Over the past few years, you’ve probably heard the rumors: There are some people out there who claim things like “PHP is dead”, “It’s outdated”, and “No one uses it anymore!” But is it really true?
Is PHP failing or is this just another myth that flows around the tech industry?While in many new languages such as JavaScript and Python, PHP is still one of the most used languages on the World Wide Web.
Now that we come to this point, let us explore them to find out if they are myths or truths.
The Origins of PHP
Before proceeding with the analysis of the topic of our discussion, I consider it necessary to carry out some historical analysis. Originally, programmer Rasmus Lerdorf who learned programming on his own to improve his page counters, invented PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) for this purpose in 1995.
Shortly, PHP became one of the most widely used languages for creating dynamic sites and websites. WordPress is coded in PHP and virtually every site you enter has the potential to communicate with PHP.
PHP was considered the most important web development tool for many years, supporting millions of sites and letting developers create truly dynamic, and server-side applications.
Then why has there been a recent change in perception regarding PHP?
The Rise of JavaScript and Other Competitors
PHP did not suddenly disappear itself but it has passed through some tough competition. When JavaScript frameworks such as Node.js, React, Vue.js, and others emerged, began the process of evolving the landscape of web developers. Javascript started being the language of choice for front-end and back-end development most especially with the introduction of full-stack Javascript applications.
Newer languages such as Python, Rubies, and Go were revealing and influencing developers particularly those who suffered from scalability, simplicity, or performance issues. Many developers began to gravitate toward these newer, trendier options.
And let’s not forget about the "framework wars" that took over the development world. Laravel (a PHP framework) was widely adopted, but other frameworks and platforms like Django (Python) and Ruby on Rails gained traction, offering robust features and developer-friendly experiences.
This shift in focus led to the "PHP is dead" narrative, but is it that simple?
The Reality: PHP Is Far From Dead
Let’s clear the air: PHP is far from dead. It remains one of the most widely used languages for web development, powering millions of websites and continuously evolving with modern updates. Here’s why:
1. The Power of WordPress
WordPress is one of the major reasons why PHP will be relevant for many more years to come. You may find it shocking that, at the moment, approximately 39% of the website populations around the globe run on WordPress. That is a huge proportion of the internet, and do you know what? WordPress runs on PHP.
While some want to claim that PHP has finally waned, WordPress is still the big CMS out there, meaning you can expect PHP to stick around for quite some time. Companies and individuals who develop using WordPress and extensions such as themes, plugins, and personalizations extensively use PHP.
2. Modern PHP is a Whole Tech Innovation
Other important frameworks such as Laravel have also revived this language and have continued to do so. These modern frameworks give syntax clean and elegant and have tools to create applications that are large and easy to maintain.
With appreciation to Laravel, Symfony, and other frameworks based on PHP, developers at the best PHP development company in India can build intricate applications without much difficulty and in less time.3. Massive Ecosystem & Community Support
It has been pointed out above that PHP’s supporting community is considered one of the largest in the world. Many of them express the advantages of using Ruby on Rails through its rich set of tools, libraries, and resources that facilitate the development process. Composer, which PHP describes as the language’s dependency manager, is an indispensable tool for PHP developers to manage project dependencies on other projects.
Also, there is a strong community for PHP and active developers as well. Thousands of developer are contributing their time towards forums, open source projects and even generating content such as tutorials for the PHP. Such support means PHP will be here for many years to come and it is also very popular.
4. PHP is Everywhere
it’s not only WordPress, PHP plays a crucial role in many industries. Magento for e-commerce, Letterpress with basis on Laravel, and websites with content-oriented loads still utilize PHP in their backend. PHP is capable of providing a solution to develop an Enterprise application as well as to design a Small business website.
PHP is also widely used because most of the popular web hosting service providers also provide strong support to PHP developers, which makes it easier to create web applications. This makes PHP relevant as well as in high demand, due to such vast usage.
What About PHP’s Performance?
Another complaint most developers have with PHP is the issue of performance as compared to new-generation languages. Although PHP might not be as fast, for example, as Go or Rust, recent updates to PHP, particularly PHP 7, have significantly improved its performance, placing it among the top-performing languages. However, PHP 7 brought serious changes making this language one of the fastest among many other languages out there.
Moreover, we want to point out the fact that the observed performance is entirely dependent on how good and optimized the written code is. What this means is that a well-optimized PHP application will give you the same performance level as those other fully optimized applications developed in other languages.
So, Should You Learn PHP?
If you’re starting in web development or considering which language to pick up next, should you learn PHP? Absolutely. While newer languages like JavaScript and Python are certainly valuable, PHP still holds a major presence in web development. So, if you are interested in becoming a WordPress specialist or if you plan to start with server-side programs using such frameworks as Laravel, PHP will be your optimal choice.
However, with PHP being used in legacy systems and new applications currently developed, it’s a language that will never go out of demand, though it is a steep learning curve. It is not going to fade any time soon.
Final words: PHP Is Not Dead
The rumors about PHP being dead are simply not true. While newer programming languages have gained popularity, PHP is still going strong.
With a strong community, regular updates, and a huge presence in areas like WordPress and e-commerce, PHP isn’t going anywhere.
Therefore, if you’re thinking about a career in web development or want to learn new skills, don’t count PHP out. The truth is, PHP is alive and thrilling.