Why PHP is Best for Website Development in 2021 Top PHP Advantages
PHP has been around for more than two decades and has proven itself as a strong and dependable solution, amassing a legion of supporters and admirers. However, we must recognize the elephant in the room: PHP is steadily losing popularity in favour of more modern and streamlined alternatives. Let’s take a look at this technology and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of PHP, as well as its intended usage and comparison to other competitive development tools. Web Development India is a top PHP development company in India with a team of professional developers and designers to take on any challenge.
HOW IS PHP DEFINED?
PHP stands for Hypertext Pre-processor and is a server-side scripting language, which means that applications written in it run on web servers and are not browser-dependent. However, its scope of use has expanded over time, and the PHP coding language is now regarded as one of the best and most common programming tools for web creation, owing to the numerous advantages that will be discussed in this article. It is regarded as a highly successful technology that facilitates the production process by providing numerous additional resources. Indeed, PHP is the fifth most popular programming language on the planet, according to the Popularity of Programming Language Index (PYPL). If you’re in search of Website Development India than get in touch with our technical team of expert web developers via email , they would be happy to help you.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF PHP?
As previously mentioned in this article, PHP is primarily used for web development and excels in this field. While it was originally used to construct interactive web sites, developers now tend to use it to design the server side of web applications. However, since PHP was designed as a general-purpose language, it can have additional implementations if required. For instance, PHP enables the development of desktop applications. Additionally, beginning with version 5, PHP supports object-oriented programming, which adds a slew of new capabilities.
This scripting language’s flexibility stems from its exceptional ability to integrate with other programming languages. For instance, developers may write extensions to PHP in the C programming language, which allows the addition of additional functionality. Additionally, PHP comes with a plethora of libraries and frameworks that expand its functionality even further. Laravel, Symfony, Phalcon, Zend Framework, and Yii are the most common examples of such frameworks.
Facebook and WordPress are two of the most well-known examples of PHP-based applications. WordPress is the most common content management system on the Internet, accounting for approximately 48% of all websites that use such systems. WordPress suits almost any function thanks to a wide range of plugins, both built-in and third-party. It can be used to build a blog, a photo gallery, an online shop, or a news portal, among other things.
Facebook is another self-explanatory demonstration of PHP’s capabilities. Although this social network has developed into a complex environment with a wide range of features, including instant messaging, advertisement, blogging, news presentation, and video replay, it remains focused on PHP code that is tightly coupled with other web technologies.
PHP’S BENEFITS
PHP’s success is a reasonable consequence of its many advantages, all of which contribute to its strength and effectiveness as a development tool. The following is a concise list of reasons why PHP is an excellent option for your web application, which will be discussed in greater detail later.
There are nine reasons to use PHP:
Numerous accessible specialists; a sizable library of reference and instructional materials; increased website loading speed; increased database access options; a sizable set of open-source addons; affordable website hosting; excellent compatibility with HTML; excellent flexibility and combinability; numerous benefits offered by cloud solutions.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the PHP benefits mentioned above and see how they can be implemented in practice to enhance the consistency, functionality, and profitability of your web application.
1. A broad range of specialists is available.
PHP’s success has resulted in a sizable developer group, a subset of which could be suitable candidates for hire. The high availability of specialists results in increased productivity and lower demanded salaries, which benefits production costs. Additionally, since this language is relatively simple to learn and implement, even junior developers are typically capable of successfully implementing an app’s basic functionality.
2. Abundant documentation
Numerous tutorials, manuals, and other reference materials are available, which aids in the creation and can serve as a source of encouragement and assistance in difficult situations. Additionally, these materials are invaluable for inexperienced programmers, as they facilitate the learning process by gradually increasing the level of difficulty. Additionally, as mentioned previously, learning PHP is relatively simple, but not as simple as learning Python, for example, which contributes to its popularity.
3. Accelerated loading
PHP enables websites to load faster than many other web development technologies. For example, PHP is currently approximately three times faster than Python in the majority of use cases. Reduced loading time, on the other hand, is a critical SEO ranking factor that aids in the promotion of a website by providing competitive advantages. Increased application pace keeps consumers happy and, when combined with other benefits, aids in the growth and retention of the client base.
4. Extensive database collection
PHP is capable of connecting to almost any kind of database. MySQL is the most frequently chosen database management system, owing to its affordability, effectiveness, and popularity among developers. Other solid database management systems that are compatible with PHP include mSQL, MS-SQL, SQLite, and PostgreSQL. Additionally, PHP is compatible with ElasticSearch, Redis, MongoDB, and a variety of other non-relational databases. This way, developers are not bound to a specific database and can choose the most suitable one for a future application, taking all relevant factors into account.
5. Access to low-cost open-source applications
PHP is a free-to-use technology that enables significant cost savings in the development process. Additionally, the majority of programming tools that are often used in conjunction with PHP are open-source software that can be used for free; this reduces the project’s expense. Additionally, there are numerous frameworks, such as Laravel and CodeIgniter, as well as numerous content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress and Drupal, that extend the functionality of PHP and make development easier and more efficient.
6. More affordable hosting options
The LAMP stack is the most frequently used process scenario for PHP websites. That is, a website is hosted on an Apache HTTP web server running on a Linux framework and utilizes the MySQL database. Both of these components are free, and the stack is well-tested, which means that development time and costs are reduced.
7. Outstanding compatibility with HTML
PHP has embedded HTML scripting, which explains why these two technologies work so well together. In most cases, a PHP script does not mess with the HTML code of a web page, but rather completes it within the?php?> tags’ boundaries. And vice versa, if you’ve developed an entire page in PHP, you can incorporate HTML code through a script. The difference between this and a typical HTML page is the reversed order of the opening tags: the PHP tags will come before the HTML tags.
8. Excellent adaptability
PHP’s flexibility enables it to work efficiently with a wide variety of other programming languages, ensuring that the software product uses the most appropriate technology for each function. Additionally, PHP is a cross-platform language, which means developers can code on any major operating system – Windows, Linux, or macOS. This degree of adaptability significantly speeds up and lowers the cost of growth.
9. Interoperability of cloud-based services
Nowadays, a large number of modern products make use of cloud computing technologies such as Amazon Web Services for a variety of purposes. Different cloud services, such as AWS Lambda, support PHP applications. As a result, a PHP framework can be deployed on a cloud server and benefit from excellent scalability and other advantages. Additionally, since the field of cloud computing is not dominated by other coding languages, PHP has established a foothold in such implementations.
