PHP vs Python: Which language is better for web development?

Being a Web Development Company you may always face this question. The backend is the most sought after skill today. Almost all the web development companies and emerging start-ups need a website and an app for which back end developers are in big demand. PHP and Python have emerged as the leading programming languages as per the latest trend in the market. Many PHP web development companies Hire PHP web developers and similarly companies which are preferring Python seek for web developers that are well-versed with Python.


Below there are certain points listed to make your choice easier.

1.  Learning Curve

Undoubtedly Python is a general-purpose programming language and it can be picked up very easily by beginners too. The code written in Python is relatively small and very easy to comprehend. Thus it is also being used to teach programming fundamentals for the ones who are new to programming.

PHP, on the other hand, was never meant as a general-purpose programming language it is meant for sophisticated web applications rather than simply stand-alone applications. Thus it is a bit hard to comprehend comparative to Python. Many PHP web development companies tend to hire PHP web developers who already have a good command because the teaching cost sometimes adds to an additional load.

2. Popularity

In the popularity contest, both the PHP and Python programming languages are giving tough competition to each other. Still, PHP still dominates the market as various web development companies look for PHP as their trustworthy factor. PHP powers various platforms like Yahoo and Wikipedia.

Python came into the limelight when Google chose it. Now various platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. are employing it thus the trend of python is booming.


3. Community Support

Python and PHP both have brilliant community support. PHP has been in the market for long hence PHP web development has been a preferred domain for quite a long time due to which many PHP development companies hire PHP web developers for building web applications specifically.

Python, on the other hand, is successfully attracting many developers and web development companies after the social media giant, Facebook chose it as its prime backend programming language. With the increasing popularity of Python, clearly, none amongst PHP and Python can be declared a clear winner.

4. Speed

Speed becomes a crucial factor in applications which are performance critical. For instance, a banking system which gets millions of hits on a daily basis, a 3 times delay may create a problem. Many PHP web development companies hire PHP web developers because they are engaged in building complex time specific systems. The earlier PHP 5.x versions were quite slow and took a lot of time in execution. But the new PHP 7.x versions are relatively 3 times faster than it. Thus we can say that as far as speed is considered PHP wins a significant margin over Python. Python will suit well in case of short systems where some time lag won’t cost much.

5. Web frameworks

Python-based web frameworks are- Django, Flask, Pyramids, etc. whereas the PHP development companies mostly employ Codeigniter and Laravel for their PHP development services. New developers generally prefer Django hence Python because of the development time using Django is quite less and it is really easy to set up. Still, the frameworks of both the programming languages have various advantages of their own.

6.  Debugging

Python provides you a powerful debugger called a Python Debugger (PDB). PDB is easy to use and it is well-documented also. PHP, on the other hand, has its debugger package called- XDebug package. Xdebug really helps in providing PHP web development services easily. Both PDB and XDebug packages include the most common debugging features like breakpoints, path mapping stacks, etc. None of the two is a clear winner here too.

So after seeing a comparison between the two languages, we can conclude that if you are an experienced PHP developer then you should stick to PHP and joining any PHP Web Development Company will prove advantageous for you. If you are an intermediate developer then you must learn a bit of Python and if it interests you-you can continue on the track. If you are a beginner then start with Python and get yourself acquainted with any of the Python frameworks, preferably Django.

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