Top 6 Advantages of Choosing PHP Over Other Programming Languages

Is PHP Dead?

If you’re on the same hunt, we have some great stuff for you!

As per SimilarTech, 4,388,457 live websites use PHP and the number keeps increasing.

78.9% of all websites with a known server-side programming language use PHP. The leading technology holds the potential to change the CODING WORLD in the coming years because of its unlimited perks.

Do you wonder what those perks are?

You’re in the right place. Here, we discuss the Top 6 Advantages of PHP Language Over Other Programming Languages.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Some Startling Statistics of PHP

Here are some startling statistics about PHP you would like to know:

Versions of PHP

This diagram represents the percentage of web applications using different PHP versions. The most recent version of PHP is 8.1. However, Version 7 is utilized by 71.1 percent of all web applications. Here is how you can read the chart: 

Another mesmerizing stat released by WordPress.org is – 64.0% of WordPress websites are using PHP 7.1 or lower, with 22.9%, the plurality, using PHP 5.6:

Historical Trend

This diagram represents the historical trend in the percentage of websites using PHP. 

 

Market Position

This diagram represents PHP’s market acquisition as compared to other server-side backend programming languages. As shown in the chart, PHP is used by many more websites than other languages. There is a significant difference! Let’s take a glance at the diagram and understand it thoroughly.

Looking Back into the Past of PHP

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is widely known as a general-purpose backend programming language. Developers have been using this language for 20+ years. Due to the compatibility and Advantages of PHP Language, programmers use it as a server-side scripting language to develop appealing websites.

PHP is mostly written in – C language, but some of its components were also written in C++. This framework helps reuse the same code, and developers don’t need to write long and complex codes for web applications. ns.PHP frameworks are primarily open-source, and developers can easily use them.

Purpose of PHP Programming Language

PHP programming language is highly adaptive that allows developers to design, create and add updated functionalities to the website and keep the end user hooked. Also, extensions and plugins in PHP help developers to cope with the challenges in the programming field. A famous software written with the assistance of PHP is WordPress.

Why is PHP Used for Backend Programming?

PHP (also known as Hypertext Preprocessor) is an extensive-purpose scripting language developers use to develop interactive and dynamic websites. It is among the initial server-side languages developers could embed into HTML and easily add functionality to web pages without calling external files for data.

Popular Websites of PHP

Do you know that these popular websites run on PHP?

1. Pinterest.com
2. Facebook.com
3. WordPress.org
4. Whatsapp.com
5. Wikipedia.org
6. Vk.com
7. Vimeo.com

Not to mention Drupal and Joomla – they use PHP too.

Future of PHP

While those things are said, PHP has evolved in several exciting ways. It is constantly growing to become a fully-featured Java-like object-oriented language. If you’ll compare the advantages of PHP Vs Java, this language is gaining uncomplicated abstractions for practical programming — conceivably, the current hotness. 

Do You Really Need PHP for Your Project?

PHP is a fantastic option if a programmer is working on a project, a server, or a hosting and conveys that he needs a language. You can integrate PHP with a browser and start working on your project.

5 PHP Tips for Developers in 2023

Did you always want to know things you’ll want to bring into your interest? Well, after hours of thought, this section has been summarized. So, without any further due, let’s start with it.

* Stay Away from Coding Lines Ending With _once() –

A well-knowledgeable programmer knows that include() gives a huge warning if it fails. Also, require() kills the entire script with a deadly error soon after it fails. One more thing which you need to remember is that require_once() and include_once() are very hard on server resources. There’s nothing that the programmer can do about it; this is how PHP is set up.   

* Use a Framework if Needed –

Frameworks help you to perform tedious things. But still, you will need to learn all the functionalities of this framework first to make things easy. That is the fundamental trade-off point for all programmers. Plus, there will be fewer chances of writing a lousy script when someone has already written the top part of it.   

* Use PHP’s In-built Functionalities –

Do you want to add more keys to the array? You can loop via the variety and increase a value for every iteration. Isn’t that simple? You can otherwise use the in-built PHP function – count(), which does what it is supposed to do. PHP has several in-built functionalities that can fulfill all your requirements.  

* The Smaller, The Better –

Writing a 10,000-line code differs from what makes you an impressive web developer. But reducing that 10,000-line script to something small without altering its output makes you a fantastic PHP developer. Don’t repeat any code; use highly-recommended programming tools like objects, arrays, and functions to their highest potential.   

* Use Single Quotes, Not Double Quotes –

Since your PHP codes will likely become a combination of the HTML script and the PHP script, developers should apply single quotes in every echo statement. The main reason behind this is that using double quotes in echo statements might be a noticeable problem, mainly when HTML Tags and their syntaxes are involved.

Some Incredible Use-Cases of PHP

The scripting language – PHP is one of the oldest and most preferred backend programming languages. The biggest tech giants, like Google, Wikipedia, and Facebook, use PHP. Here is a list of 5 practical use cases of PHP.

