Difficulty in Choosing Server-Side Environment! Let’s Find Out Which is Best for You

Node.js and PHP are two very popular web development solutions. PHP, a scripting language created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, was one of the top languages of the Web 1.0 era. The eloquent manifestation of the PHP success is CMS (Content Management Systems), such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal that power millions of blogs and web portals. Node.js is a representative of a younger web development generation. Unlike PHP, Node.js is not a language, but a run-time environment that uses JavaScript for the server-side application development.

Usually, PHP is processed by an interpreter, powered by the Zend Engine, that is installed on web servers such as Apache and Nginx. Also, PHP code can be embedded into HTML or HTML5 mark-up. This flexibility contributed to the popularity of the language, PHP is now used on more than 80% of web servers.

Node.js is an open-source, JavaScript run-time environment used to execute JavaScript code on the server-side. Node.js development process has changed the paradigm that JavaScript is used primarily on the client-side. That’s why Node.js has become one of the foundational elements of the “JavaScript everywhere” paradigm.

These programming languages are good and it finally comes to the decision of the businesses on which platform they want to develop their website. If you want a good database integration than PHP is an ideal choice for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for designing interactive user interfaces than you should go for Node.JS. Therefore, it ultimately comes down to businesses preference and requirements of their project.

When to use PHP:

• For software stacks like WAMP, MAMP, and LAMP.

• For content management systems like Drupal, WordPress, Joomla etc.

• For servers like SQL, MySQL, Oracle etc.

When to use Node.JS:

• Single page dynamic web applications (SPAs).

• Using with software stacks like MEAN stack.

• Using server-side technologies like Express.js, Node.JS, MongoDB, etc.

• Using with front-end technologies like Angular.JS, jQuery, React.JS etc.

Both PHP and Node.js can manage web applications of any complexity, but they are built with different architectures and concepts. If you want to develop an app for your company and are confused between these two environments, you should contact Web Development Company.