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PHP Vs NodeJS for Backend Web Development: Which is the Better Choice?

  • Amy Parker

Unsure which technology to choose for backend web development? Learn the differences between PHP and NodeJS to make the right decision.

When it comes to backend web development, two of the most popular languages are PHP and NodeJS, but which one should you use? Each language has its own unique set of features and benefits that make it different from the other. These programming tools are actually very different in terms of features and capabilities. Let’s take a look at the main differences between PHP and NodeJS so you can decide which one will work better for your project!

What is PHP?
PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language that is commonly used on the web. One of the benefits to using PHP is that you can access databases through MySQL or PostgreSQL. You can also make use of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, etc. with it.

Pros of Using PHP for Web Development
  • East to Learn:  PHP is relatively easy to learn, especially with the resources available online. A good PHP tutorial can be found here.
  • More than just a Scripting Language: What makes PHP so powerful is that it's not just a scripting language; it also has an object-oriented programming layer. Object-oriented programming is becoming more popular among other scripting languages as well, such as Ruby.
  • Extensive Libraries/Frameworks Available: Not only does PHP have an extensive set of libraries/frameworks available for free, but you can also find many different frameworks written by the community and experts like this one here.
  • Cost Effective: PHP is probably one of the cheapest options out there when it comes to developing dynamic websites. Not only that, but if your site gets too big for shared hosting then you can easily switch over to a VPS or dedicated server without having any difficulty at all.
  • Highly Mature Community: There's no doubt about it- PHP has one of the most mature communities out there when it comes to web development languages (including Java). In fact, on Stack Overflow alone there are over 750,000 posts related specifically to PHP! With such an active community of users and developers around the world it means that whatever problem you're dealing with somebody else likely ran into before. It doesn't matter where in the world you go either because there will always be someone who knows what they're talking about.
  • Simplicity: The simplicity behind PHP is one of its best assets and what keeps people coming back again and again. Compared to other languages like JavaScript, Python, or Ruby, PHP is much easier to learn due to its basic syntax which still provides a lot of flexibility when needed.

Cons of Using PHP for Web Development
  • Lack of Standardization:  It is difficult to create a universal standard for the use of PHP because it is such a diverse language.
  • It is Difficult to Identify Potential Errors: It can be hard to determine what potential errors exist because the syntax is so complex.
  • There is a Lack of Compatibility with Mobile Devices: As more people become mobile users, they expect to have access to web applications on their phones and tablets. But these devices do not offer an interface for the programming languages used in PHP which prevents them from being compatible with apps that are written in this language.
  • It is Slow: The time it takes for pages to load can be slow due to its high reliance on code rather than templates which reduces loading times.
  • Inconsistent Support from Hosting Companies: Some hosting companies provide support while others do not, making it frustrating when you want one type of service but your provider doesn't offer that option.
  • Not as Portable as Other Languages: There is no definitive way of installing PHP across all operating systems like other languages which means that you need different tools if you want to work on different machines or operating systems.

What is Node. js ?
Node. js is a server-side platform that is based on JavaScript. It was created by Ryan Dahl in 2009. The goal was to create an environment for web development that is more efficient, lightweight, and real-time than traditional options like Apache or IIS (or PHP/Python).
In the few years since its creation, it has gained popularity as a way to get work done quickly. There are many benefits to using Node for web development:

Pros of Using Node. js for Web Development
  • Event-driven programming paradigm: The event-driven programming paradigm is a design pattern which can be used to asynchronously handle multiple tasks in a single threaded application. In Node, events occur when an I/O operation finishes or an error occurs. Developers have to register callback functions with the event and these functions will be executed whenever the event occurs.
  • V8 Engine: The V8 JavaScript engine was developed by Google to ensure that their Chrome browser remains fast regardless of how many scripts are running in it. In 2011, Google released V8 as open source. As a result, web developers can use it in their own applications.
  • High performance: It has been observed that Node has been found to be one of the fastest web frameworks available today. It allows you to take full advantage of all CPUs on a machine since it runs on both threads and in parallel where other frameworks only run on one thread.
  • Asynchronous event handling: One thing that makes node so efficient is its asynchronous nature, while this might sound complicated at first, understanding this makes your life easier because now you don't need to worry about blocking threads from executing code until a certain task completes.
  • NPM registry: NPM registry contains every package you need for your node project so you don't have to search through GitHub looking for various packages yourself. You can even share your own packages there too!
  • With Node's module system, modules are broken down into two categories: core modules and third party modules. Core modules make up part of the library whereas third party modules are those that come from npm registries like Debian or Redis.

