Python vs PHP in case of web development

In 2018, Python and PHP both are the most popular high-level programming languages. Where PHP is used as a server-side scripting language, Python is valued for its dynamics, availability, and simplicity. Despite their almost identical popularity among developers, these two languages have many specifics and differences. So, we are going to bring Python and PHP programming languages close to you and at the same time, we are going to determine which one is better for you to programming web applications.

Let’s find out how these languages came into the programming space and when they were applied for the first time.

Python

Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python has a design philosophy that emphasizes code readability, notably using significant whitespace. It provides constructs that enable clear programming on both small and large scales. A fun fact about this programming language is that its name doesn’t act anything similar with snakes, although its logo looks like snakes. Actually, Guido van Rossum was a big fan of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” TV show. So, the logo comes from the idea of that TV show. This programming language came in the late 1980s while he was working on the  “Amoeba” operating system at Centrum Wiskunde Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands. The initial version of Python was ver. 0.9.0. Then next two major releases were published back in 2000 that was Python 2.0 and in 2008 that was Python 3.0. And the latest stable version 3.6.5 was released on 28 March 2018; almost 2 months ago.

PHP

A server-side scripting language designed for Web development, but also used as a general-purpose programming language. It was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally indicate Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. he didn’t know that his “Personal Home Page Tools” will become hugely popular around the globe as PHP. He very quickly recognized the needs of programmers who were coding web applications, so after adding more functionality, he officially released the code for PHP Tools to the public, but it hardly resembled of the PHP that we use today. Back in 1995, it was used to create dynamic web applications and was capable of interacting with the database. The latest stable version 7.2.6 was released on May 24, 2018; 8 days ago.

 

By now it is clear that creators had a totally different goal in mind when they were designing these two languages. Python is far more versatile and can be used for building things other than web solutions,  while PHP was initially made to be a server side, backend developing tool.

Python developer will provide you all the best things you could do with this language. At the same time, PHP developer will also tell you the same thing that there is no other language exist better than PHP.

In this article, we are going to clear your doubts about these programming languages or technologies, so that can help you to choose the best language according to your specific needs and requirements.

So, let’s begin the comparisons -

• Many programmers say that Python is far cleaner than PHP when it comes to syntax. Python is extremely easy to read the language, i.e. there are no dollar signs and -> like in the PHP code. This makes the Python code easier to skim through, especially when programmers have to debug code in big projects.

• Python is handling the huge amounts of traffic on a daily basis without any problems. It powers one of the world’s leading cloud platforms - Dropbox. And the other side, many websites powered by PHP, and many of those have traffic that’s measured in hundreds of millions per day. The largest social media website in the world, Facebook is powered by PHP also Wikipedia is on the list of the most visited sites.

• PHP is a scripting language that operates on the server side. On the other hand, Python is far more versatile and can be used for dozens of purposes other than web development.

• Python is one of the most secure programming languages and as a stand-alone solution, it can be used to write the most delicate pieces of software. But PHP has several security issues and those have to be handled through the use of additional tools. Though, large PHP community, many of those security issues are addressed really fast, followed by good solutions short afterward.

• PHP developers always have to be on the lookout for solutions that will make their code less hack-friendly.

• Python is also more flexible than PHP. Python provides many opportunities for those who decide to use it for developing web applications.

• The use of various third-party modules in order to achieve some really interesting things. These modules usually file with pre-written Python code and can contain functions, classes, and variables.

• Classes and functions of Python are far superior to PHP. it is still more complex to code in PHP than in Python.

• In PHP, there are two awesome statements  “do-while” and “switch”. You can use private, protected and public modifiers for both. it is very easy to provide more functionality to multi-threaded objects.

• The PHP community offers far more support than the Python community.

• Python has high usability that helps you develop more powerful, scalable and high performing software.

• Python has the best learning curve than PHP. High learning curve value helps you easy-to-understand and possess pretty clean codes.

• PHP is the high performing language that helps you to produce scalable, secure and speedy software programs.

• Python offers very powerful and versatile Python frameworks but the options in these frameworks are however limited. But it also offers a wide range of frameworks which performs the same function as PHP frameworks do. Flask and Django are two popular options that Python developers use to create web applications. In contrast, PHP offers a large number of frameworks. Developers use these frameworks for creating purposeful and industry-specific applications. PHP frameworks such as Symfony and Laravel empower popular applications that are used by millions of users.

• The most popular CMS, WordPress itself is built using PHP. Another leading open source e-commerce platforms, WooCommerce and Magento are also built in PHP. In the other hand, Python provides a range of Django powered CMS which are having a limited following.

• Python web development actually gained the popular status when Google chose it for powering some of its well-known projects. Since then this trend prevailed and now various industry giants such as Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify use this language in their product platforms. And PHP powers various popular websites including Yahoo, Wikipedia, Flickr, and Tumblr. Facebook was completely powered by PHP.

 

Lastly say, it's quite difficult to choose the programming language as a first preference that uses for your web development project. The decision becomes more complex when both PHP and Python are worth to gain your attention, both languages offer many learning opportunities. But, we can say that use one which suits best to you as per your project’s requirement. Thank you!