PHP vs Python: Which Is Best for Your Web Application Development

When you want to develop an app, you need to decide which platform you want to develop your app, features you want to include in it, and obviously the language you want to develop your app in. From this, deciding on a language can be tricky. Because it can affect the app’s performance adversely. And if you search ‘the most popular language to build a web app development in,’ I am sure you will get two names – PHP and Python.

So, to help you out in choosing between these two, we have a few points of comparison between the two languages. And once you decide which suits your requirements the best, you can hire Python programmer or PHP programmer to develop your app. But before jumping to that, let us know what PHP and Python are?

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What is Python?

Python is a high-level interpreted, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. This language helps programmers to write clear, logical code for business app development. It has built-in data structures, dynamic typing, and exceptional binding. All these make it an ideal choice for developers and business owners for rapid application development. Python offers support for modules and packages for reusing codes. This makes it one of the fastest programming languages, not only for professionals, but Python is ideal even for beginners.

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What is PHP?

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is basically a general-purpose scripting language for web development. Originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, the PHP implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. It is a free and popular option for developers and business owners. You can develop a website or web application with unique features through PHP. PHP can integrate with numerous primary web servers on many major operating systems. Even beginners can easily learn it to make their web pages manageable and more efficient.

Pros of Python

• An object-oriented versatile language to implement across different industries
• Highly graphic open-source language
• Easy to read, learn, maintain, and use
• Develops GUI apps
• Uses cross-platform code reusability
• Integrates easily with other languages like C++ or Java
• Performs automatic garbage collection
• Has bundle of libraries for different developments
• Uses WORA functionality

Pros of PHP

• Supports top-notch debugging
• Open source object-oriented language
• Supports database collection modules
• Supports other database interfaces
• Flexible and independent language
• Provides in-built SQL support
• Works cross-platform
• Supports different operating systems
• Supports all operating systems like UNIX, Linux, Windows, etc.
• Many of its frameworks are free for use

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PHP vs. Python: The Ultimate Comparision

This detailed comparison of PHP vs. Python will help you to understand and decide the ideal programming language for your app that can give you the best results.

1. Flexibility

As we know that Machine Learning (ML) powered web apps are in high demand and it is also a significant feature of Python. It provides unique ML libraries, like Scikit-learn, Pandas, TensorFlow, and Theano. These ML libraries are rapid, robust, and can perfectly function with any web framework.

Additionally, you should know that Python is advantageous in several fields and not just in web development, unlike PHP which is beneficial only when it comes to web development. So, clearly, Python scores more than PHP here.

2. Web Framework

PHP and Python both provide robust web-development frameworks. Many giant businesses prefer Symfony and Laravel, with a large community of developers supporting them, using PHP’s framework. Python provides numerous extraordinary frameworks. The two most popular Python-based web frameworks are Django and Flask. These frameworks are highly scalable, easy to use, fast, and secure. Most of the developers usually prefer Django over PHP-based frameworks because it gives them easy setup and takes a shorter development period.

3. Community Support

I do not think we might have a winner here because PHP and Python both have excellent community support. And because PHP has been leading in the market for a long time specifically for web app development, it naturally has a large community of developers. These communities can help you with providing excellent support for all the problems related to PHP.

On the other hand, Python developers are increasing and continuously developing a community with growing apps. Community support is excellent in the case of Python. 

4. Ease of Use

PHP is an excellent programming language. It is also used for designing dynamic website pages with HTML. But this makes PHP much less productive than Python. Python is open-source, portable, and all in all, it is a versatile programming language. This language is easy to use and develop.

Additionally, Python’s syntax’s programming language is very simplified for developers. Compared to PHP, coding is much easier to grasp with Python. Thus, in terms of ease of use, Python wins over PHP.

5. Security

Many tech firms prefer Python in terms of security. For instance, Django boasts numerous pre-built security features that safeguard the apps from various hacking threats. Also, there are few government entities that depend on Python for security.

PHP is a robust community that has addressed many security problems. It is less robust in comparison to Python in terms of securing data. Thus, we have a clear winner here – Python.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, both PHP and Python perform great in web development, however, Python is a clear winner in numerous aspects. But choosing between PHP and Python also depends majorly on your project requirements. From those requirements, you can decide which language’s abilities will help to fulfill those requirements. If you are a business owner, then you can consult a software solution providing company. They can guide you on whether you should hire dedicated Python developer or a PHP developer.

For instance, if you hire a Python programmer, they can help you with everything to build your application. They will give their suggestions on which features you should include in your app after understanding your requirements. This is not it, if you hire dedicated Python developer, they will help you to learn different features in your application and will be there to help you whenever you face any issues with the app.

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