Python vs. PHP in 2020

Backend development is one of the most wanted skills these days. Almost every new company/startup needs a website and a mobile app - both connect to a server in the backend. That is why there is a lot of demand for back-end developers in the market and companies are willing to throw large amounts at developers who can manage the back-end well.

Many programming languages ​​used for backend development are emerging in the market:

• Python: Python is one of the most popular choices of backend programming. It is relatively new and has enormous library support.
• PHP: PHP has been on the market for a long time and is still widely used today. Facebook, for example, has developed its substantial backend in PHP in the first days.
• JavaScript: with powerful web frameworks such as NodeJS, JavaScript has captured a large share of the market and has become one of the most popular backend programming languages.
• Ruby: Ruby on Rails is one of the most popular frameworks for web development and is currently being used by many startups.
• Dot NET: .Net framework has its own fans. Initially, Dot Net was more of its own framework, but lately, Microsoft has been doing great work in the direction of open source. Dot Net is mostly used in companies because of the solid Microsoft support.

For new developers, it's always a matter of confusion - which backend framework to learn? With so many new programming languages ​​that offer so many functions, libraries, and frameworks, how do people actually decide which web framework to learn? In this blog post, PHP training in Chandigarh institute tries to compare 2 of the most popular backend programming languages ​​- Python and PHP. We will try to deal with various aspects and see which of them wins.

Before we do the comparison, let's first list the points of comparison that will significantly affect our choice of web framework

Ease of learning: this is perhaps one of the most important parameters for deciding which web framework to use. If the programming language is difficult to learn, there is no point in spending time on it. Nowadays, time is more important for the developer than execution time for all practical purposes.

Community support: let's face it - we are all struggling with bugs, we are all faced with program writing problems, and we are all looking for support on StackOverflow and other forums online. If a certain programming language is not well known and little community support is available, it is better to stay away from it.

Documentation: Like community support, it is essential that the programming language/framework has sufficient documentation available for developers to learn and understand the nuances.

Prices: some tools/frameworks are not free. It can significantly influence the choice of an organization with a low budget. In general, a large number of technology companies prefer open-source tools and frameworks instead of paid systems. Companies such as banks, insurance companies, etc. prefer using paid systems.

Library support: if the programming language is used a lot, there will be more developers who will develop libraries for a specific language. This makes development even easier.

Speed: server-side applications may require a high tolerance capacity and a low latency. That is why it is important to see which language is faster in terms of execution time.

Choice of web frames: it is important that the programming language offers well-designed web development frames that are easy to use and develop powerful applications.

Debugging: the choice of programming language should also depend on the available debugging tools available for the language. The lack of proper debugging tools means that developers are going to spend more time debugging, which is essentially not the most productive use of time.

PHP vs Python Performance Comparison.

Now let us get to each of the above factors and see how Python and PHP compare with each other.

Ease of Learning.

Without a doubt, Python is much easier to learn. Python is a general-purpose programming language and can be picked up quickly. In fact, Python is so easy to learn that most beginner programming courses now use the Python programming language to learn the basics of programming. Python programs are much shorter and easier to write compared to other programming languages, and therefore it has become a preferred choice for many applications. The syntax is much simpler and the code is extremely readable compared to the same code written in other programming languages.
PHP, on the other hand, was not intended as a general-purpose language. It is specially designed for web applications that are absolutely more advanced than simple, stand-alone programs. As a result, learning PHP has been seen to take more time as compared to learning Python.
It takes time to learn a programming language. This should be one of the most important factors when choosing the language to choose from. Python is much easier for beginners. PHP, on the other hand, can be a bit difficult for beginning programmers. PHP is designed to make simple personal pages, but lately, it has become more complex. The PHP developer community is trying hard to provide a lot of support for new programmers. However, as mentioned above, Python wins here by a considerable margin because of the inherent simplicity of the language. The syntax and constructions in Python are amazingly easy to understand.

Community support.

Python and PHP, both have excellent community support. PHP has been on the market for a while, especially for developing web applications. As a result, there is a huge community of PHP developers who are ready to provide support.

Python here closely matches PHP. There are many Python developers on the market that continuously develop Python applications. As a result, community support is excellent. Python and PHP are both close here and none of them is a clear winner.

Python became popular when Google started using it for some popular Google apps such as YouTube. Many powerful startups such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit use Python-based web applications. That said, it should be noted that the world's largest social network - Facebook is written with PHP as the primary backend.

Documentation.

Extensive documentation is available for both programming languages. There are countless websites, forums, discussion boards that offer excellent tutorials about developing applications with Python or PHP. The competition here is fierce and just like support from the community, there is not really a clear winner. Both languages ​​are equally good with regard to the availability of documentation.

Pricing.

Python and PHP are both completely free and open source. Both win here too. Both Python and PHP here win considerably from other paid web frameworks

Library support.

Now, this is a point where Python significantly outperforms PHP. Python has exceptionally well-developed library support for almost all types of applications. PHP lags behind Python in this aspect, but Packagist (PHP package repository) is a strong backbone that contains PHP. These days, for example, many new companies and even large organizations are developing web applications backed by Machine Learning. Python provides some excellent machine learning libraries such as TensorFlow, Keras, Theano, Scikit Learn, etc. These libraries are fast, easy to use and, more importantly, they integrate brilliantly with the web framework. As a result, developing such applications using Python is much simpler compared to almost any other programming language.

Speed.

PHP versions 5.x were quite slow and had been running for a long time. However, the new PHP 7.x version is extremely fast, almost 3 times faster than a typical Python program. Speed ​​often becomes an important factor in critical performance applications. For example, in a central banking system that receives one million visits daily, a 3-fold delay could create a significant impact on the overall performance of the system. Therefore, speaking of speed, PHP wins by a significant margin over Python.
However, it should be noted that for most simple applications, the scale is quite low and, therefore, there is not much noticeable time lag. For example, for all practical purposes, 10 milliseconds is not very different from 30 milliseconds since the application is not critical for latency.

Choice of Web Frameworks.

Python and PHP are both quite close on this point is given that both provide equally good choices. New developers, however, enjoy using Django given that the development time in Django is quite low and it is easy to set up.
The most commonly used Python-based web frames are Django, Flask, Pylons, Pyramid, etc. On the other hand, the most commonly used PHP-based web frameworks are Codeigniter, Zend, Laravel, Symfony, etc.
It is known that Django is extremely fast, scalable, safe and easy to use. It is quite robust and powerful and is widely used in a large number of applications. Similarly, Codeigniter and Laravel are widely used in the market and almost all PHP applications today use one of the 2 previous frameworks.
Python and PHP are quite close at this point since both offer equally good options. However, new developers enjoy using Django since development time in Django is quite low and easy to configure.

Debugging.

Python provides a powerful debugger called PDB (Python Debugger). PDB is well documented and easy to use, even for beginners. PHP, on the other hand, provides the XDebug package for debugging. Both PDB and XDebug provide the most used debugging features: breakpoints, batteries, route mapping, etc. Both Python and PHP are similar here, and none is a clear winner.
To summarize, for most points, both PHP and Python are similar to each other. For others, Python is better than PHP. Python seems to be a winner over PHP. This is what we would recommend

• If you are an experienced PHP programmer, stay with PHP as you already know it.
• If you are an intermediate programmer, you may want to learn Python and switch to it to get better job opportunities.
• If you are a novice programmer who wants to learn backend development, start learning Python and eventually move on to Python-based frameworks.

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