Top 10 advantages of PHP over other languages

The PHP programming language is one of the most popular and powerful languages ​​in developing website applications. With simple and easy-to-learn syntax and fast processing speed, PHP allows you to build dynamic, interactive and flexible websites. Join us to learn what the PHP programming language is and advantages Of PHP in practical applications!

What is PHP?

PHP is called a general purpose programming language. It is used as a server-side scripting language, mainly used for developing websites. PHP frameworks also make web development easier. This framework helps to reuse the same code and eliminates the need to write long and complex code for web applications. PHP frameworks are mostly open source and can be used easily. It was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf and it was developed in 1994. PHP is written in C language mainly but some components are also written in C++ language.

Read more: Django vs PHP: Choosing the Right Web Development Framework

Main components of PHP

1. MVC architecture:

PHP works on Model View Architecture which separates model, view and controller files, thus helping with code management. PHP supports database connections and changes can be made without affecting other modules.

2. Frameworks:

PHP has different frameworks such as Symfony, Laravel, Aura and Zend. Frameworks aid in achieving manageable, neat and clean code, making the programming process easier for programmers.

3. Web Server:

PHP mainly works on Apache server and web server software.

4. Database:

PHP is mainly used with MySQL but however it is also used with other databases.

5. PHP Parser:

This component of PHP will help parse PHP commands into HTML code and then send it to a web-based browser to display the content.

6. Autosuggest:

The autosuggest feature uses PHP and the MySQL database to create an available component to implement the search.

7. Filter:

By using the filter function in PHP, you can validate data. The filter function helps check for invalid (entered) input information to avoid website crashes and security issues.

8. System functions:

In PHP, system functions are used to open, create, read, and write files.

9. Processing forms:

In PHP, forms can process data from files, return data to users, save data, and send emails. PHP can encrypt and set cookie variables. With the help of PHP, programmers can prevent users from accessing the page.

PHP is one of the programming languages ​​that contains built-in web capabilities. Code written in PHP can be embedded immediately into HTML code through the Script tag. However, web programmers cannot write complex web applications without executing PHP code through various web frameworks.

In addition to helping with rapid web application development, PHP frameworks also simplify web application development by providing a basic structure. The features and tools provided by these web frameworks help programmers perform web application development without having to write lengthy code and add additional functionalities.

Programmers can also choose from many “pirated” PHP frameworks. Some of these are micro frameworks, the rest are other full-stack web frameworks.

Below are a few pros and cons of the PHP framework, which will help you gain a deeper understanding of the language.

Read more: Explore PHP Latest Version: Features, Benefits, and How to Upgrade

Top 10 advantages of PHP over other languages

Here are the top 10 advantages of PHP as follows:

1. Open source

PHP is free and open source, making it quick for developers to install and ready to use. There are many PHP frameworks and developers can choose any framework to work with. All the features and tools will be made available to the developers for that framework easily. Since it is open source, it makes the system PHP ready in no time and makes web development faster with the help of providing tools and other features easily.

2. Platform independent

PHP is mainly supported by all operating systems such as Windows, Unix, Linux, etc. Web applications developed based on PHP can easily run on any platform. It can be integrated with other programming languages ​​and databases easily and without re-development requirements. It saves a lot of effort and costs.

3. Simple and easy

This advantage of PHP is that it is simple and easy to learn and code. It is mainly code organized and clean, which helps new developers also. PHP command functions can be easily learned and understood. People who know any programming language can easily work on PHP. It is simple to learn, as its learning curve is not large. The syntax is very simple and flexible to use.

4. Database

PHP easily connects to the database and creates a secure connection to the database. It has an integrated module that is used to connect to the database easily. There are many web applications, which require a powerful programming language with a good database management system. PHP and its database connection solve the purpose of developing web applications. It also reduces connection time to the database management system. Many databases can be integrated with PHP.

5. Fast

PHP is known as the fastest programming language compared to other languages. PHP applications can be easily loaded over the Internet and data speeds are slow. Other applications take a lot of time to connect to the database and fetch data after making certain queries to the database. PHP does not face this problem and it loads the website very easily and quickly. The fast speed of PHP gives developers an advantage to develop web applications using the PHP programming language.

6. Maintenance

The PHP framework is mainly used to make web application development easier and maintain code automatically. The model view controller architecture in the PHP framework makes the code easy to maintain and use. MVC architecture helps separate a file for different modules.

7. Support

This advantage of PHP has great online community and support, which helps new developers to help code and develop web applications. The documentation provided at the official website helps in using various features of PHP and its framework. Latest updates are released promptly by PHP to help developers develop better web-based applications.

8. Check

PHP-based web applications can be easily tested. PHP unit used to perform unit testing quickly and easily. It also helps programmers to write test cases and execute tests smoothly. For PHP-based web applications, developers do not need to write additional code. PHP frameworks help automate various tasks.

9. Security

PHP’s built-in features and tools make it easier to protect web applications from external attacks and security threats. Security threats can be like SQL injection, data tampering and spoofing, etc. To protect against these security threats, developers have used PHP frameworks to develop web applications.

