Being around for over 25 years, PHP server-side language evokes strong opinions among today’s developers. Whether there is a new programming tool or language, you can find people discussing that it is not important. Well, PHP has gown down to the rankings of the famous programming languages, as per the Stack Overflow yearly developer survey 2022. But still, PHP is significantly used in 80% of websites. This framework is running on some major platforms, such as Facebook and WordPress.
Why is PHP Language Still Used So Widely?
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose language for scripting. It is often used for developing interactive and dynamic websites. It’s among the popular server-side languages that are integrated into HTML. This makes it convenient to add functionality to certain web pages. And, that too without requiring to call some external data files.
Over the years, the use of this language has evolved with various upgrades, features, and new capabilities. The latest update was its version 8.0 that was unveiled in November 2022.
Although it’s not among the most popular languages used today, here are certain PHP advantages that make it still so important for web development.
1. PHP is very easy to understand and use:
One of the major reasons why it’s still so popular is that it’s very easy to understand. Even if you don’t have extensive knowledge or experience, you can still it use to make a web page. That too in a short period using a single PHP file. Its command functions are very simple to learn and the syntax is easy. It means that the PHP entry barriers are much lower than other complicated languages.
2.It is open-source:
Since PHP is open-source, it lets web developers get started easily at zero cost. There is also quite open access to a various range of its frameworks, like Symfony and Laravel. This particular feature is quite appealing to certain companies. It is because it helps them control the web development cost.
3. PHP is quite versatile:
One of the major benefits of using PHP is that it’s independent of any platform. This means that it’s easy to use on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and even supports many web browsers. Furthermore, it supports all the web servers. Hence, it’s easy to deploy on various systems, as well as platforms at a minimal extra cost.
4. It is fast & secure:
Most organizations want their website or application to be fast and secure. Making use of its own memory, PHP competes well on speed – particularly when it’s used in the latest versions. While there were certain questions about security in the past, the latest versions and the frameworks have fixed the earlier vulnerabilities and cyberattack issues.
5. PHP has solid community support:
Being a good old scripting language that’s used widely, the language has the solid support of a loyal and large community base. There are various tutorials, tips, and FAQs to help PHP developers to push their limits. This way, they can create something unusual and more creative with the use of PHP. That’s why the community loves this language, like other web languages.
6.PHP is well connected with databases
It connects securely with various types of databases. It gives web developers more freedom to choose the desired database. Hence, you can make it well-suited for the website or application you want to make.
7. This language is already tried and tested
Another major benefit of using this language is that its codes are tried and tested for all types of real-life environments. Most bugs are also fixed. This makes this language more trusted and stable for use by developers. Furthermore, most frameworks are built over time. So, it helps you to make PHP web development highly efficient, secure, and effective.
Conclusion
So, these are some of the major benefits of using PHP. All these advantages make this language popular even today. That’s why many major platforms are still based on this basic programme language. Even web developers like to use this simple yet creative language to make many powerful websites.
