How does Python compare to PHP for server-side web development?

a) Easy learning:

Python is certainly much easier to learn. Python is a generic programming language and can be learned very quickly. In fact, Python is so easy to understand that most beginner programming courses now use the Python programming language to teach basic programming principles. Python programs are much shorter and easier to write than other programming languages, making them the 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, shouldn’t be a generic language. It was developed especially for web applications, which are much more sophisticated than simple standalone programs. Therefore, learning PHP takes more time than learning Python.

b) Community support:

Both Python and PHP have great community support. PHP has been around for a long time, mainly for web application development. As a result, there is a large community of PHP developers ready to assist.

Python works very well with PHP here. There are many Python developers who are constantly developing Python applications. As a result, the support from the community is exceptional. Python and PHP are close to each other here and neither is a clear winner.

Python first became popular when Google started using it for some of Google’s most popular applications, such as YouTube. However, it should be noted that the largest social network in the world, Facebook, was written with PHP as the main backend.

c) Documentation:

Full documentation is available for both programming languages. The competition here is fierce and, as with community support, there really is no clear winner. Both languages are equally good in terms of availability of documentation.

d) Prices

Python and PHP are completely free and open source. Here also both win. In fact, Python and PHP win significantly over other paid web frameworks here.

e) Library support

This is a point where Python clearly outperforms PHP. PHP lags behind Python in this regard, but Packagist (PHP Package Repository) is a solid backbone that contains PHP. For example, today many startups and even large companies are creating web applications based on machine learning. Python has great machine learning libraries like TensorFlow, Keras, Theano, Scikit Learn, etc. These libraries are fast, easy to use, and most importantly, they integrate seamlessly with the web framework. Therefore, developing these types of applications is much easier with Python than with almost any other programming language.

f) Speed

PHP 5.x versions were quite slow and took a long time to run. However, the new version of PHP 7.x is extremely fast, almost three times faster than a classic Python program.

g) Choice of web frames:

The most used Python-based web frameworks are Django, Flask, Pylons, Pyramid etc. On the other hand, Codeigniter, Zend, Laravel, Symfony etc. are the most used PHP web frameworks.

Django is known to be extremely fast, scalable, secure, and easy to use. It is quite robust and powerful, and it is widely used in a wide variety of applications. Additionally, Codeigniter and Laravel are widely available in the market, and almost all current PHP applications use one of the two frameworks mentioned above.

10) Debugging:

Python has a powerful debugger called PDB (Python Debugger). PDB is well documented and easy to use even for beginners. PHP, on the other hand, offers the XDebug package for debugging. PDB and XDebug provide the most commonly used debugging features: breakpoint, stack, path mapping, etc. Python and PHP are similar here and neither is a clear winner.