What are the advantages and disadvantages of PHP web development? How is PHP different from other popular programming languages such as JavaScript? And most importantly, what should a custom PHP app developer know and be able to do? In this article, we will answer these questions and more.
PHP remains one of the most popular programming languages to date. Famous sites such as Facebook or Wikipedia are written in PHP, and these are far from the only large companies or entities relying on this language for their websites. Read on to learn more about custom PHP development.
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language. The first version was released in June 1995, and the current version, named PHP 8, was released in November 2020.
Scripting languages are used to write programs (scripts) that automate certain tasks that the user would otherwise have to perform manually.
Today, PHP is actively used for web development, and mainly for server side applications of the site (backend development). The language is supported by the majority of hosting providers and is one of the most popular solutions for creating dynamic websites due to its large set of built-in tools and additional modules for developing web applications.
The debate over which programming language is better never subsides. We can say with confidence that any language has both numerous advantages and certain disadvantages, and the final decision depends entirely on how well the capabilities of the language meet the specific needs of the client.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of PHP development.
Pros:
Cons:
Anyone who is somehow connected with web development has heard about these languages. They are two fairly simple and very popular scripting languages used by many web pages. Let’s briefly cover the differences between PHP and JavaScript.
| PHP | JavaScript | |
| PHP is mainly used to write the server side of the site (backend). | Frontend and backend | JavaScript is primarily for user side applications (frontend). |
| PHP is almost exclusively for web development. | Scope | JavaScript is used for multithreaded and web applications, game servers, browsers, etc. |
| PHP is used for the backend of websites, and can easily connect to the database. PHP is designed with special features to effectively facilitate these connections. | Database support | JavaScript has no database support. |
As of 2017, PHP was used on over 80% of all websites. As we mentioned above, the language is used on many popular sites that you are already very familiar with. Let’s take a look at some PHP language usage examples.
A significant part of the well-known social network is written in PHP. Facebook‘s developers used the XHP extension and the HipHop framework.
Since 2002, Yahoo has been using PHP on its site to create content management and internal tasks.
The Tumblr microblogging service also uses PHP.
The TED conference website was written in PHP in 2006.
The backend of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia is written in PHP.
PHP is considered a simple, affordable, and efficient development solution due to its ease of setup, stable support from the PHP development team, and timely updates.
Let’s take a look at the specific benefits of PHP web development should you decide to work with it for your project.
The open-source language allows developers to use it for free. It is worth noting that PHP frameworks also greatly simplify the PHP development process.
The language does not require special software to display web applications in a web browser and works on all operating systems.
The ease of learning PHP makes it very attractive for both beginners and professionals with experience in other languages.
PHP has built-in features and tools for securing web applications.
A PHP developer is a software developer who works with the PHP language and PHP-based technologies. The most important step in this process is to choose a dedicated team of specialists for outsourcing PHP development. Let’s take a look at what an expert developer should be able to do and what their functions are in the process of developing PHP applications.
In the process of work, PHP developers will face the following tasks:
As we can see, PHP is still a popular programming language with several significant advantages. If you decide to work on custom PHP development projects, IntexSoft’s dedicated PHP developers are ready to help you and become part of your team. Contact us for a free consultation!
When developing any application, it is always important for clients to get a result, and developers are interested in finding the most optimal way to achieve this result. Application efficiency depends on many factors.
A truly successful e-commerce business, first and foremost, requires a reliable platform to be efficiently presented on the Internet. Nowadays, you can find hundreds of different systems on the market, and making the right choice is not an easy task.
Each step in business requires a thorough analysis and understanding of outcomes and benefits. When it comes to deciding on the type of software to use for your business processes, there are two options – SaaS or Software as a Service and custom enterprise software.