All

25 PROS AND CONS OF USING PHP FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT

PHP is a scripting language that has been dominating web development for two decades by now. Notwithstanding that the 8th version of PHP has been released the vast majority of websites are built with older PHP 5. The creators released PHP 5 in 2004 and officially supported different versions of it till 2018. PHP is a server-side embedded in HTML scripting language. It is used to manage dynamic content, databases, session tracking, and even build entire e-commerce sites. If you wonder what is PHP used for in web development the answer is easy: everything in terms of back-end. PHP is perfect for creating basements for different web services and in many aspects, we could thank its advanced frameworks for that.

One of the main advantages of using PHP for web development is the number of frameworks available for PHP web developers. PHP frameworks have all their great features, yet some of the frameworks outperform other ones. 
 

Yii
 

Yii is an efficient, component-based PHP framework. It is designed for fast large-scale web development. Yii allows maximum reusability in web coding and crucially speeds up the development process. Yii is an acronym that stands for “Yes It Is!”. It is a universal web programming framework that effectively assists in developing any type of web application. As Yii is a lightweight framework with smooth caching, it is suited for high-traffic websites and web services, such as portals, forums, content management systems (CMS), and e-commerce. Yii is an MVC framework just like most of PHP frameworks, yet it is supreme to many frameworks in terms of efficiency, a number of various features, and data organization. As a result of its creators’ vast web development experience, Yii is fit for advanced web development. 
 

CodeIgniter
 

Another really popular PHP MVC framework is CodeIgniter. It is a great framework for quick PHP website development. CodeIgniter has out-of-the-box libraries to connect with databases and carry out different operations amid which are emailing, files uploading, and session managing. Since all the framework’s source code is about 2MB mastering CodeIgniter with all of its working patterns and principles is not a too ambitious task. The framework really simplifies project deployment, not to mentions delivering high efficiency to the software. Users enjoy fast-loading applications and services, so If you have experienced developing with some of the modern frameworks, you must know that usually, it takes a bit less than one second to start out, while CodeIgniter loads in around 50ms or less. Thereby if your main priority is speed CodeIgniter is definitely one of the frameworks to consider.

Laravel
 

Laravel possesses such great features as easy and effective testing, great authentication, decent interoperability and third-party integrations, great e-commerce performance. It is also characterized by great data security and overall performance. As its PHP brothers, it is an MVC framework. Due to this Laravel is more intuitive and understandable especially for junior developers. In Laravel, you can either use the default testing environment or create a personalized environment with a more specific purpose. Laravel delivers the fastest authentication when compared with other frameworks. The most fundamental things for e-commerce applications like registering, logging in, or changing passwords are done in Laravel with one elementary command, providing quicker and more appropriate service for users. Lots of customers of e-commerce services browse great numbers of items through commercial web platforms. Thus, the rapid performance provided by the software’s framework is foremost. Laravel has a decent performance optimization, with astonishing cashing and data indexing – features that really decrease memory usage. Laravel has out-of-box solutions for cache back-ends that give more caching configuration variants for developers. One of the assets for an effective framework is interoperability and APIs. The unified API for different back-ends makes a project developed with Laravel more flexible. Laravel provides without-a-rival opportunities for integrations with lots of popular web services. E-commerce developers will also find Laravel an extremely suitable framework due to its set of e-commerce packages. These packages not just simplify and speed up the work, but also provide interesting solutions and instruments resulting in the greater performance of the software. That may become a decisive advantage on the market.
 

Symphony
 

Symphony is a well-known, widely used open-source framework. It has gained great popularity among developers around the world and has a decent reputation. Symphony’s community is huge – more than 600,000 developers all over the globe. Twig is Symphony’s templating engine that originates from Jinja and Django templates. It is pretty fast and secure. This framework is more expensive to use than Laravel, however, PHP development companies value Symphony for its ability to broaden developers’ horizons. It easily deals with complex projects other frameworks would cope with worse. 
 

CakePHP
 

CakePHP is a free, open-source, high-speed web development framework for PHP. Being very flexible and dynamic, CakePHP removes the sameness and boredom from web development. This framework can provide a developer with all the tools they may need to start out developing. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time you sit down to a new project, check out a copy of CakePHP and get started with the real guts of your application. CakePHP has an active developer team and community, bringing great value to the project. In addition to keeping you from wheel-reinventing, using CakePHP means your application’s core is well tested and is being constantly improved.

Using PHP for website development is great in all terms: from cutting budgets to educating employees. Here are 15 precise reasons to exploit PHP development services:
 

Open-Source
 

PHP is open-source and free, so developers can install it and be ready to use it in no time. There are quite many PHP frameworks and developers are very welcome to use their features in work.
 

