform authenticated actions
} else {
    // User is not logged in, redirect to login page
    header("Location: login.php");
    exit();
}