The Blue Elephant in the Room: Why PHP Should Not Be Ignored Now or Ever

While browsing the web, you may often encounter opinions suggesting that "PHP is no longer what it used to be" and that its top positions in the 2000s are irretrievable. “Is PHP Dead?” is arguably the most famous headline for yet another article about this programming language. Indeed, modern realities demand new tools; however, some things do not have true alternatives, and PHP is one of them. Having been a leader in the past, it still retains its position.

In this article, I will explain why good old PHP not only continues to hold its ground against the increasing number of new technologies but also remains the best assistant for developers in creating a wide range of web projects of any complexity.

The Root of It All

While the end justifies the means, it also defines them. The entire evolution of PHP is directly related to the tasks it was initially created for. To understand why PHP has been and remains popular in web development, let's go back to its origins and understand its roots. 

PHP celebrated its first birthday in 1994 when Danish programmer Rasmus Lerdorf decided to create a set of programs in C to manage his resume and track visits to his website. This led to its name, which initially was “Personal Home Page Tools,” until later, when Rasmus opened the code to the public, and it became known worldwide as“PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.”

From its inception, PHP was developed as a foundation for web projects. Over the years, PHP has undergone many changes, evolving from a simple set of scripts for managing web pages into a full-fledged programming language used for the most complex web projects. Yet, its essence remains the same as it was 30 years ago: born for the web, it stays in the web.

As a simple and flexible language, PHP attracted thousands of programmers who could quickly and effortlessly create dynamic websites. A significant advantage was its ability to embed code directly into HTML markup, providing unprecedented simplicity and flexibility in creating dynamic web pages. The advent of popular frameworks and content management systems like Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, and Drupal further strengthened PHP's position in the market.

These tools remain incredibly popular among novice and experienced developers alike, adding yet another (non-negligible) plus to PHP's reputation.

Competitors? Really?

The digitalization of everything has made web development more essential than ever before. The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life, and websites, blogs, and online stores are must-haves for every entrepreneur. Without them, finding clients is quite challenging. Therefore, apart from PHP, other programming languages are competing in the market. But have they achieved similar success in web development? Let's take a closer look.

1. Python
   The popularity of Python is no secret: it's widely advertised and perceived by many as the gold standard of development. Yes, it is used in many fields (including back-end web development) and has powerful frameworks like Django and Flask. It is also easy to learn and requires minimal effort from developers. However, despite Python's suitability for complex applications and handling large datasets, PHP significantly surpasses its performance and capabilities for web project development. This is not surprising, as PHP was specifically created for this purpose. Python's main domain these days is data science and analysis, a field where it is probably equaled by none, but we are talking about web development here.

2. JavaScript/TypeScript (and Node.js)
   Traditionally used for client-side development, JavaScript's popularity surged with the advent of Node.js, making it also applicable for server-side development. This increased its popularity and user base, allowing developers to use the same language for both front-end and back-end development. This means businesses can cut down on their programming staff budgets, and JS developers can expand their skills significantly. Node.js is suitable for applications requiring high performance and asynchronous operations, but it significantly lags behind PHP in backend popularity. This means that, ultimately, a web project written in PHP will be significantly easier and cheaper to maintain. You can also find significantly more documentation/guides for working with this programming language, meaning that such a web project has a significantly higher chance of survival, as there will always be someone who can continue developing it.

3. Go (or Golang)
   A product of Google, Go is becoming increasingly popular due to its performance. Go is good for high-load web services, handling them with enviable efficiency. Additionally, its syntax is incredibly simple to learn, with rumors suggesting one can become a senior developer in 30 days from scratch by using it. However, Go has not yet reached the adoption level of PHP, remaining somewhat on the sidelines: development in Go is much slower, and the number of tools and libraries for creating complex projects is significantly smaller. Many developers effectively use Golang in conjunction with PHP today, complementing rather than replacing it.

4. Java
   Java has long proven itself as a reliable programming language with powerful and scalable frameworks like Spring and Apache Struts. It is well-suited for implementing corporate web applications for companies with sufficient financial and time resources. Unfortunately, the high budget and significant time required for development make it less ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, especially startups with limited funds. For them, PHP, which is easier to manage and faster to deploy, is a far more suitable choice.

