Why PHP
A popular choice in today’s web world is using PHP. PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to server-side web development where PHP generally runs on a web server. Its clarity in design, well organized modules and better upkeep of various technologies, make it the most popular language in the online industry today. Its popularity and credibility can be gauged by the fact that reputed organizations like Harvard University and popular social networking site Facebook, both are based on PHP. This is possible because PHP websites can be easily maintained, improved and updated from time to time.
Let’s have a look why PHP is chosen from ICT Euro Ltd. Web teams, and is always a good choice for web applications:
Coding Style
Unlike Java or .Net, you can write procedural code in php like C programming to develop different web applications
Support
The last thing you want as a developer is to be “stuck” with a coding issue and not have anywhere to go for help or answers. Since PHP is so popular and widely used, finding help or documentation for PHP online is extremely easy. The best part is the support is free through forums, PDFs, blogs, and social media. PHP has the largest user base of any scripting language.
Freedom
When comparing PHP to a language such as ASPX, the level of freedom you get is far superior. You can use any text editor in order to code PHP such as Dreamweaver, Netbeans, Notebook++, jEdit, Emacs, Bluefish, or even just Notepad if you feel inclined. If you want to develop applications with ASPX, you’re going to be limited to Microsoft Visual Studio. Restrictions are never a good thing, especially with coding.
Cross-Platform
PHP is cross-platform and therefore enables operation across various operating systems. It works excellently on LINUX, UNIX and Windows platforms. What’s more, it interfaces effortlessly with Apache/MySQL.
Free
There are no costs associated with using PHP, including updates. Keeping costs down is a goal of any business and developers as well. So the fact that you can code programs with PHP for free is a huge benefit that you won’t get with JPS, ASP, or other scripting languages that require paid hosting. There are no licenses, restrictions, or royalty fees involved at all. PHP is 100% free for anyone to use.
Integration
PHP is used for so many web applications and actually powers over 30% of the web. Systems such as MongoDB, Memcache, and Pusher all integrate with PHP. Almost any industry you can think of uses PHP applications in some fashion including banks, hospitals, government, and large corporations.
Frameworks
Almost every benefit of PHP seems to go back to the fact that the community is so large. The number of PHP frameworks available is even further proof of how strong the PHP community is. Whether you’re looking for database access libraries, session management, or code reuse, you will have no problem finding PHP frameworks to give you a helping hand. Some popular PHP frameworks include:
- Zend
- CodeIgniter
- Laraval
- Yii
- Symphony
- Etc.
Easier to fix problems
When it comes to web application development, you’re bound to run into issues and come across the occasional “fail”. But the benefit you get with PHP is that problems aren’t as difficult to find and fix as they are with other languages. This is because with each request, PHP cleans up and starts over. So an issue with one request will not necessarily disrupt another.
Scalability
In the world of IT, the word scalability is like gold. Whether you’re dealing with databases, hosting, or in this case, programming, scalability is never a bad thing. Due to the way PHP is built, you can easily increase your cluster size by adding more servers as your projects grow.
Object Oriented
Object-Oriented PHP can ease the transition from procedural to object-oriented programming. PHP supports rich OOP features. PHP actually has the ability to call Java and Windows COM objects. In addition to this, you can create custom classes. Other classes can actually borrow from those custom classes as well which extends the capabilities of PHP even further.
Speed
Since PHP does not use a lot of a system’s resources in order to run, it operates much faster than other scripting languages. Hosting PHP is also very easy and lot of hosts provide support for PHP. Even when used with other software, PHP still retains speed without slowing down other processes. Being that PHP is a mature language, it is also fairly stable because all the kinks have been worked out over the years.
Database Compatibility
PHP supports all popular DBMSs used in the world today like MySQL, MS Sql Server, Oracle etc. PHP-MySQL combination is the most popular around the world.
Quick
PHP, being very fast to develop ensures that there is a quick turnaround time. When you hire PHP developers, their efficiency brings you an online solution that you were probably looking for since a long time.
Extensions
PHP has multiple extensions and is extremely scalable. When you hire PHP developers, they ensure that the results are measurable. This helps you calculate your ROI and gives you a better position over the competition.
Other Tools and CMS
Many popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like Joomla, WordPress, Zen Cart, Magento etc are developed in PHP and therefore easily understandable and customizable to PHP developers. Besides, If you need to access other web based tools like Google maps (which is always advisable for a business website), or any other, PHP makes it easy to access.
Pre-Configured
More often than not, many hosting services have a “ready to use” PHP setup. This does not require any special configuration. Of course if you need a high security kind of website, you can easily go ahead modify it.
Bright Future
Although PHP is already well established, its future prospects are infinite. The keynote is that PHP is loosely typed. This makes simple scripts much faster to develop. One has to devote much less energy towards design.