JavaScript is characterized by its event-driven, single-threaded, non-blocking I/O execution model, which allows actions to run concurrently. While the cake is in the oven, you make the icing, instead of waiting until the cake is done to do so. This is how JavaScript’s model works, allowing execution to take less time overall. However, when you look at the ratings for most wanted and loved by developers, there’s a stark contrast.

• PHP is a robust programming language that provides proper object-oriented functions.
• This language has a large support of frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony that are open source and can be used by anyone.
• Laravel, CodeIgniter, and Symfony are a few examples of popular PHP web application frameworks, with Laravel probably being the most popular today.
• Thus, the user does not have to wait until the completion of the previous code.
• Performance is always a subjective area, especially when comparing opposites like JavaScript and PHP.
• After briefly discussing PHP and Node.js basics and their differences, there’s a tricky question ahead of you.
• When it comes to concurrency, PHP is a multi-threaded synchronous language, whereas JavaScript is single-threaded and asynchronous.

The advent of PHP 8.0 featuring the Just-in-Time Compiler would make PHP even quicker. In addition, the developer is bound to the library’s API and must get acquainted with every API call and the library’s general functionality. This significantly lengthens the onboarding procedure and reduces the user-friendliness PHP has continuously provided during its existence. It is reasonable to believe https://wizardsdev.com/ that asynchronous PHP programming may improve speed, and one would be accurate. There are PHP plugins that allow asynchronous API requests, like Swoole, a sophisticated API that facilitates HTTP server, WebSocket server, and TCP server setups, among others. For finding, classifying, and categorizing data to offer to a customer, like items in an online marketplace, a database is important.

Which One Should You Learn: The Final Results 🔗

They will help you understand why many prefer this language when discussing PHP vs. JavaScript. With its vast support for different frameworks and architectures, it is more cloud-friendly, allowing better use of the microservices architecture. No matter your choice, just make sure to choose a language that suits your goals, and the rest will follow suit.

And in a lot of cases, if you’re working on existing projects, you’ll probably have to work with PHP anyway. So let’s consider the factors to keep in mind when deciding which language will work best for you. No matter which one you start with, however, you should probably pick up the other afterward.

The backend, on the contrary, is the part of the website users cannot see and interact with. Donations to freeCodeCamp go toward our education initiatives, and help pay for servers, services, and staff. As I said, neither language wins a point here because the syntax is a matter of personal preference. PHP makes use of dollar signs “$” to denote variables, whereas JS has no such sign. All variables are local by default unless declared global with global.

JavaScript is a vibrant and dynamic programming language that is compact, multi-paradigm, greater, and interpretive. Brendan Eich developed JavaScript in 1995, and it is distinguished by its curly-bracket syntax, first-class functionalities, and prototype-based object orientation. The programming languages PHP and JavaScript are used for different purposes and extensively used in the field of web designing and development. PHP provides more features than JavaScript however the performance of Javascript is better than that of PHP.

Node.JS vs PHP Speed: Node.js wins

However, Node allows you to run JavaScript on the server side, and that opens up a whole lot of opportunities to unleash the power of JavaScript as a programming language. When it comes to learning these languages, if you are in web development, JavaScript can safely be termed a necessity. Without a strong command of this language, your work could very well be limited to the backend only. Similarly, in this domain, you will regularly witness heavy use of PHP when dealing with the server-side.

Since JavaScript is more universal than PHP, the learning effort brings much more value. JavaScript is the most popular language on GitHub with over a 20% share of pull requests. There are a number of PHP Back-End Engineer job great JavaScript frameworks, and one cannot even count them because new ones emerge quite often. JavaScript is characterized by an event-driven, single-threaded, non-blocking I/O execution model.

PHP vs JavaScript: How to Choose the Best Language for Your Project

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment that executes JavaScript for backend and frontend development. Currently, one of the most popular and used technologies of all time. With that said, PHP is still making up 78% of web servers and is prominently used in content management systems like WordPress. JavaScript is a lightweight scripting language that lies more on the client-side. It’s mostly used to develop fully dynamic and interactive web pages.

However, everything changed in 2009 after Ryan Dahl invented Node.js. Thanks to this new runtime, you could use JavaScript for both front and back-end website development. Our experts at DOIT Software have years of relevant experience behind them and are eager to share this experience with our next client. We will guide you through all the steps, starting from the discovery phase and development plan, all the way until release and post-release support. With the abundance of backend technologies, it is tough to choose the right one that will complement your project and enrich your stack.

It uses JavaScript, so a single language is used throughout the whole application, including the backend and front-end, making code operations very convenient. If you want access to more database management systems options, PHP is the one to use. However, this implies a more tedious process if you decide to opt for non-relational and NoSQL databases.

The .Net Developer Salary Guide

Most notably, some knowledge of JavaScript is required for block development, as blocks are dependent on the React JS framework. A common example is with web forms, where it’s useful to validate user input before it’s saved to a database. PHP is the most used server-side language on the web today, easily beating its competition with nearly 80% of websites using it. JavaScript package managersOut of these, npm is the most popular, with more than 11 million developers using it globally.

Node.JS is asynchronous and PHP is synchronous, but what does this mean? Synchronous code is executed line by line, whereby the line will not be processed before the previous line has been successfully executed. Asynchronous code allows simultaneous code execution without waiting for previous lines. This distinction is very important and makes one language fast and the other rather slow and cumbersome. Frontend and Backend are the two most popular terms used in web development.

Comparison Chart

Ever since JavaScript came around, there has always been a debate between PHP vs. JavaScript. To do so, simply pen down your product specifications and compare how Node.js and PHP will work for it. Then choose the one that will execute your project optimally. Plus, you have to take into account the developers you’re working with. If they are better at using PHP, you may want to opt for it. Due to the V8 engine, asynchronous execution, and real-time server interaction, Node.js offers a better execution speed and certainly outperforms PHP.

PHP is the biggest Node.js alternative and is considered one of the best server-side languages in the world. Survey from W3Tech shows that 79% of websites use PHP for their backend compared to the 1.4% that use Node.js, the JavaScript runtime environment. Being a general-purpose backend technology, PHP is mostly used for web development. This language has a large support of frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony that are open source and can be used by anyone. Since its inception, Node has become one of the most popular back-end technologies. When developers work with front-end frameworks and libraries like React, AngularJS, Backbone.js and the like, they prefer Node as their back-end language in most cases.

PHP is a programming language for back end development only. JavaScript, in turn, was initially designed as a front end development language. But with the introduction of Node.js in 2009, JavaScript became full stack. Learning to work with a framework that will greatly increase your chances of building successful projects.

The front end is what users see and interact with and the backend is how everything works. Each side needs to communicate and operate effectively with the other as a single unit to improve the website’s functionality. Hardik Dhanani has a strong technical proficiency and domain expertise which comes by managing multiple development projects of clients from different demographics.