There are numerous web development languages out there including ASP, CGI, Perl, and PHP. The latter is perhaps the most widely used as it offers the breadth to create highly intuitive and interactive website applications and websites with simple execution. PHP is an open-source coding language that has all the scripting language offerings out there for free. The fact that it’s interactive, dynamic and easily accessible has made it one of the most popular technical languages. In this post, we at LearnPHP.org are going to look at why PHP is excellent for web development.
Free, Open-source and Friendly
As mentioned above, PHP is open source and so, it’s developed and updated regularly by the community globally to make sure that it’s not just relevant, but in sync with the current technological trends. PHP is among the most popular programming languages and there’s no shortage of developers and coders who can see your project through completion or even when it is time to make alterations. The constant effort by the community also ascertains that PHP stays on a friendly plane.
Simple and Easy to Learn
PHP scripting language is one of the easiest programming languages to learn when it comes to building websites. This allows developers to have a quick grasp of the web development landscape. It is quite similar to Java and C languages and so, if you already know how to code in either, then learning PHP will be a breeze.
No Limits
PHP gives you more freedom compared to its counterparts as it’s open-source and can be edited on most text editors including the free notepad and more advanced ones such as jEdit, Bluefish, Emacs and Notebook++.
When it comes to a scripting language like ASPX, which is the leading PHP competitor, you are limited to Microsoft Visual Studio, and no developer likes restrictions, particularly when it comes to web development.
Compatible With All Operating Systems
Another appealing feature of PHP is that it runs seamlessly with Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Unix and interfaces with MySQL and Apache. Simply put, it covers all the bases and can be seamlessly executed on all prominent OS. PHP is also excellent for cross-platform development, making it a cost-effective web development language due to its efficacy.
Speed
PHP is way faster than other scripting languages as it doesn’t need a lot of resources. It can run while other applications are running and do not slow down other processes in your system. A site developed on PHP is much easy to get hosted.
Numerous Resources
There is an ocean of handy tools for web developers looking for specific features and functionalities. Whether it’s editors, frameworks, documentation tools or dependency managers, PHP has a wide array of high-quality tools that are readily available for use. There’s also information online pertaining to every topic of programming with PHP. It also provides an insurmountable number of extensions, and so, the results are entirely in sync with your expectations.
Dynamic and Flexible
Websites and web applications programmed with PHP are very secure. PHP is an all encrypted language that’s easily scalable, thus making it flexible and dynamic. Websites and web applications refresh automatically without the need for manual input. It also offers the largest amount of flexibility compared to its counterparts and can be tailored to meet your specific web development needs. It can also be combined with different libraries for graphics, etc.
Object Oriented
Object-oriented programming is something that gives you an edge in today’s landscape. From the reuse of classes to reducing lines of code, all the features available are those that every web developer wants when working on a project.
PHP scripting language gives you the benefit of reusing language classes that have been written in Java. The primary advantage for PHP web developers is creating custom classes. This tends to extend the capabilities of the language even further as other classes can borrow from the custom class.
Easy Maintenance
Every web developer wants to use a programming language that is easy to find and rectify any errors. This is pretty easy to do in PHP, given how friendly and simple it is to use.
As you can see, there are numerous reasons why you would choose PHP for web development over other scripting languages.
