Top 10 Reasons to Learn PHP in 2019

PHP as we all know is the easiest language out there and due to the number of websites created each day has also become the most used languages of today. PHP has its merits and demerits but the PHP Developers would have done something right which boosted it's growth in no time. Today PHP has it's lovers and haters. But the number of lovers surpass the number of haters, this is the reason that the PHP community is flourishing. Every opinion can be valid but still no one can deny PHP's impact in today's programming world.

A lot of people today rely on this programming language for their livelihood around the world. PHP has open doors for small companies and individuals to dream, design and code web-apps like never before. All this wasn't a possibility before the arrival of this awesome language. PHP is still going strong today and is continuously evolving. Support for this language has grown with time and shows no sign of stopping.

For all those aspiring PHP programmers, we bring you the TOP 10 Reasons to learn PHP this year. Stay tuned.

10. PHP is still the most used programming language

Not every developer gets the change to work with MNCs and not every developer have to work with MNCs. There are tons of opportunities in serving Small Businesses as well. Many of the Developers serve such small businesses or work on web-apps that serve these small businesses around the globe. The truth is that PHP is the most used programming language in the world. It has achieved this position due to its ease of use and ease of deployment.

Today, around 80% of the Web still uses PHP. This is a huge number and it also sheds light on the opportunity that is available to a PHP Developer. PHP is being used by some of the big names in the Industry which includes: Facebook.com, Wikipedia.org, Vk.com, 360.cn, Aliexpress.com, Wordpress.com, Pinterest.com, Gearbest.com, Wowhead.com, Glassdoor.com. This tells us what position PHP holds in the Market today. Web is bigger than ever today and most of it is powered by PHP itself.

9. PHP is still the easiest programming language to learn

Many PHP developers today are self-taught. PHP has been accepted by the programming community with open arms from its earliest versions. PHP follows syntax rules implemented by C, Javascript, C++, Java and Perl. These languages being already popular among developers gave PHP an enormous advantage. Developers didn't find it hard to understand PHP code. They started coding in it and it wasn't difficult either.

PHP borrowed many of the functionalities from these popular languages, even function names were copied from Perl, C and Java.

8. PHP is still a lot easier to deploy

PHP is a scripting language like Python, Ruby, Perl etc. Being opensource, Apache was a mature and the most common HTTP Server software when PHP was launched. Since its inception, the creators of PHP made it easier to hook PHP with Apache as a module. This contributed to the exceptional adoption of the language. Hosting providers around the world started offering PHP support along with Apache and thus developers started providing dynamic solutions based on PHP to their customers. Moreover, packages like XAMPP (for Windows), WAMP (for Windows) made it easier to install PHP along with MySql and Apache a lot easier on local computers.

7. PHP has improved a lot with PHP7

PHP is no longer a scripting tool. Earlier, PHP5 introduced advanced functionality. v5 is still the most used version and it actually provides all the features that developers would need. PHP recently introduced v7 version. PHP7 has improved on its speed. The performance difference between PHP5 and PHP7 is huge. Moreover, features like Type Hints, Return Types, Spaceship Operator are additional features that come with PHP7.

6. Open Source apps and frameworks written in PHP are growing at a fast pace

Market ground report tells us that apps most notably Wordpress and frameworks like Laravel, CodeIgniter, Symfony, CakePHP are still growing at a fast pace. Wordpress is the most commonly used Blog application whereas frameworks like Laravel, CodeIgniter etc. has simplified the coding process as well as collaboration process by making it mandatory to follow MVC pattern. Frameworks are a thing now and today almost all companies along with developers prefer coding in frameworks for the benefits it provides. These sophisticated frameworks and opensource apps are continuously expanding PHP's userbase.

5. PHP still has one of the largest and useful standard library

When it comes to the functionality, PHP's standard library is considered one of the most mature and robust library that is available today. There are mature APIs to access DBs, create REST APIs, manage files and has inbuilt support for session management on an individual server or over a network of servers. All this makes life of a developer much easier.

4. PHP now has sophisticated Package Manger called Composer

This point deserves to be mentioned separately. Composer is not just any third-party tool. It is the most sophisticated package manager available today. It's repository is called Packagist and it consists of all third-party libraries along with frameworks and open source apps.

Composer is a single file and is operated via terminal, it can download, install, uninstall and manage inter-library dependencies on its own so that developers can concentrate on their program logic rather than managing dependencies around. This is the must have tool for every PHP developer today. It saves a lot of valuable time and resources and helps reducing dependencies issues across servers.

3. PHP has support of sophisticated Third Party Template Engines

Primary focus of PHP has always remained the Web ecosystem. PHP was created for the Web smd still the language focuses on the Web ecosystem. The language doesn't come with a template engine but there are many third-party template engines available for the PHP developers. Mustache and Smarty are the most common standalone template engines. Frameworks like Laravel has its own template engine named Blade and Symfony comes with the Twig template engine.

These template engines makes the job of a web programmer very easy. Using these ensures that the code remains clean. You can use these template engines to generate all types of Frontend code i.e. HTML, CSS as well as JS. These template engines can also be used with CLI applications to generate command line output.

2. You can even create CLI apps using PHP

Imagine if you could use the complete power of PHP including the standard library functionality as well as third-party tools and create powerful CLI apps with it. This is very much possible, not only this, you do not need a web server like Apache or Nginx server to run your CLI apps. All you need is a PHP interpreter and you are done.

These days, it is a common practice with app builders to write a helper PHP script that runs via command line. The Composer package manager is a perfect example, it is written in PHP and is operated via CLI.

1. There is still no replacement to PHP

PHP has made its mark in the programming world, the language has earned the reputation and love of a large section of the programming community. People behind PHP work hard to keep things going. PHP today is huge, the codebase is very much mature but this does not stop developers to introduce more features into the language.

There are other web development tools like Python, Ruby, NodeJS, but these serve a different section of the programming community. PHP is as much capable as these other languages.

Other languages have not been able to replace PHP, mainly because of the simplicity of this language. PHP remains to be simple and at the same time competent enough to counter any challenge that comes in its way.