5. C#
   Similar to Java, C# has many powerful tools and libraries for creating scalable web applications. However, PHP is more versatile and less dependent on a specific ecosystem. PHP is also more accessible to many developers, easier to learn and set up, and does not require excessively long project completion times. This is its superpower.

When comparing programming languages, many refer to survey data. Let's do the same. According to the PYPL Index, Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey 2024, and TIOBE Index, PHP ranks somewhere between 7th and 10th. Such results might give a false impression that PHP has lost its position among back-end development languages, but this is simply not true. The higher-ranking languages are designed for a broader range of tasks, unlike PHP, which is primarily focused on back-end development.

For instance, Python is widely used in machine learning and data analysis, but its use for back-end web application development is not always justified. JavaScript is mainly used for client-side web development, where it has virtually no alternatives. Other languages that surpassed PHP are often used in many other areas not necessarily related to web back end.

Therefore, in 2025, 2026, and most likely in 2027, PHP can still confidently be called a leading programming language specifically for back-end development of many simple and medium-complexity web applications, which is its main purpose.

Why PHP: My Reflections on the Past

When I first started learning programming, I was always curious about one question: how to turn written code, consisting of loops, functions, variables, and modules, into something tangible or how to create a functional application that is not only useful to others but also visually appealing? As an old-timer, like many students of that period, I learned the basics of programming in Pascal and C++. Sometimes, it felt as boring as a Sunday sermon. We focused on algorithms and mathematical computations, which often made the subject dull and uninteresting. However, everything changed when I discovered web development.

In one of my courses, we were tasked with developing an online store in a programming language of our choice. We were given six months to complete the project. That’s when I first encountered HTML, the simplest language for web page markup, and was amazed at how easily it allowed me to create something for the browser and immediately see the results of my work. This was impressive, but I quickly realized that HTML alone couldn't implement complex logic or dynamics. That's when I discovered PHP, a server-side programming language that could breathe life into standard HTML pages without any complicated tricks. Its syntax was comfortable for me, resembling C-like languages I was already familiar with. I also liked PHP’s way of working: it starts a script to handle a request, does what it needs to do, and then finishes its work, significantly simplifying the creation of a server-side application.

Completing this project was a real breakthrough for me. I encountered many new technologies, delved a bit into JavaScript and JQuery to liven up the client side of the application, learned how web servers work, and mastered the basics of networking technologies. However, it was PHP that left the strongest impression on me and earned a special place in my heart. It changed my perception of back-end development, showing that creating dynamic web applications with complex server-side logic could be an intuitive and accessible task. I'm sure many developers share these feelings with me.

PHP not only simplifies the process of back-end development but also opens up vast opportunities for creativity and innovation. Its flexibility and simplicity have always made PHP the perfect tool for creating web applications of any complexity, defining its relevance through all times.

The Advantages of PHP

My story is a clear example of why PHP has been and remains convenient for web developers. Now, I will outline its advantages in more detail, and you will undoubtedly become a PHP advocate.

1. PHP has C-like syntax
   This syntax makes it easy for anyone familiar with C-like programming languages (and there are many such people) to learn PHP. It includes familiar control structures like conditional statements and loops, a similar function declaration format, the use of curly braces to define code blocks, etc.

2. PHP is good for rapid web application development
   It does not require code compilation to run the program. It belongs to the group of interpreted programming languages, which significantly speed up development. Many changes in the script’s operation can be seen immediately, for example, by simply refreshing the page in the browser. Just press F5!

3. PHP is forgiving of errors
   That is why PHP is ideal for beginners and not only them. A key feature is that nearly every script comes to life to handle a request and then peacefully dies right after completing it (I am not talking about technologies like RoadRunner and similar ones; there, the story is slightly different). This approach significantly reduces the risks associated with memory leaks and many other bottlenecks in other server-side programming languages. Thus, PHP allows you to focus on the logic and functionality of the program without constantly keeping low-level resource management aspects in mind.

4. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP is cool
   It has everything: abstract classes, interfaces, inheritance mechanisms, traits, final classes or methods, read-only properties/classes, and much more. Listing everything would take too long, so I'll just say this: PHP is awesome.

5. Debugging can be quickly and easily integrated into the workflow
   For example, anyone associated with this language has heard of the popular tool Xdebug, which provides extensive capabilities for error tracking and code execution analysis. And, if you're too lazy to use powerful tools, var_dump is always there to help. Any PHP developer will understand what I mean.

