PHP is one of the most popular and open-source server-side scripting languages. It is a general-purpose scripting language ideal for developing a wide variety of projects, including GUIs and eCommerce applications.  Developers across the globe primarily use this language for developing interactive websites and web applications.

Originally, PHP stood for Personal Home Page. However, it now stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. Moreover, a Danish-Canadian programmer in 1994, Rasmus Lerdorf, initially designed PHP. However, the PHP Group is now responsible for producing the PHP reference implementation. 

Many popular websites, including Facebook, Wikipedia, Slack, WordPress, and MailChimp, use PHP as their server-side language. According to some statistics, approximately 77.6% of all websites use PHP as their server-side scripting language currently. 

Due to its commendable features, most web developers prefer PHP for their web projects. It provides a lot of benefits to web developers and helps in facilitating web development. Through this article, let us throw light on major reasons that specify the importance of PHP for web development. 

10 Reasons Why PHP is a Good Choice for Web Development

The following are the reasons why PHP is a good choice for web development: 

1. PHP is Open-Source

One of the major reasons why PHP is most popular among web developers is that it is open-source. There is no need to pay anything to use this language. There are no paid updates and no cost involved in maintaining the language. Hence, it serves as a budget-friendly language for developing any sort of web solution. 

2. Compatible With All Major OS

PHP is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix. Therefore, you can use PHP on all major operating systems. Moreover, the development of cross-platform web applications using this language makes it more convenient. Such cross-platform web applications run on any system, regardless of its operating system. 

3. PHP is Simple and Easy

PHP is simple and easy to learn. The syntax of PHP is pretty simple, clean, and ordered. Therefore, if you have earlier worked with other programming languages, it becomes extremely easy for you to learn PHP. Moreover, you do not have to worry even if you are a beginner since PHP has a low learning curve. 

4. PHP is Secure and Flexible

PHP is the most secure language compared to other major server-side languages. This is because the PHP system comes with security measures that protect your web project against malware virus attacks. 

In addition, the recent development of PHP frameworks and tools helps you create robust and secure web projects. Most PHP tools and frameworks developed over the past few years provide top-notch security.

When it comes to flexibility, PHP provides excellent flexibility compared to other server-side languages. Websites developed using PHP can load automatically without any human intervention. Isn’t it amazing? 

5.  PHP is Stable and Fast

Since its inception, PHP has undergone a lot of updates, which makes it one of the most stable languages. Every new version of PHP is more stable and user-friendly than the previous one. Also, PHP is fast because it runs in its own memory space. 

6. Easy to Maintain

PHP codes are easy to maintain. In addition, the PHP platform is best suited for automated application maintenance. It follows the MCV (Model View Controller) architecture, which helps you to separate the business logic layer from the presentation layer. 

7. Database Flexibility

When it comes to database connectivity, PHP stands at the top of the list. It provides the flexibility to connect with various databases, including MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL, securely and easily. Therefore, you can have full freedom to choose a database of your choice. However, most developers prefer using MySQL with PHP while developing web applications. 

8. Extensions and Add-ons

Since PHP is an open-source language, developers can tweak its source code and add many other advanced features. Also, it supports a variety of extensions and plugins that accelerates the development of web projects.

Therefore, such support of extensions and plugins makes PHP one of the most adaptable server-side languages. 

9. Strong Community Support

PHP has active and strong community support. In addition, there are a lot of tutorials, FAQs, and excellent documentation available out there. Therefore, if you face any challenge while developing web solutions using PHP, the active community and all the available resources can help you to get out of your problem.

10. PHP Applications are Easy to Test

Testing plays a vital role in software development as well as web development. Without testing, we cannot ensure that a particular application is free from defects and functions as expected. However, it is not worth developers spending their time on testing. 

PHPUnit is a testing framework for testing applications developed in PHP. It allows developers to write test cases effortlessly and perform testing. Moreover, it automates various testing tasks that would require coding when done using other frameworks. 

Conclusion

Here we conclude our talk on why PHP is a good choice for web development. It has become one of the most popular server-side languages among web developers due to its versatility, ease of use, speed, adaptability, and security. 

Moreover, it has a vast community that frequently adds new features to PHP since it is open-source. PHP has more live websites currently than other server-side scripting languages. 

We hope this blog post has provided enough information on why PHP is the most preferred choice for web developers.

Summary

PHP is a widespread server-side language for web development. Due to its versatile nature and notable features, PHP has become one of the most preferred languages among web developers. Not only it is ideal for web development but also for developing a variety of applications. Moreover, PHP is easy to learn, code, and maintain. It is the most secure and flexible server-side language. In addition, it is open-source, compatible with all major OS, and flexible for database connectivity. Finally, it has excellent documentation and active community support.