Cons of Using Node. js for Web Development
  • Not as widely adopted:  JavaScript is the most common language on the planet, but Node is not nearly as widespread.
  • Slow in rendering pages: JavaScript renders pages much faster than Node does, so if speed matters to you, it's best to stick with JavaScript.
  • Difficult debugging: Because Node was designed to run in a different environment than the browser, it can be difficult to debug problems with your code because the two environments don't share similar tools or logic for finding errors.
  • More than one framework required: Node typically requires at least one additional framework (such as Express) in order to build rich client-side applications. As such, developers must understand how both frameworks work together when building their application which leads to higher developer time costs overall.
  • Fewer libraries available: There just aren't many libraries for Node compared to what there are for JavaScript (which runs almost everywhere). And since Node cannot execute any traditional JavaScript outside of modules that return objects that support callbacks, some tasks require much more complex coding approaches than would be necessary with an all-JavaScript approach.
  • Cannot use popular frameworks such as AngularJS or jQuery: If you're looking for some help from third party libraries when developing your application then unfortunately they will not work here!

Which is more Secure: PHP vs Node. js
In general, PHP is more secure than Node. js because of its runtime environment and code structure. For example, PHP code executes in a sandboxed environment with limited access to system resources such as memory and CPU time. This means that even if an attacker can find a security hole, they won't be able to exploit it because they have very limited access to system resources. Additionally, PHP does not rely on JavaScript for execution which improves security because JavaScript is less secure than other languages like C++ and C#.

Which is more Scalable: PHP vs Node. js ?
Node. js is more scalable than PHP because it is asynchronous and event-driven, while PHP is synchronous and blocking. This means that if there are multiple requests sent to a server, PHP will process one at a time, while Node. js will handle all of them simultaneously.
The best example I can give you is a chat app which has tons of users online at once trying to chat with each other. In this case, Node. js would be able to handle all of their messages in real time, whereas if you were using PHP it would have to wait until one message was finished processing before moving on to the next one, hence why chat apps usually use Node JS instead of PHP .

Which is high performing: PHP vs Node. js ?
Node. js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. It is designed to build scalable, high-performance web applications using a non-blocking event-driven model. Asynchronous programming is used extensively in both its APIs and its run loop. Node can be deployed on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems. There are over half a million modules available in its NPM repository with more being added every day.

Which is easy to learn: PHP vs Node. js?
Honestly, it depends on your goals and how much time you want to spend learning. PHP is easier to learn than Node. js, but PHP has a steeper learning curve than Node. js does. Some people say that if you are going to use one of these languages, go with Node. js because of its event-driven programming model and its non-blocking IO. Others say that they would choose PHP because they find it easier to pick up.

Which is cost effective: PHP vs Node. js?
This question is a lot trickier to answer than you might think. There are many factors that contribute to how much your website will cost including number of visitors, complexity of functionality, and size of team. For example, if you're building a small website with not very many visitors and a small team, PHP is likely your best bet since it's cheaper and easier to maintain. On the other hand, if you're building a large site with lots of traffic like in an ecommerce store, then Node. js is likely a better option since it handles scaling better and has an easier time handling high volumes of simultaneous connections to the server.

When should you use PHP vs Node. js?
You should hire PHP developers in India when:
  • If you're working on an existing system that already uses PHP, it might be more time-efficient to continue using it.
  • If you have to integrate with other systems that already use PHP, it might make sense to continue using it.
  • If you want to quickly prototype a new idea and are comfortable coding in PHP.
You should use hire Node. js developers in India when:
  • You need a backend system where security is paramount.
  • The server needs to handle heavy traffic loads and large numbers of concurrent connections from users.
  • Your application needs to run on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, etc.

Conclusion
Though both PHP and NodeJS are popular choices in back-end web development, they each have their own pros and cons. Deciding which to use can be difficult, but it's worth considering your company's needs before making a decision. If you're looking for an easy language that has a wide range of libraries, then PHP is probably best for you. But if you need something more powerful that can handle larger projects, go with NodeJS. It's also important to note that different languages suit different types of projects. So what is best for one project might not work for another.
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