10. Stability

PHP is also stable compared to other programming languages. It has existed for a long time. Developers have been working on PHP to make it easier for programmers to work in developing PHP web-based applications. They have fixed the issues and bugs over time for different PHP version and made it very stable.

PHP has a lot of advantages and some are described above. It also has its disadvantages but is still better than other programming languages. It is widely used programming language and many people are using this programming language to create different types of web-based applications. It is used because of its features and open source. It costs nothing and can develop custom applications integrated with other programming languages.

What are the disadvantages of PHP?

Although it has many strengths, PHP also possesses fatal weaknesses. Weaknesses make some PHP problems very difficult or even impossible to solve.

Do not share resources

The first problem that we think is the biggest limitation of PHP is the lack of resource sharing between processes. Framing processes is very helpful so that PHP does not have to face problems such as: memory management (PHP Developers rarely care about this issue), system crashes (one or two processes die). This leads to many other limitations.

First, not sharing resources causes resource usage (RAM, CPU, I/O connection) to increase very quickly.

You imagine there are 100 requests being processed at the same time, equivalent to 100 processes running. If the same variable is used, the amount of RAM used will be 100 times (other languages ​​use the same RAM so the memory cache part is very simple), the number of DB connections must be 100 connections at the same time. (In the next section, we will further analyze this connection example)… 

This is completely different from languages ​​like JAVA, .NET, Node JS… Therefore, when using PHP for large systems, it is extremely difficult to scale the system and PHP’s threshold.

Too flexible

This is stated as a strong point of PHP, but also its fatal point. PHP is too easy, too flexible, which gives Developers countless ways to achieve results. Along with the fact that it is so easy to learn, the quality of PHP developers is much lower than most other programming languages. Poor expertise combined with overly flexible language often results in poor code quality and too many Technical Debts being created.

This makes maintaining a PHP project terrible (not to mention the backward compatibility of frameworks and a few external factors). PHP also has too many external libraries, sometimes the quality is very bad, making the situation even worse.

Depends too much on extensions:

PHP’s Core processing support is very limited, so PHP has to rely heavily on external Extension libraries. External extensions do not interact directly but work with PHP through Zend Engine. This mechanism also makes everything slower. So sometimes Extensions don’t help improve things too much. 

We take a typical example that often happens: Database connection. While other programming languages ​​often use Connection Pool to manage connections to the DB. PHP uses another mechanism called persistent Connection to speed up connections. Persistent Connection helps when a request is completed, the DB connection created by that Request is not “closed” but continues to be used in the next request. This helps reduce connection time to the DB.

However, when the Request has not stopped, this connection cannot be shared with another request (even if at the present time, that request does not operate the DB). This leads to if PHP has to process 100 requests at the same time, it needs 100 connections to the Database (if increased to 1000, that number is 1000). This is completely different from the connection pool mechanism of languages ​​like JAVA. Connection Pool ensures that only a maximum of x Connections to the DB are created (x can be set by the Developer).

Even if there are 100 requests, or 1000 simultaneous requests to the Web Server at that time, the number There can be 1000 requests at the same time, but at the same time there can be only 100 guys connecting to the DB, while the other 900 guys are processing some other data). This helps JAVA control the number of connections to the DB, thereby ensuring the performance of the DB, while PHP cannot.

What is PHP used for?

After learning 10 strengths of PHP and some of its weaknesses, let’s evaluate which projects PHP is suitable for.

PHP is suitable for projects:

• Not too complicated in terms of computational processing
• Small or medium number of visits, or large number of visits but the logic is not too complicated.
• Especially suitable for problems related to the Web interface
• Developer quality is at an average level or better (Poor dev quality makes it difficult to work)

PHP is not suitable for developing projects:

• Requires realtime, extremely many connections with extremely fast processing time
• Handle a very large number of requests with very complex logic
• Need to handle Big Data, Big Data problems.

In short, although PHP is not designed to solve extremely complex problems, in fact it is still good for handling large numbers of requests and is still a powerful programming language. In addition to PHP, it is very good for Web-based problems in general, especially problems related to management or sales.

Read more: Everything To Know About Hourly Rate PHP Developer!

FAQs

Will PHP help me to get into the market sooner than other languages?

Yes, PHP is one of the fastest scripting languages available. If your goal is a quick-loading website that captures customer attention swiftly, PHP can help you enter the market faster than other languages.

Key advantages of PHP: why is it still relevant?

PHP stands out due to its exceptional speed in loading websites, which many other languages can’t match. It’s easy to use, scalable, supported by a strong community, and free. Additionally, the PHP development team continuously enhances the language, promising more benefits with future versions.

What are the business advantages of PHP?

PHP offers significant business advantages, including being free to use, which means you only need to cover developer fees. It’s highly scalable, and PHP developers generally charge less compared to developers of other scripting languages.

Conclusion

PHP is one of the most popular programming languages, being used to create a large number of applications. It is primarily used as a server-side scripting language for websites. PHP offers a wide range of advantages; However, it also has some disadvantages. To reap the maximum benefits of PHP, make sure to hire the best PHP programmers who can provide you with the right PHP solutions.