Helo people,
I keep running into PHP whenever I’m searching for web dev tutorials. Honestly, I thought it was kind of outdated, like something only used for WordPress or legacy systems. But it still pops up everywhere!!! What exactly is PHP, and is it really worth learning these days?
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Hey @stevenhere ! A lot of devs have these doubts when they start exploring backend work. PHP’s been around for decades, and while it’s not the newest tech out there, it’s still very widely used. It’s a server-side scripting language that helps build dynamic websites and applications, meaning it runs on the server and sends ready-made pages to the browser.
A huge part of the internet still runs on it, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and plenty of in-house tools rely on PHP because it’s stable, simple to deploy, and supported almost everywhere. It’s kind of like that old reliable engine that just keeps running, so companies have little reason to replace it entirely.
Got it! But with so many newer technologies like Node.js and Python frameworks out there, does PHP still make sense for someone just getting into backend development now?
PHP has definitely evolved; modern frameworks like Laravel and Symfony have made it cleaner and more structured, so you’re not dealing with messy old-school code anymore. If you’re planning to work on existing systems, internal tools, or want to understand backend fundamentals, PHP’s a solid place to start.
But if your goal is to work on modern cloud-native apps, microservices, or real-time systems, then learning Node.js, Python, or Go might give you more flexibility. Still, PHP helps you grasp the basics, routing, templating, authentication, sessions, and once you’ve got that foundation, switching to any other backend stack becomes way easier.
So yeah, PHP might not be the trendiest thing out there, but it’s still practical, relevant, and yes, it still pays well in the right places!
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