Is PHP Dead? No! At Least Not According to PHP Usage Statistics

Despite pundits in the tech community calling for its impending demise, the popularity of PHP as a server-side programming language appears to be only increasing over time.?In March 2024 W3Techs reported an impressive 76.4% (-1.2% Y2Y) of all websites are still relying on it, a slight decline from the 78.9% that used it in 2022. Needless to say, it’s clear that PHP will continue to maintain its dominance for most server side languages for the foreseeable future., with the most popular versions being PHP 7.4 (50.3%), PHP 7.3 (24.7%), and PHP 5.6 (12.8%), with all remaining versions combined making up 12.2%.

Why is PHP?Still Relevant?and Widely Used?

Even though there has been a slight decline in the number of websites that are using PHP as their server-side scripting language, it would be foolish to write off its presence.?As nearly?75%?of such sites still use this technology despite a?slight?decrease, it is unlikely that this powerful development tool will go away anytime soon.

Although?it is true that some hosting providers deliberately remove?X-Powered-By?HTTP headers from broadcasting on their servers for security reasons, which could throw off the statistics slightly. However, the reason?PHP continues to dominate?year after year is due to PHP’s reliable performance and dynamic features; indicating an?continuing?trend among developers worldwide?to?choose it as the first option for their software development.

It’s not exactly mind-blowing that PHP is one of the world’s most popular coding languages. After all, WordPress, which?runs??43.2%?of websites?on the net, uses it.?That’s?810 million?websites powered by PHP code –?which is?more than?a third of interactive websites on the entire internet.

Erik Klein , who worked at YouTube as an engineer from 2006 to 2009, answered a question on Quora about whether YouTube is still written in PHP. He stated that YouTube was originally written in PHP, but was later migrated to Python in a rewrite process that started in December 2005 and lasted until about February 2006.

PHP Is?Faster and Better

PHP has come a long way since it hit the development scene, and the latest version, PHP 7.4, is one of its most impressive achievements yet. With awesome new features such as typed properties and optimizations for better memory usage, CPU usage, and garbage collection, there’s no doubt that this version is faster and better than ever before. The OPCache preloader makes loading applications super speedy too, so now your site will be zipping along in?a flash.

The improvements brought by the PHP 7.X?versions are a?tech-lover’s?dream come true!

Combining?comparison operators, null coalesce operators, and new type,?which?make debugging a breeze;?anonymous classes, nullable data types, and multi-catch exception handling to create efficient and effective coding; keys usable in lists, number operators, and malformed numbers, trailing commas – the list goes on?and on!

Despite all this exciting news for developers, however, most aren’t actually utilizing the latest version of PHP.

Other PHP?Popularity Reasons

PHP’s persistence on top is due to two key reasons: its compatibility with a wide range of plugins and its expansive library of functionalities. So if you can dream up a website with all the bells and whistles, there’s a good chance you can find the relevant extensions and functionalities to make that dream a reality.??With decades worth of scripting under its belt, PHP also makes sure you?don’t have to reinvent the wheel either,??since you can always use some available readymade codes for functions like booking/scheduling, checkout carts, polls, or lists, etc., making your page awesome without compromising speed.

PHP is like the Golden Retriever of programming languages: easy to work with and lots of support. Just as a puppy can adapt to its owner’s lifestyle, its dynamic technology makes PHP ready for whatever database you’ve got. Whether it be MySQL, MongoDB, or Oracle, you can count on PHP to quickly?build a productive relationship with your backend. It’s one less thing for developers to worry about –they’ll have more time to actually create something that works rather than being tied up in knotty integrations. The best part??This?last bit usually?translates into less development costs and big savings further down the line.

And last but not least, tech companies and website owners can rest assured that their budgets won’t suffer irreparably if they want to update their websites or applications. It’s because PHP is such a versatile language that it runs across several operating systems, like Windows and OSX, and its Linux variants. So instead of having to learn a new language every time you need an upgrade, all one needs to do is keep?pace?with?this one.

Why PHP Is?Bad

Source:?Reddit

If you’ve ever heard of?Stack Overflow, you know that its annual developer survey can tell us a lot – and the latest one is no exception. PHP, the open-source language that’s long been used to create amazing websites, has consistently ranked among the?least favorite?of the?most popular programming languages?out there. It’s an easy-to-use language with a bustling active community – so why don’t devs fancy it? It turns out there are some pretty notable issues that make it not the most beloved choice. Over 90,000 professionals shared their gripes with PHP in recent surveys, begging the question:?will PHP die and is it really worth all this dread?

For a language that’s been around for 25 years, you’d think that PHP would be going strong. Sadly, it’s only in its 8th major version and doesn’t seem to?be quick to change.?Although some believe its performance has?always been lethargic,?but?the real nail in the coffin?is?that it requires you to?restart the entire web application each time it starts up. Managing separate versions of the language and its libraries??Not a chance – you’ll practically need your own set of containers just for that! It’s pretty clear why?many feel?PHP has become something of a relic in these modern times.

Another pain point is that PHP is not intuitive. Many of the function names?are difficult for programmers to anticipate;?also, developers do not appreciate the frequent referencing required for documentation. Can?the age-old debate of “is PHP dead”?finally be put to rest???Of course not!?But when are we?going to bury it,?you ask?

PHP itself is not particularly secure by design and so would quickly be outclassed in modern development. Compared to the?new wave of languages?like .NET Core and Java, these are built with security concerns in mind, making them difficult to learn, develop and support. Despite this, they often show better performance than PHP and provide more flexibility. So while PHP isn’t going anywhere soon, it may very well be replaced by better?backend alternatives. If you’ve been following?web development trends, you know that Node JS is hot right now and it’s definitely worth considering when it comes to creating backend applications. It’s a great alternative to PHP due to its ability to handle multiple requests simultaneously, being a?synchronous language,?and having faster execution speed.

Maybe you also what to know How to Find?PHP Developers? Click on the full article in our blog!