The world of the Internet is similar to the universe — there might be an end somewhere, but we can’t see it. Thousands of new websites are launched each and every day and this tendency doesn’t seem to stop. But have you ever wondered how these websites are made?
When it comes to picking the programming language, the choice can be hard to make. There are so many options available on the market that you might feel like a child in a candy store.
Nevertheless, programmers are used to choosing one or two languages to stay focused. Truth be told, being an expert in one technology is better than knowing several ones but on a beginner level. PHP is one such common technology that developers choose to focus on, and you may be wondering: “Why PHP?” or “Isn’t PHP outdated?”. And with this article, we will definitely answer the question.
What Are the Main Advantages of PHP programming language?
PHP is known to be the most frequently used programming language. According to W3Techs, 78.8% of all websites are using PHP for their server-side.
Interesting fact: PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page. Now PHP is widely known and thought of as Hypertext Preprocessor.
So, what are the main benefits of using PHP programming language for web development?
Open Source
The first thing you need to know about PHP is that this technology is free in all senses. The crucial attribute of open source tech is the large community of developers working with it. Not only are they using PHP each day, but they are also continuously discussing it, thinking about improvements, and in fact bringing new positive changes and enhancements. Programmers can learn faster and implement cutting-edge solutions as soon as possible. Moreover, unlike many other programming languages, PHP has its own support. All these factors lead to the arrival of new frameworks, components, and other tools that make PHP even better.
Scalability
Building a website or a web application, creators are probably looking forward to the projects’ growth. Therefore, scalability is very important as the website should grow and be able to handle increasing traffic. Websites built with PHP can be easily extended by adding more servers when needed. More users = more servers. Voila!
High Speed
Since PHP uses its own memory, both workload and loading time are reduced. As a result, the processing speed is rather high, which is a benefit not only for developers but also for their clients who get the product delivered sooner. The speed of uploading is also crucial for SEO, so you shouldn’t dismiss this factor if you want to use your site for marketing and sales objectives.
Security
The security level depends on the expertise of the developers and their practices. For example, one of the ways to avoid security breaches is to provide software testing.
Use of PHP programming language
The good news is that PHP can be successfully implemented in any industry. We’ve used this language for projects in the following fields and expertise:
- business intelligence tools like CRM and ERP systems like Leo;
- fintech services, e.g., trading platforms like TickerTocker;
- IoT-powered apps like Aquiline Drones;
- logistic web-applications;
- gambling websites;
- others.
Popular websites that use PHP
The shortlist below should be enough to convince you:
- WordPress, a free content management system, is used for 40% of websites on the Internet;
- Wikipedia, the world-famous online encyclopedia, is powered by software MediaWiki, which is built on PHP;
- MailChimp, an e-mail marketing service, with 12 million users;
- Etsy, an e-commerce platform for craft and hand-made goods with 4 million sellers and 81 million buyers;
- Slack, a communication platform with 10 million daily users, uses PHP to power its backend.
PHP programming language is Still Good!
PHP was considered a very easy and “light” solution in the past. That is due to its easy deployment and prompt development-to-release cycle. Your project can be completed quickly even by relatively inexperienced programmers. Today, this still remains one of PHP’s biggest advantages. Nevertheless, the number and variety of possibilities have increased dramatically as PHP version 7.4 is much more powerful than its predecessor (update: PHP 8 was released at the end of 2020).
Currently supported version of PHP, source: php.net
Some updates are unimportant, introducing only incremental changes. Others, though, can totally reshape the whole product. That happened with PHP when the majority of new frameworks empowered PHP to do bigger and greater things. Among them are Symfony, Laravel, Lamina, Yii, Cake, Code Igniter,and others. Themes mill use Laravel and CodeIgniter. It is our personal favorite and since we admire it so much, we would recommend that you go with this framework as well.
Frameworks come with packages and products such as admin panels, CRMs, web sockets servers, profilers, payment integrations, queuing managers – to name a few. They create a certain ecosystem that allows working with PHP much faster and easier. You can go beyond Content Management Systems like WordPress and do pretty much anything, combining a library of your choice with a framework that best suits the task at hand.
We usually combine PHP with JavaScript and its frameworks for front-end, MySQL as the database engine, AWS as hosting.
Conclusion
To put it simply, the choice of the development language is a compromise between the pros and cons of the available options. PHP is a language that can be used to build any kind of website in 2022, starting with landing pages and simple WordPress websites, and ending with complex web platforms like that of Facebook.
Flexibility, nativity, multiple integration opportunities and high speed are among the chief reasons we use PHP for web developmentin our projects.