The Best Web Development Language: PHP or Python?

Python is a great choice if you want to use machine learning code or need Unicode support. On the other hand, if you want to do web development and server-side scripting then PHP is the way to go.

On the Internet, you can find PHP elements on almost eight out of ten websites.

An In-depth Comparison of PHP and Python

We all know that each programming language has its own pros and cons. Choosing the right one for the right task is quite important for the further development of your project. That’s why we’ve decided to write a blog and compare PHP and Python and see which one is better for web development. To make it clear, we’ve decided to make a short analysis of each one and then make a conclusion based on the results.

Compared to each other’s differences, you can identify the best language for Web development, which is easiest and most efficient to use, and which will produce the best results.

7/7 — Library Support

Library functions provided by Python free developers from writing coding from scratch. To date, more than 137,000 libraries are available for Python. Many different kinds of applications are developed using Python libraries, including applications for machine learning, data science, data visualization, image and data manipulation, etc.

Compared to Python, PHP has a weaker library management system. The number of libraries is much smaller in PHP. Additionally, PHP, lacking libraries to support it, might not be the best choice if you want to build ML-powered web applications. In this respect, Python is superior to PHP.

6/7 — Documentation

The PHP documentation system contains descriptions written in elementary and plain language, so both beginners and seasoned programmers can understand them. Documentation sites let developers comment on the documentation, however, these comments sometimes become a disadvantage as you can easily spot old comments at the top, confusing any developer greatly.

Unlike Python, which does not allow comments, there are no issues with Python. Documents in Python tend to be less conversational, which can sometimes make them difficult to read and understand. Here, PHP advantages Python, because developers can understand its documentation more easily.

5/7 — Learning Curve

Python, having simpler syntax and shorter line code, is comparatively easier to learn, making it suitable for both experts and beginners. Python is a general-purpose programming language that can be used to develop stand-alone and simple programs as well. Developers can code Python without having to worry about missing restrictions that may cause a build to fail.

PHP, on the other hand, is not a general-purpose language. PHP is only made for sophisticated web apps and has a bit of complicated syntax. PHP isn’t the right choice if you need to build standalone, simple programs. Therefore, learning PHP takes longer than learning Python.

4/7 — Debugging Proces

Python and PHP both come with powerful debuggers, allowing them to easily debug programs with features like stacks, breakpoints, path mapping, etc. Debugging with these debuggers is easy; the only difference is their setup.

PDB, or Python Debugger, is Python’s built-in debugger. There is no need for any setup; just press the “debug” button to check the Python code. PDB offers dynamic typing, which lets programmers work effortlessly without having to declare everything at the very beginning of their program. The high readability score of Python will also be helpful to developers when debugging.

PHP also offers an XDebug package that can be used to address bugs and error-check the codes. However, it isn’t inbuilt. PHP requires additional setup, slowing down the process of detecting and fixing bugs, which results in many security issues.

3/7 — Web Frameworks

Frameworks help us construct our applications with structure, and they let us add features without doing much work. Developers can reuse the code provided by frameworks by not having to redo it from scratch.

PHP and Python offer powerful and well-designed web development frameworks. PHP provides well-designed web frameworks that are used by many big companies like Spotify, Pfizer, and BBC. Symfony and Laravel, for instance, are mature frameworks that are well supported by a large community.

In addition to this, Python provides many remarkable frameworks, including Django and Flask- two of the most known Python-based web frameworks. The frameworks are easy to use, highly scalable, and fast. Django developers generally prefer PHP-based frameworks to Django because they are easier to set up and take less time to develop.

2/7 — Community Support

Adding to the ever-growing open-source knowledge base, the community can help the beginner, the expert, and everyone in between. Both Python and PHP have excellent support from their communities. Due to its longevity, PHP has a large community of developers who can immediately provide support, since it has been in the market for so long for developing web applications.

Meanwhile, Python is also similar to PHP; it gained attention after Google started using it for its YouTube app. This led to a number of other tech giants like Instagram and Uber using it in their backend.

1/7 — Performance

When performance is critical, speed becomes a critical factor. Up until a few years ago, Python was thought of as the fastest programming language. Versions of PHP 5. x were incredibly slow, taking a long time to execute. The latest version of PHP has revolutionized this.

Compared to a Python program, PHP 7. x is almost three times faster. Thanks to PHP, developers can now process large amounts of data quickly and with high performance. Ultimately, PHP’s speed and scalability make it superior to Python’s performance. PHP comes out on top here.

Article Source ⟶ tricksmode.com/which-is-better-for-web-deve..

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