6. PHP offers extensive data type handling capabilities
   From the beginning, PHP did not adhere to strict typing rules, providing developers with considerable freedom. In PHP, you can use variables to store data of any supported type, and when performing any operation with this variable, the type is converted to the necessary one if possible. However, since type conversion logic is not always apparent to developers, over time, more possibilities for stricter typing have emerged. For instance, in modern versions of PHP, you can specify property types, constant types, function argument types, and return types and enable strict typing mode (via the declare(strict_types=1) directive). If strict typing is activated, PHP will not try to automatically convert types that do not meet the function's or method's expectations; instead, it will throw an error indicating a type mismatch. This means that using strict_type helps identify errors early in the project development stage. By the way, strict_type works only in the file where it is enabled, so you can gradually enable this feature in a project without breaking the old functionality. Thus, PHP combines flexibility when you need to do something very quickly and strictness for more serious projects where the cost of an error is very high.

7. Arrays in PHP deserve special attention
   They can simultaneously function as simple dynamic arrays with numeric indexes, associative arrays (or hash tables) with string keys, collections, vectors, etc. Thus, many web development needs are easily met in PHP.

8. PHP is one of the most efficient scripting programming languages
   This is especially true in the context of web development. Its performance significantly improved in version 7 thanks to optimizations in the Zend Engine interpreter: PHP received more optimal memory management and a substantial speed-up in operation execution. The introduction of JIT compilation in PHP 8 further boosted performance, especially noticeable in compute-intensive tasks. What else speeds up PHP? Of course, OpCache – a PHP extension included since version 5.5, which makes the language even faster by caching precompiled bytecode scripts in memory. Additionally, new developments in PHP, such as Swoole and ReactPHP, provide capabilities for asynchronous programming, which can significantly improve the performance of many applications, especially those dealing with frequent I/O operations.

You can endlessly do three things: watch a fire burning, watch other people working, and list all the advantages of PHP. They are so plentiful that listing them all would take more than a dozen such articles. Moreover, not all advantages are defined solely by its functional capabilities: the ecosystem is also crucial, and PHP has one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems among programming languages. 

There is a wide range of extensions, tools, libraries, and frameworks. Symfony alone is worth mentioning, and it mostly consists of many individual libraries! Each of them can be used in any project as they are all open to the community. For example, another extremely popular PHP framework, Laravel, is largely based on Symfony components. Finding something essential for creating a web project that hasn't already been implemented as a library or package in PHP is quite challenging: much is already available, and the selection is truly vast.

The Future of PHP

Another important thing to note is that PHP is not stagnant; it is actively supported and developed by a large community of developers and major organizations like PHP Foundation and Zend. Its evolution is impressive: frequent and regular releases of core and minor updates constantly improve the language, allowing it to stay relevant in new realities. PHP developers strive to follow a version release schedule to ensure stability and predictability for users; new minor PHP versions are now released annually. Not long ago, version 8.3 was released, bringing significant improvements in performance and functionality. Major new features include constant types, which expand PHP's typing capabilities, the addition of the json_validate function, expanded Randomizer capabilities, and so on. And the next version, 8.4, is already on the way, which will add a huge number of useful innovations, such as a new, more advanced JIT engine, new functions for working with headers, new methods for working with date/time, new MBString functions, property hooks (very serious and useful change) and much more.

Maybe some old-timers remember when PHP was sometimes criticized for the low quality of certain programs, but that's now just a thing of the past; the situation is changing, and only for the better. Developers are gaining experience, and the language is becoming stricter and safer. Errors while coding? Not if you do the job with a steady hand!

Of course, there are still unresolved issues and problems in PHP — for instance, the historically inconsistent syntax, including inconsistencies in function names. A particularly serious drawback is the different order of arguments in functions, often leading to confusion and errors. Many developers are also dissatisfied with the slow introduction of new features; the issue of supporting generics at the language level has become especially pressing.

However, all these issues are far from critical and do not compare to the advantages of using PHP. The language is becoming more mature, criticism is fading into the past, and PHP continues to be used to create millions of web projects every year. The frameworks and CMSs that made it truly widespread are still around and face no serious competition. Writing in PHP remains easy, and the amount of quality materials continues to grow, so it is unrealistic to expect that in 2025, 2026 or 2027 anything will shake PHP's leadership in back-end development.