Modern web development has been the epitome of implementing good web development skills. Programmers and developers have been using these skills to implement and create good web applications and websites. Firstly, modern web development is essential as it plays an important role in the development of company websites. Particularly when it comes to using web development skills and techniques, any web developer must know the facts and figures that goes into the development of applications and websites. Lets us compare and contrast PHP vs JavaScript in this blog.
Another glaring fact goes that major companies all across the globe use technology. Many companies are continuing to use and implement these technologies in their web applications and creative work. Server side web development done and used by major companies. Whatever be the choice of web development, it always goes hand in hand to create web applications and websites.
Here in this blog, we are going to compare and contrast two technologies that goes into the design and development of web applications and websites. These technologies are PHP and JavaScript.
What is PHP?
PHP stands for HyperText Pre Processor, lately, its abbreviation and full-form has changed to Personalised Home Pages. As the name goes, firstly, PHP is a server side scripting language that was born in late June 1998. So it is safe to assume that it has a good 22 years of history behind its back. This is a scripting language that makes use of simple English like statements and syntaxes to code web pages and embed HTML statements into it. PHP based language used all the world over to provide the functionality to web pages and perform server side programming using it.
PHP requires an interpreter to use and process PHP statements and render the output to the browser. Here is how PHP works in real time. Developers first create a page that has PHP statements embedded in it. It has a mixture of PHP statements and HTML statements in the page. When a client visits or requests the server to fetch a page on the internet, the PHP server executes the request and processes the page to render plain HTML pages in response to the client’s request (in this case the browser). The client then gets the HTML page that was rendered using the PHP renderer. This page which is HTML is then displayed by the client via the browser, as we know browsers can only render and process HTML statements, this page is rendered by the browser.
Now you know that PHP is a server side processing language. Let’s see the advantages of using PHP.
Advantages of PHP:
1. Interpreted language: PHP is an interpreted language. Particularly, this language does not require a compiler to compile the language statements. Since this is an interpreted language you need a server side interpreter to code and render the language statements.
2. Supports OOP programming: PHP supports object oriented programming. And this means that OOPs concepts and fundamentals can be implemented using this language. It fully supports all object oriented programming.
3. Easy to learn to understand: PHP statements coded using plain English like language statements. Therefore, it becomes easy to understand what the code is doing. The language resembles plain English statements that provide an ease to understand and apprehend what the code is trying to do.
4. Huge community: The community that PHP has is huge and fully supportive of developers and designers trying to code the web for a majority of users. The developer community is ever ready and helpful to novice and inexperienced developers. They can solve their issues and problems by posting their questions in the forums. Particularly, You get your questions solved by posting in the forums within 24 hours.
5. Used by major companies and websites: Many companies around the world such as Airbnb, Alibaba, WordPress, Magento, etc make use of PHP and implements them in their software.
Hire PHP Developer for your Web Development
What is JavaScript?
When web pages are developed, you need to provide interactivity to them. This is done using JavaScript. Initially, JavaScript was used to provide interactivity to web pages. Particularly, they were initially used to provide and validate the user input for form based pages. JavaScript was born to provide the interaction that happens between a user and the web page. With JavaScript released about 20 years ago, it goes without saying that JavaScript has evolved into so much more than just a language for the web. In recent times, the web has seen spurge in web development using JavaScript frameworks that help to code the modern day web and maintain them.
JavaScript is the backbone of many software and web applications that exist today. Particularly when it comes to back-end and front-end applications as this is where JavaScript truly shines and shows its true potential. JavaScript being used in almost all applications today. As it supports and is the backbone of today’s modern day web development.
JavaScript is now not only used to just provide the interactivity and functionality for today’s modern day web applications. It is used to provide and support today’s modern day programming and helps achieve and implement business logic also.
Advantages of JavaScript
1. Mature language: JavaScript has a rich history of being over 2 decades old when it comes to modern web programming. Today almost all applications that run on modern web programming make use and implement the use of JavaScript. This is because it is such a versatile language that helps elevate what web developers are trying to achieve through their applications and projects.
2. Ever-growing community: JavaScript has an ever growing community of users who are always helpful to novice and inexperienced developers. This community has always been bound to help them to solve all the issues and problems that they face when using and implementing JavaScript in their web applications.
3. Easy to learn: JavaScript language developed from the ground up to be easy to learn and understand. The object notation helps to implement functionality and work on the code quite fairly and easily.
4. Multiple frameworks exist: There are multiple frameworks that use and implement JavaScript language and its functionality in today’s modern day web applications.
5. Many companies use it: Many top technology companies such as Flipkart, the e-commerce Indian giant, and Facebook, the social media giant has implemented and made use of javascript in their application.
PHP vs JavaScript: Differences
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Usage:
A web application can use PHP and JavaScript together to take advantage of both languages’ strengths. In general, PHP is easier to learn and use than JavaScript, especially for beginners. Although JavaScript is a powerful language. There is a larger developer community that may make finding resources and support for JavaScript development easier. Both have their strengths and can be used effectively in different situations depending on the project’s requirements. JavaScript has stronger performance and is more efficient than PHP.
