PHP vs. Python

PHP and Python are the two most popular pro­gram­ming languages on Earth. While Python impresses with its ease of use, PHP has clear ad­vant­ages in terms of speed. Both languages are equally re­com­mend­able.

PHP or Python? Ex­per­i­enced pro­gram­mers will certainly have a well-founded opinion on this, backed up with good arguments. However, if you compare the state­ments, the picture won’t ne­ces­sar­ily become clearer. While some clearly swear by PHP, others are un­doubtedly in favour of Python. For a newcomer, however, this isn’t very helpful. That’s why it makes sense to compare the two languages in an unbiased way. What are their strengths and weak­nesses? What do PHP and Python have in common, and what are the clear dif­fer­ences between them? The answers are complex and point to two equally good opponents.

The name PHP ori­gin­ally stood simply for ‘Personal Home Page’. Today, ‘Hypertext Pre­pro­cessor’ is more ap­pro­pri­ate. The server-side scripting language was invented by Rasmus Lerdorf and first published in 1995. The pro­gram­ming language is open source and available free of charge for all common operating systems. This isn’t the only reason why PHP enjoys such great pop­ular­ity and is probably the most widely used scripting language in the world. Its ease of use also wins over pro­gram­mers. PHP is suitable for dynamic web content, supports in­teg­ra­tion into many databases, and is top notch also in terms of its search engine rating.

Cost: PHP is available under the open source PHP license and is therefore free for users.

Com­pat­ib­il­ity: PHP is com­pat­ible with almost all popular operating systems and achieves excellent results on all devices. Its ver­sat­il­ity is one of the great ad­vant­ages of the scripting language. In addition, PHP is com­pat­ible with many different types of servers.

Flex­ib­il­ity: Many embedding pos­sib­il­it­ies speak for PHP. In­teg­ra­tion with HTML, XML, and other codes is easily possible.

Target group: PHP is aimed at ex­per­i­enced pro­gram­mers and beginners alike. On the one hand, the pro­gram­ming language is so easy to un­der­stand that even novices can create a fully func­tion­al and visually appealing website in a re­l­at­ively short time, but it also offers so many pos­sib­il­it­ies that pro­fes­sion­al pro­gram­mers can implement soph­ist­ic­ated projects with PHP.

Per­form­ance: PHP convinces with a very good per­form­ance even compared to many other pro­gram­ming languages. Data and databases are loaded quickly, and the object-ori­ent­ated features also have a positive effect on speed.

Mon­it­or­ing: The script language lets you monitor memory and CPU data in real time. Error reporting is supported and error warnings can be generated.

PHP is mainly used for websites and web-based apps. Dynamic page content and in­ter­act­ive user in­ter­faces can be created and impress with their strong and secure per­form­ance. PHP is es­pe­cially popular in e-commerce websites and apps where security is a priority. PHP is also suited for working with extensive content man­age­ment systems.

PHP can also be used for image pro­cessing of most formats. Data can be displayed in various ways with the scripting language. PHP also har­mon­ises with large databases, can collect data from forms, support cookies, and regulate access by users. PHP works on the server side, so it doesn’t execute the program code in the browser, but directly on the server.

Python is a universal pro­gram­ming language developed in 1991 by Dutch software spe­cial­ist Guido van Rossum as a successor to ABC. Like PHP, Python is free and open source. The name goes back to the British comedy troupe Monty Python. The goal of the script language has always been to offer a simple, intuitive, and clear structure, allowing each user to learn the language com­par­at­ively quickly. This is achieved, among other things, by a reduced syntax and struc­tur­ing by in­dent­a­tion. Python is com­pat­ible with many operating systems and is con­stantly being further developed and optimised.

Cost: Just like PHP, Python is free and can be down­loaded for free. The source code is openly ac­cess­ible, making it easy to modify.

Flex­ib­il­ity: Python is designed so that users can extend it with different modules as they wish. The codes are portable and can be used on different operating systems without any modi­fic­a­tions. Since numerous libraries are available, de­vel­op­ment is easy because important codes can be easily adopted. In addition, Python works in a par­tic­u­larly object-ori­ent­ated way.