* Cybersecurity of the Website –

PHP is an incredible programming language that allows the programmer to integrate cybersecurity with his website. The internet enhancement has raised concerns regarding cybersecurity issues among several tech professionals. Hiring PHP developers will allow you to integrate your website with effective cybersecurity codes. As a result, integrating PHP tools and cybersecurity will allow you to eliminate ongoing cyber-attacks.   

* Write Your Own Script Code –

With PHP, you need not depend on any 3rd-party email features. You can also send notifications to all your clients by utilizing PHP features. These notifications are important messages for your clients regarding your services and products.  

* Integrate Cloud into Your Website –

Cloud is assuredly among the best technological innovations and transformation that has led to several breakthroughs. Incorporating technology is a huge task that you can take on. A person can’t simply add some coding lines and look forward to things happening automatically. All the data sources and other features need to be updated and optimized. After that, the developer can integrate the cloud. This is an expert’s job, but with PHP programming language, it becomes easy for any developer to accomplish.

* Image Processing –

Sometimes, the user tries to upload some files to verify something else. Uploading these files is simple and easy for the users, but the website designed with PHP language contains a few rules. The user can only upload images of 2 or 3 MB. Also, the photo’s size has to be under specific dimensions. If everyone starts sending photos with sizes as large as 5 or 6 MB, this adds up to hundreds of GBs of stored data. There are several Advantages of PHP Language wherein you can compress your image and then upload it on the website. It will always maintain the image’s quality. 

* CMS System –

Websites are filled with data; all these contents are the websites’ lifelines. The content is something that makes your website stand ideal among other sites. This content needs to be updated timely, and new content needs to be added. PHP allows programmers to use platforms like word press to update old content and add new content with a few clicks only. This will enable them to save a lot of effort and time.

Six Advantages of PHP Over Other Programming Languages

Although web developers use a wide range of scripting languages, including ASP, JSP, Perl, and CGI, most favor using PHP. There are multiple Advantages of PHP Language that have been explained in this section –

* Easy to Learn –

You must be thinking, is PHP easy to learn? As mentioned before, PHP is much easier to understand when compared to other languages. Even if you have no skills in the backend programming languages, you can understand them. PHP is the best language, and it is among the essential benefits of adapting it. Besides this, when compared with other backend programming languages, PHP doesn’t need you to spend much time understanding a manual.

* Open Source –

PHP is a free and open-source language that helps programmers install it quickly and readily use it. Several PHP frameworks are available, and programmers can bring any of these frameworks into their work. The programmers can easily use all the tools and features for that framework. As it is an open-source language, it makes your system ready with PHP quickly and makes the web development process fast with the assistance of the tools and other features.

* Security –

PHP frameworks work in instruments and elements which make it simpler and easier to secure web applications from security dangers and external assaults. The security dangers include SQL injection, falsification, information tampering, etc. To shield the web application from these external assaults and security dangers, developers can use PHP frameworks while developing web applications.

* Cross-Platform –

While discussing the advantages of PHP language, its cross-platform nature will remain in the spotlight. Being a cross-platform language, PHP allows operations on various operating systems. It also works great on Windows, LINUX, and UNIX platforms. Moreover, PHP readily frames with Apache and MySQL as well.

* Easy Integration –

PHP does not work with specific web platforms or applications or strictly patterns. PHP web development is used to make more extensive websites as this language integrates well with several web apps. To name some, PHP can integrate with several web applications such as Memcached, MongoDB, Pusher, etc.

* Gives More Control to the Developer –

Compared to other languages, PHP allows the web developer to attain more control. Complicated and long scripts bog down other languages. But this is different for PHP. Moreover, PHP also allows tags. Hence, web developers can add and mix HTML tags to make the content dynamic.

Some Disadvantages of Using PHP

There is no doubt that there are several advantages of PHP in the web development process. But there are also a few drawbacks of PHP that fends it off from commanding that field. It’s a fact that programming language is only partially self-sufficient. Thus, we are introducing some disadvantages of using PHP. 

* Security Flaws –

Over the last several years, the distressfulness about the security of products designed in the PHP language has remained because of multiple reasons. One of those reasons is PHP’s open-source nature. It means that if there is any possible code vulnerability, it will be common knowledge among many people after it is found.

* Difficult to Utilize for Large Applications –

If someone wants to design an extensive web-based application, it cannot be built using the PHP programming language. The developer will have to use any other web development language.

* Can’t Alter Fundamental Behavior –

Assume you are working on a particular task and need to make it very creative; then PHP cannot help you with that. The main reason behind this is that PHP doesn’t allow changes or modifications to the application’s framework as a scripting language.

Closing Out

There are several advantages of PHP programming language, some of which have been explained above. It also has some disadvantages, but still, it is better than several other backend programming languages. 

Several programmers widely use it as the programming language, and many people use it to create different web-based applications. Several developers use it due to its features, and it is an open-source program. It doesn’t cost anything, and programmers can use it to develop custom web-based applications integrated with several other programming languages.

Undeniably, finding an expert to develop a stunning custom web application is always challenging. However, we have made the task easy for you; hire the expert PHP developers of Glocify Technologies and relax! In addition, we have some great ideas to get you started! For more details about how we can help you with your projects, get in touch with us today!