Having a website has become a part of your brand’s identity in this digital age. Its effectiveness can help make or break your way to success. And to make a reliable website, you need reliable technology. Of course, there are many factors to consider for choosing a suitable technology for your website, and among many factors, the cost of web development is the primary that influences this decision.
Many technologies and programming languages are available in the market to fulfill a wide variety of web development requirements. But among them all, PHP stands tall. Developers prefer this programming language for creating websites and web applications so much that almost 79% of websites that use a server are empowered by PHP. This proves how robust and reliable technology is.
Businesses from US and Europe mostly hire expert PHP developers in India to build web solutions. But with the advent of modern technologies, people have started doubting the capabilities of this language. That’s why we have to offer a reminder for why you should use PHP for web development.
PHP
PHP is a free language because it’s open-source. And that brings in support from a large community of developers. PHP is a server-side language so obviously, its code is going to get executed on the backend of a website or a web app. Meanwhile, on the client side, the web browser will only display the plain HTML text of the code.
Unlike JavaScript, PHP doesn’t have much control over HTML. It is only capable of loading the data from the server and sending it to the HTML DOM and applying some scripts to HTML. In addition to that, PHP is utilized to perform many tasks such as starting sessions, connecting to various databases, and more.
PHP helps developers build effective web apps. But the prime reason behind its popularity is it can be used for a variety of functions:
- PHP is capable of generating output as Flash, XML, PDF, and more files
- It can add as well as modify database information.
- Can execute data encryption
- Can craft dynamic content
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Although all of these capabilities make PHP a prime contender as a programming language for your web development project. It is not quite what businesses are mostly looking for. They want technologies that offer them leverage or an advantage.
Advantages or reasons to pick PHP for web development
#1. Open-source
Undoubtedly a free language serves as the most budget-friendly option, don’t you think? And the best thing is that you can use it to create any type of web solution may it be a website or an eCommerce store. The language is also supported by a large community that constantly strives to keep the language updated on the trends and relevant to the market.
PHP has also been around for a while so there won’t be any problem that hasn’t been solved. Therefore if you face any hiccups along the way, you can always ask around in the community for help from the expert developers and they will gladly guide you through the entire process, taking care of all your hassles.
#2. Compatible with all OS
Another advantage you get to enjoy using PHP is that it is highly compatible with various operating systems like Windows, Mac, and Linux as well as its interfaces flawlessly with Apache and MySQL server. Additionally, PHP is also considered a perfect pick for the development of cross-platform applications.
#3. Dynamic and flexible
PHP offers full-proof encryption so it allows you to build secure web apps and websites. Having the capabilities of encryption and scalability just increases the leverage or advantage of using PHP making it a flexible and dynamic language.
Since PHP is an open-source language, you can write its code using any code editor you may see fit. Moreover, you can integrate various types of libraries to create varied effects. Interestingly, PHP websites and web applications can load automatically without any need for human intervention.
#4. Plenty of Resources
The main benefit of using PHP is that you can get access to a vast amount of tools and resources. Developers can leverage them to add certain features and functionalities to their websites and applications.
Do you need an editor? Or a development framework? Maybe a documentation tool otherwise a de[pendency manager? PHP can offer a large array of top-notch quality tools ready to use for developers. On the internet, you will not only find tools that can help you learn PHP and its best practices but can also teach you new ways to create web solutions.
Among these vast oceans of tools online, PHP also renders a variety of extensions that can help developers craft the right web solution for their clients.
#5. Robust solutions with PHP frameworks
The easiest way to help developers create web solutions is to provide them with a wide range of PHP-based development frameworks. Many PHP frameworks such as Laravel, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Symfony, Yii, Zend framework, and more are popular in the web development industry.
All of these PHP frameworks use MVC architecture which makes writing PHP codes a lot easier. This leads to the rapid development of top-quality web solutions.
#6. Database Flexibility
Previously we saw how PHP is compatible with different platforms and operating systems. If that’s the case then there is no way this language wouldn’t be flexible in terms of database. PHP actively supports PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and more databases. In most cases, developers use MySQL with PHP but you are free to use any other database depending upon your requirements. The flexibility regarding the database also allows you to use PHP under various app environments to create custom websites and applications.
#7. Works well with CMSs
This is one of the best advantages you can get by deciding to use PHP for web development. Many top content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, Magento, and more are either written in PHP or are powered using PHP-based development frameworks.
So, if you pick PHP as your major programming language, you can work with any CMS you want. Even a completely customized website can be created with the help of PHP-based CMSs.
Final Words
PHP is popular because developers prefer to use it for creating custom web solutions. Although PHP is a free programming language, the amount of tools and resources it can offer for web development is unrivaled to that of the premium modern technologies.
Moreover, the unique MVC architecture allows programmers to write clean code quickly. So, you can reduce the development time to deploy your high-quality website or application faster. More importantly, you will have complete control over the development process, which means you can create the web solution exactly the way you imagined it to be.
Because it’s a common programming language, you can easily find PHP developers to hire for the project. So what’s stopping you now from using PHP to create a feature-rich website or web application?
