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Home / Corporate Blog / Which Language Is Better for Web Development: PHP or Python?

Which Language Is Better for Web Development: PHP or Python?

Published: May 24, 2022
Categories: Technologies, Web Development

To acquire as many users as possible, companies around the world aim to choose a programming language that can help them build feature-rich interactive web solutions. PHP and Python are the most popular languages among web developers.  This is due to the fact that both are very powerful and easy to learn programming languages.

Despite the fact that PHP and Python are in great demand, each of them serves a different purpose. While PHP was initially developed as a web language, Python was created as a general-purpose programming language.

Let’s figure out which language is better to choose for web development. In this article, we provide a detailed description of each language and comparison of PHP and Python to help you select the one that fits your web development project best.

What is Python?

Python is a high-level interpreted, object-oriented programming language with dynamic semantics. It is a general-purpose language which is used to develop a variety of programs and applications from machine learning and data science to building websites.

Python is easy to learn and use thus it has become one of the most widely used programming languages nowadays.

Python is the top programming language in TIOBE and PYPL Index.

Python is an open source language being on its third major version. It is highly supported by the community and has a mature ecosystem of frameworks, IDEs, linters and tools that are constantly improved and contributed to by the community members. The most popular are Django, Pyramid, Falcon, Flask, and Bottle. If you run into a bottle-neck, you will most likely find a solution as somebody has already resolved it before.

What Is Python Used For?

Being a universal multipurpose language Python is used for the development of almost everything. Among the well-known companies using Python for their projects are Mozilla, Google, Microsoft,  Meta, Reddit, Venmo, Uber, Spotify, Netflix, and Dropbox.‎ It is mainly utilized for:

  • Data analysis and machine learning
  • Web application development
  • Automation or scripting
  • Software testing and prototyping

Features of Python

According to a RedMonk survey conducted in 2021, Python is the second most popular used programming language among developers. Here are the main reasons why:

Simple syntax: Python has a simple syntax very similar to the English language,  so it’s easy to read and understand.

Cross-platform: Python works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc), so you do not need to develop an application for different platforms which cuts down time for the app delivery and costs on additional developers.

Versatile: Python can be used for many different purposes, from web development to data science and machine learning.

Beginner friendly, Python is easy to learn and use which allows developers to write fewer lines of code in comparison with some other programming languages.

Scalability: When scaling up you do need to bother about rewriting or adapting code for other platforms.

For these and many other reasons developers choose Python for their projects. Let’s have a look at the Python opponent in this battle – PHP.

What is PHP?

PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language that is mainly used for web development (77.4% of all the websites including Facebook, Pinterest, Yahoo and Wikipedia are written in PHP). Although, according to Github,it is not the most beloved one among developers, its market share remains high.

According to Statista the market share of PHP is 45.43 percent.

PHP is also an open source language with its latest major PHP version 8.1, however version 7 remains the most widely used. Being an open source language, PHP has a large number of frameworks and tools including most widely used Laravel, Symfony, Yii. You can review their comparison here.

What Is PHP Used For?

As mentioned above PHP is mainly used for website development, this is due to the fact that the most famous content management system WordPress is written in PHP. This CMS is used in 40% of all the websites, which is a significant part of 77.4% of websites worldwide.

However, WordPress is not the only CMS that is written in PHP, Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart, Magento, Shopifyand other well-known CMSs are on the list as well. Other use cases include:

  • E-Commerce portals
  • Project management tools
  • Graphical User Interfaces
  • Mailing services
  • Online communities and social networks
  • Dynamic web pages

Features of PHP

PHP has been used for web development for more than 15 years already and is still in demand due to a number of advantages it provides. Here are some of them:

  • Cross-Platform: PHP runs on every platform (Windows, Linux or Mac).
  • Open Source: PHP original code is open and available for everyone who wants to build upon it.
  • Simple: PHP is easy to learn for a beginner who has some basic programming knowledge.
  • Database Integration: PHP syncs smoothly with any type of database like MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB, etc.
  • Supportive Community: PHP is supported by a huge online community which enhances this language and creates great frameworks and tools.

Is Python Better Than PHP Or Vice Versa?

Let’s compare both languages in detail.

Complexity

Both PHP and Python are dynamically typed and object-oriented languages that are compatible with multiple operating systems, therefore, in some ways th