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Availability:
Many hosting providers offer PHP support out of the box, so setting up and deploying PHP applications is relatively easy. JavaScript can be used to create interactive elements that run in the web browser of the client. It is available on most web servers and is supported by many hosting providers. It is relatively easy to setup and deploy a PHP application. As a developer, you need to consider the specific requirements of your project, as well as your skills and preferences. PHP and JavaScript are well-supported and widely used.
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Concurrency:
In PHP and JavaScript, concurrency refers to a system’s capacity to handle multiple requests at one time. Both languages have mechanisms to handle concurrency, but they differ in how they handle it. Both languages have mechanisms for handling concurrency, but PHP is better suited for handling concurrent requests on the server. While JavaScript is better suited for handling concurrent tasks in the browser of the client. The particular method to concurrency will be determined by the demands of your application. As well as your personal development talents and preferences.
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External code integration:
PHP code can only be combined with HTML code. JavaScript code, on the other hand, may be integrated with cutting-edge technologies such as HTML, XML, and Ajax.
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Environments for Runtime:
Web development is often done using PHP and JavaScript, both of which have their own runtime environments. For web development, both languages offer libraries and frameworks. It requires a runtime environment to execute PHP code, while JavaScript has frameworks such as React and Angular. Apache HTTP Server, an open-source web server widely used on the internet. Is the most commonly used runtime environment for PHP. All modern web browsers support JavaScript, so it doesn’t need a specific runtime environment for execution. Web applications can be built using both PHP and JavaScript thanks to the availability of libraries and frameworks.
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Variables:
It is helpful to compare PHP variables with JavaScript variables when learning or programming two different languages. Since these languages declare variables differently. PHP considers all variables as local until they are declared as global. In JavaScript, you should use the keyword “var” when declaring a local variable. Otherwise, it will be taken as global by default. Both PHP and JavaScript maintain case sensitivity when it comes to variables. However, PHP does not maintain case sensitivity when it comes to classes or functions.
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Object and Array:
Objects and arrays in PHP are treated differently with different syntaxes and in JavaScript they are interchangeable, whereas in PHP they are treated separately. JavaScript allows objects and arrays to be switched freely, and it does not have associative arrays.
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Learning Curve:
Although PHP and JavaScript are both popular programming languages for web development, their learning curves differ. In addition to having a relatively simple syntax and a large number of online resources, PHP is also easy to learn for beginners. As a result of the large developer community surrounding PHP, it is easy to find resources and support for learning it. In contrast, JavaScript is a more powerful language and has a larger developer community, so it may be easier to find JavaScript development support and resources. It can, however, be more challenging to learn JavaScript because it has a more complex syntax and has more features.
Read More: Nodejs vs PHP: Which is best for Backend Development
PHP vs JavaScript- Direct Comparison
| PHP | JavaScript |
| PHP is an Open Source technology | JavaScript is also an opensource technology |
| PHP Runs on the server-side hence and known as server-side technology | JavaScript runs on the client’s machine and known as the client-side technology |
| PHP requires a server for execution | JavaScript does not require a server to execute |
| PHP provides intelligence to web pages | JavaScript provides the necessary interactivity to web pages |
| PHP used for only backend purposes | JavaScript used for both front end and backend purposes |
| PHP used for HTML purposes | JavaScript used for HTML, XML and AJAX |
| PHP is single-threaded technology | JavaScript is multithreaded technology |
| There are many PHP based frameworks such as Laravel, Zend, CakePHP, etc | There are many libraries technologies that use javascript such as ReactJS, VueJS, etc |
| PHP is asynchronous in nature | JavaScript is also Asynchronous in nature |
| PHP is used to handle web designing | JavaScript can be used for multiple different tasks apart from web designing. |
PHP vs Javascript: Google Trends:
Javascript demand has been steadily increasing since 2019, as shown in the chart, when compared to PHP, the trend has always been upward. The demand for developers with specific skills can be influenced by a variety of factors.
So it is difficult to accurately assess the demand for different programming languages from a single chart or statistic.
As a result, JavaScript is a widely used programming language that has been in demand for several years among businesses and organizations.
TIOBE Index, which evaluates the popularity of programming languages by examining the number of engineers. The number of searches on popular search engines, and the number of courses available.
JavaScript has consistently ranked among the top ten most popular programming languages. The demand for different programming languages can change over time and can be influenced by various factors. To stay competitive in the job market, developers should keep their skills current and be flexible.
Technological advancements, industry trends, and business and organizational needs influence the demand for different programming languages.
Also Read: JavaScript frameworks: 10 Popular Framework
Conclusion
Modern day web programming and development has been made capable by these two technologies PHP vs JavaScript.
So you see that each of these two technologies is quite capable to support modern day web development activities. These technologies help in providing rich functionality to web applications. JavaScript vs PHP both being mature technology helps to code today’s modern day web applications. So if you are looking to hire PHP developers or hire javascript developers then do contact us at enquiry@nimapinfotech.com with your requirements. Alternatively, you can contact at info@nimapinfotech.com with your requirements. We have talented developers and programmers that are seasoned and ready to help you in your development efforts.
