Introduction – Reasons why PHP is still alive
The notion that PHP is old enough, obsolete, and lost its charm is unwarranted. An analysis of the market survey by the Web Technology Survey suggests that PHP has a firm stand in the industry despite all the modern big guns.
PHP has been the language of the web for almost 25 years.
However, in recent years, Javascript has come into the limelight in the web development arena. Node.js has become famous for the back end, while React, Angular, and Vue are trending technologies for the front end.
In addition, many other frameworks and languages have also grown in popularity.
Python’s Django, Ruby on Rails, and many different web technologies are just a few
But the influx of new technologies does raise questions like, is PHP dead? Will PHP die? Is PHP still alive?
There are mixed opinions about whether PHP is here to stay or not.
This article takes a new perspective and gives three reasons why PHP is still alive and relevant today.
Three Reasons why PHP is still Alive
Here are the top three reasons why PHP is still alive.
1. Veteran Language
PHP is one of the oldest web languages, almost 25 years old.
It has improved and evolved over all these years. The PHP developer community makes efforts to improve and update the language to meet the latest development needs—for instance, PHP 8.0 includes Just-in-time (JIT) compilation.
Making it faster and more robust than PHP7.
Secondly, PHP has a loyal and large community to support it.
There are tons of FAQs, tutorials, guides, and projects available. PHP is time-tested with crucial security loopholes and bugs fixed, making it safer and reliable than absolute novel solutions.
PHP also has a rich framework ecosystem, including Code Igniter, Laravel, Yii, Cake, etc.
All these frameworks and technologies provide ready-to-use, secure and efficient development. You can also connect to any database of choice with PHP.
From the market POV, PHP is preferable for the same reason: PHP is mature.
It is often risky to be an early adopter of new technology. Even if everything goes well, developers may find it hard to find community support or proper integrations with legacy systems. On top of that, there could be a skill shortage in new technology.
So, a company either has to look for skill, pay high wages, or spend money on training.
Because PHP is mature, a company does not have to worry about skill shortage, lack of community support, security issues, or inconsistencies with legacy systems.
Famous companies include Facebook, Spotify, Tumblr, Slack, and Upwork use PHP.
2. PHP & WordPress
WordPress is an open-source content management system built in PHP coupled with MySQL or MariaDB.
It includes a versatile set of plugins and themes for creating websites. WordPress powers close to half of most websites and the majority of all content news sites.
PHP is back in the game, much more potent, with more and more startups and enterprises preferring efficient WordPress websites over custom web development projects.
Some famous companies like Disney, Microsoft, Etsy, and Spotify use WordPress.
The content-focused websites, ecommerce in particular, are die-hard WordPress fans, and as WordPress features continue to grow, the PHP will be relevant more than ever.
WordPress, Drupal, Magento, WooCommerce, and Joomla are also written in PHP.
3. Smooth Learning Curve
PHP is easier to learn than some other web technologies.. especially if you’re an absolute beginner.
PHP easily embeds with HTML and doesn’t use complex patterns or abstractions to bewilder newbies. Building a dynamic web page with PHP takes less time than any other technology.
So, starters in web development could always prefer PHP as a starting point and scale up to more complex technologies.
PHP gives a taste of what development looks like and how the web works, and this knowledge serves developers in the long run. There are no prerequisites to learning PHP, and, therefore no entry barriers.
PHP is Alive & Kicking
This article briefly overviews PHP and the recent market trends to reflect upon the frequently asked question about PHP, like, is PHP dead? Will PHP die?
The article hints that this assumption could be faulty, as there are many reasons why PHP is relevant even today. So, the article includes three reasons why PHP is still alive.
The first reason is that PHP is mature and has some edge over the latest technologies in terms of community support and reliability. Secondly, WordPress and other famous content management systems involve PHP. The third reason is that PHP is an easy language to learn, which motivates many starters in web development.
We hope that this article answers some of your concerns. If you have liked this article, you will probably like other articles and tutorials at FuelingPHP.
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