Target group: Its ease of use makes Python a popular language for de­velopers of all kinds. Beginners benefit from quick access and can achieve great success in a short time without much prior knowledge. The syntax is logical, simple, and intuitive, which is an in­valu­able advantage not only for beginners, but also for ex­per­i­enced pro­gram­mers. Small and large projects alike can be im­ple­men­ted with Python in a par­tic­u­larly time-saving and efficient manner.

Testing and security: Python allows de­velopers to ex­tens­ively test changes before they are im­ple­men­ted. This minimises sus­cept­ib­il­ity to errors. One feature of the language is automatic garbage col­lec­tion. If a problem occurs, debugging with Python is com­par­at­ively simple and, above all, problem ori­ent­ated.

Es­pe­cially due to its com­pat­ib­il­ity with frame­works like Django, Pyramid, or Flask, Python is perfectly suited for a host of web ap­plic­a­tions. The main­ten­ance of databases or content man­age­ment are easily achieved with the script language. In addition, commonly used Internet protocols such as HTML, XML, or IMAP are supported, which is why Python offers de­velopers numerous options for their websites.

Many teams in software and game de­vel­op­ment also rely on Python. This includes web and desktop ap­plic­a­tions on the one hand, but also elaborate video games where 3D engines are based on Python. Its high flex­ib­il­ity and simply syntax make the pro­gram­ming language the ideal choice in this demanding field.

It’s clear that both pro­gram­ming languages not only have a large fan base, but are basically among the best options currently available. When comparing the two directly against each other, however, there are still some dif­fer­ences between PHP and Python.

If you start at the very beginning, you can already spot a major dif­fer­ence. While the in­stall­a­tion of PHP is very simple, the in­stall­a­tion of Python ⁠— depending on the operating system — can be quite chal­len­ging. Although the in­stall­a­tion on Linux is rather quick, this doesn’t apply to Windows or macOS.

Although PHP and Python are both logically struc­tured and re­l­at­ively easy to un­der­stand, Python still has clear ad­vant­ages. The scripting language was developed with the intention of making it as easy as possible for beginners to get started, and it shows. The language is easy to read, well struc­tured, and works with simple English terms. PHP, on the other hand, is case sensitive, assigns a task to the semicolon, and has its own rules for spaces and line breaks. Getting started is much more chal­len­ging.

In terms of per­form­ance, on the other hand, PHP is ahead. Over time, the language has excelled and is now sig­ni­fic­antly faster than earlier versions and other pro­gram­ming languages. Code com­pil­a­tion, on the other hand, is also very straight­for­ward in Python. For extensive ap­plic­a­tions, however, PHP has the edge.

Ready-made libraries simplify work, minimise errors, and ensure faster progress. Here, Python is known for its strong support. This applies to many different ap­plic­a­tions and tasks. PHP can’t quite keep up with this, although it’s slowly catching up with the newer versions. This makes the Package Re­pos­it­ory a very useful and practical addition.

Both PHP and Python offer numerous framework options. For Python, these include Django, Flask, Pylons, Pyramid, and Tur­boGears. PHP offers Code­igniter, Laravel, Symfony, Yii, and Zend.

Debugging is a big topic for both PHP and Python. PHP offers the useful tool XDebug while Python relies on the Python Debugger (PDB).

Overall, Python is a bit more flexible. Compared to PHP, the somewhat older language scores points with its out­stand­ing scalab­il­ity making it ready for all chal­lenges. PHP is by no means bad in this area either but doesn’t quite offer the same soph­ist­ic­ated pos­sib­il­it­ies.

Python has numerous security features and is one of the world’s most secure pro­gram­ming languages. PHP is also con­stantly improving its security systems, but when comparing the two directly, it would probably have to take a back seat in this area.

In terms of doc­u­ment­a­tion, the PHP vs. Python race is much closer. Both languages offer extensive in­form­a­tion on every topic and problem. PHP trans­lates in­form­a­tion into ten languages and lets you comment on it. Python is a bit clearer, but if you need help, you will probably find it for both scripting languages.

If doc­u­ment­a­tion doesn’t help, an active and committed community is needed. Here, PHP and Python both prove that they are languages that have been used for a long time and have been able to build up large user bases during this time. The will­ing­ness to help is ex­cep­tion­al, and urgent questions are answered quickly and ef­fect­ively. This is in­valu­able, es­pe­cially for beginners.