Great Interoperability
 

All major PC operating systems like Windows, macOS, Unix, and Linux support PHP. The web applications built with PHP are successfully run on any platform. PHP-based software can be easily integrated with other programming languages or databases. It saves budget and effort. 
 

Simplicity
 

One of the key PHP advantages is its simplicity in learning and coding. The command functions are easy to learn and understand in PHP. Any person with basic coding skills in such programming languages as C and C++ can easily master PHP because its learning curve is pretty humble. PHP syntax is intuitive and flexible in use.
 

Database Connectivity
 

Plenty of web applications demand a strong programming language with a decent database management system. PHP ensures an easy and secure connection. It reduces the connection to a database management system time. In addition, lots of databases can be integrated with PHP.
 

Speed
 

PHP is the fastest Programming language if compare with other web programming languages. Unlike other software, you can load PHP applications effectively even despite the slow Internet and data speed. The speed PHP applications can be run with is a key factor to choose it for your web project development.
 

MVC Architecture
 

PHP frameworks are usually used to ease web application development as well as to automate code maintenance. The MVC architecture common for PHP is most suitable for this mission.
 

Great Support and Community
 

PHP has great online support and a huge community. This means that beginners will definitely get help or a piece of advice from more experienced developers. 
 

Testing
 

PHP-based web applications can be easily tested. This feature is especially notable in such advanced frameworks as Yii and Laravel. The developers of PHP-based applications have no need in writing any additional code. PHP frameworks automate a huge number of tasks and processes.
 

Data Safety
 

SQL injections and other types of web fraud are a great threat to data security. However, PHP and its frameworks deliver extremely high information security for the software they help to create. This became possible due to a simple yet cutting-edge approach to working with data. Frameworks like Laravel use pre-installed libraries and can avoid vulnerable SQL files, exploiting PHP code directly thus reducing risks of data loss significantly.
 

Stability
 

PHP is quite stable as compared to other programming languages. It has been on the market since the mid-1990s. And even though it has evolved a lot the developers have worked out quite many solutions for PHP. This made it easy for programmers to develop PHP startups. Plenty of bugs were fixed since this programming language appeared.
 

Wide-spreadness
 

It’s not a secret that the vast majority of the websites we know are built with PHP. To be more precise 4 websites out of 5 known are based on PHP and most of them were created with 4 or 5 versions of this language. Such well-known websites as Facebook, Wikipedia, and Tumblr have PHP in their basement.
 

Suitable for Outsourcing
 

It is quite easy to find a professional team to outsource your PHP project. This simple and extremely popular language is used by developers in all countries. For the best cost-efficiency ratio consider such countries as Ukraine and Poland.  Yet there are many more like India, Vietnam, Thailand in Asia and Argentina and Brazil in South America. Egypt is also an interesting choice for simple projects. In a word, if you are looking for an outsourcing PHP web development partner you will find them everywhere. 
 

Mobile Development
 

PHP is suitable for creating websites, but it is also an asset for mobile development. Vital for native apps back-ends are great in PHP.  Awesome caching its frameworks deliver makes PHP a smart option for e-commerce, fintech, and online banking apps as well as education management and delivery apps. 
 

Flexibility
 

PHP is highly flexible whether it is during an ongoing project or after completing the project. Flexibility in a scripting language is very crucial, as functionality can change anytime during the course of a project. The best part about PHP is the ability to make changes even after starting the project and this saves valuable time.
 

Cost-Efficiency
 

PHP is a completely free language. There is no need to purchase any expensive licenses or software, while you are developing with PHP. Thus, it is a great option for freelancers as well as for IT companies. It efficiently works with numerous databases, such as Apache, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. The cost of developing a website using PHP is minimal.

Yet like any kind of web development software PHP is a double-edged sword:
 

Using more features of PHP framework and tools cause poor performance of online applications if embodied badly. Lack of experience of the team that develops your project may result in neglecting all the PHP advantages as it though simple to learn demands experience and advanced skills. 
 

PHP never allows to change or modify the core behavior of online applications.
 

It is believed by developers that bare PHP features a poor error handling efficiency. PHP lacks debugging tools, which are needed to look for errors and warnings. PHP delivers fewer debugging tools in comparison to other languages. Awareness of the tools PHP frameworks provide saves the day though.
 

Bare PHP may be tough to manage, especially the older versions.
 

It is open-source, so can be used by literally anyone for finding weaknesses in software developed with PHP.

Sure, PHP is not the only solution for web development as well as not the best one, but it is certainly best in quite many aspects. Eventually, it is the most used scripting language for a reason. SapientPro is a PHP web development company that provides a full stack of services regarding web development. We work with all the best PHP frameworks and are keen on both website and mobile development. Delivery services, educational platforms, fintech projects, and web scrapers can be found among the products SapientPro has successfully developed. Contact us right now to discuss your project!