is PHP still relevant in 2023?

PHP has been a popular web development programming language for over two decades, and it runs a sizable portion of the internet’s websites. However, given the quick rate of change in the IT sector may ask “is PHP still relevant”. That’s why it is critical to evaluate the relevance and viability of various programming languages on a regular basis, particularly PHP.

As a result, it is important to assess if PHP is still a viable and relevant choice for web development in today’s programming ecosystem, considering its strengths, shortcomings, and competitive landscape. By assessing the present state and future possibilities of PHP, developers may make educated judgments about whether to spend their time learning the language and its ecosystem. I will also give you my reasoning why PHP in 2023 might just be a golden opportunity!

History of PHP

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a computer language specifically developed for web development. Rasmus Lerdorf founded it in 1994, and it has since evolved into a popular server-side scripting language for constructing dynamic and interactive web pages.

PHP’s debut as an open-source project in 1998 was a watershed moment in the language’s history, contributing to its quick adoption by web developers. PHP has grown in popularity over the years and is now used by millions of websites worldwide.

PHP has experienced considerable changes and enhancements, notably the release of PHP 8, which included new features and optimizations that made it quicker and more efficient.

Ecosystem of PHP

Frameworks:

a framework is a set of libraries and tools that provide a structure for developing web-based applications and make the developing process much easier.

CMSs:

CMSs (content management systems) are software tools used to construct and maintain websites. These are large-scale applications

Current State of PHP

Looking at this graph by TIOBE it’s no wonder why the “is PHP still relevant” question is asked so often. PHP is still a popular choice for web development and is used by millions of websites around the world. It is particularly mainly thanks to content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla as we mentioned before.

Despite its popularity and extensive use (even after its popularity without question has taken a hit), PHP has been criticized.  Some programmers say that it is obsolete and inferior to modern programming languages like Python and JavaScript. Others have criticized it for not supporting new programming paradigms like object-oriented programming and for relying on global variables. With its lack of (some) features and ruthless competition, there is no surprise that PHP is slipping in terms of used languages these days.

PHP has a relatively shallow learning curve, which makes it accessible to developers of all skill levels. Also, very similar to JavaScript which if you are or want to be a web developer you should be already knowledgeable in.

Whether you think it’s a dinosaur or still usable one thing is undeniable. Much of the web still stands on PHP’s shoulders and here’s where we get to my main point. Why you SHOULD learn PHP!

The future of PHP and why you should learn it

Although it is challenging to foretell PHP’s precise future, it is likely that the language will be utilized and important for the foreseeable future. Despite opposition from some quarters, PHP has a sizable and active user base.

It is also important to note that PHP is used in combination with other technologies, such as the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), a popular web development platform. PHP is expected to continue playing a big part in the realm of web development as long as these technologies remain popular and extensively utilized.

And as that point stands, people who are knowledgeable in PHP are slowly moving to retirement. So the internet will be left with a colossal amount of code in PHP yet no one would know how to write it. Catching my drift?

Go ahead and read any article on “what language should you learn these days” and it’s 99% going to be python and JavaScript if you want to be a web developer. Now I can’t argue with JavaScript as there is truly no way around it. But let me paint you a picture. In a few years’ time when a majority of PHP developers will retire, and companies will be left with code written in PHP. All you can find on the market are devs who know JS, python, C#… but as everyone is afraid to spend time learning PHP because of the “is PHP still relevant” questions companies will still need someone who will be able to maintain and write PHP code. So now as someone who learned PHP, you will be in a very advantageous position with your unique skillset.

WordPress is another reason why PHP is going to be here for foreseeable future. You don’t need to know PHP to be able to work in WordPress, but to create some custom features… PHP and CSS are a necessity.

I will point out that some countries use PHP more often than others. For example, opportunities in the USA are scarce, but In India and Europe (mainly Eastern) are many positions available. Still think even if you are from the US, knowing PHP will become handy and valuable.

Conclusion of PHP relevancy

PHP is still very much alive but thanks to its ruthless competition it’s slowly falling out. “Slowly” is the keyword here. It’s still heavily used and will be relevant for at least one more full generation of developers. “Is PHP still relevant” is question developers are asking for a decade and will continue so for another decade.

However, in that decade, active developers who can code in PHP will go down and PHP might just become a highly sought-after skill since most developers think it’s not worth learning. There will be codebases but there might just be no one who can maintain them.

Thank you for reading.