According to the latest data, 78.9% of all websites with a known server-side programming language use PHP. Do you know what it means? Eight out of every ten websites that you visit on the internet are using PHP.
So the next time someone tells you PHP is obsolete, or its user base is gradually decreasing, you can shut them with these numbers.
Indeed, PHP has been the preferred language of many developers for creating advanced and highly functional web applications.
With the rise of e-commerce, B2B, and B2C businesses, websites require complex features. PHP assists this type of development with numerous frameworks, minimizing the time and use of resources for development.
And a lot has changed in the web development landscape. This article will shed some light on the main benefits of using PHP for website development.
1.Open Source
One of the benefits of PHP is that it?s an open-source programming language. It?s not proprietary and with certain provisions can be modified or built upon in a manner that is open to the public.
This makes developers? jobs easy. They can access the necessary scripting code from the web page and use that code as a reference for further parallel website development.
2.Inexpensive
Whether you are a web development company or a freelancer, you would want to cut down your development expenses. That?s why PHP is still quite popular among developers.
You don?t have to pay anything for using its libraries and other features, nor do you have to purchase any kind of license.
It has numerous frameworks such as Laravel and CodeIgniter, and various CMS including WordPress, each of them is free. Altogether, these CMSs and frameworks make the development process easier and more effective.
3.Easy to Understand & Code
Learning a programming language can be a challenge — especially if it?s an old language. PHP was developed in the mid-1990s, at a time when programming languages were far different from human languages.
Yet, its syntax is easier to understand and implement. Even if you have basic knowledge of coding, and the developer has written a clean and concise code, you would be able to understand someone else?s code.
To keep things sophisticated, developers follow MVC architecture that separates an application into three main logical components: the model, the view, and the controller.
The Model part corresponds to all the data-related logic that the user works with.
The View component is for all the UI logic of the application.
And the Controllers act as an intermediate between Model and View components. They process all business logic and incoming requests.
4.Easy Integration
Another benefit of PHP is its compatibility. Usually, we don?t expect old programming languages to fit well with modern operating systems.
But that?s not the case with PHP. It can run smoothly on UNIX, Solarix, Linux, and Windows. You don?t require any software to integrate it, nor existing software to be updated.
5. Excellent Combinability with HTML
Without HTML, it?s impossible to create web applications. PHP offers embedded HTML programming resulting in an incredible synergy between both technologies.
Mostly, PHP script doesn?t affect the HTML code of a web and completes execution while remaining inside the borders.
Likewise, if an HTML code has been integrated into a PHP page, it won?t stop the web page from running.
6.Flexibility in Terms of DBs
As a developer, you have to ponder over the pros and cons of every database before picking one from the available options.
The best thing about PHP is it allows you to connect your app to any type of database. More often than not, it?s MySQL — web developers? favorite database.
However, it?s not necessary that you connect your web to MySQL. MS-SQL, mSQL, SQLite, and PostgreSQL are also great options.
You can even use PHP with ElasticSearch, Redis, MongoDB, and other non-relational databases.
This flexibility is a great perk of using PHP. You focus on writing features instead of worrying about your database options.
7.Flexibility
Another major advantage of using PHP is it effectively combines with many other programming languages. This way, you can pick the best features from different languages and embed them in your software.
Moreover, PHP is a cross-platform language so it can be used on any operating system. You don?t have to create a separate web application dedicated to a particular operating system.
8.Compatibility with Cloud Services
When it comes to compatibility with cloud services, PHP is quite flexible. PHP-based applications can be deployed on any cloud service including Amazon Web Services, and AWS Lambda.
No matter at what platform you deploy them, all PHP applications offer excellent scalability and other beneficial effects.
At Digital Gravity, We Still Use PHP?
Given its numerous benefits, as a web design New York service, we use PHP and its frameworks to create highly functional and high-performance apps. Our creative and tech-savvy team believes the benefits of a language determine its usability, not its age.
Despite being old, PHP is still going great and PHP developers are high in demand. Do you want a PHP-based application for yourself? Get in touch!
