Why PHP is Still Alive and Popular: History, Code, and Reasons for Success

Why PHP is Popular: History, Reasons, and Live Code

When it comes to web development, PHP is often called a "dinosaur" or "the language everyone hates but uses." However, statistics are relentless: according to W3Techs, PHP is used on 77% of all websites with a known server-side language. Even in 2024, when Python, Go, and Rust have entered the scene, PHP remains the king of backend. Why is this happening? Let's break it down with history, reasons, and, of course, code.

A Brief History: From a Humble Script to a Powerful Engine

It all began in 1994 when Rasmus Lerdorf created a simple set of Perl scripts to track visits to his resume. He called it "Personal Home Page Tools." Over time, other developers joined the project, and by 1997, PHP/FI 2.0 emerged. But the real breakthrough came in 2000 with the release of PHP 4 and the Zend Engine — a powerful core that turned PHP into a serious language.

PHP 5 (2004) added object-oriented programming, and PHP 7 (2015) revolutionized performance — execution speed increased by 2-3 times. Finally, PHP 8 (2020) brought JIT compilation, attributes, and named arguments, proving that the language is actively evolving.

Why PHP is So Popular: 7 Key Reasons

1. Ease of Entry and a Huge Community

PHP is one of the most beginner-friendly languages. To write your first script, you don't need to install complex tools. A simple text editor and a web server with PHP support (e.g., OpenServer or XAMPP) are enough.

Here's what a classic "Hello, World!" looks like in PHP:

<?phpecho "Hello, World!";?>

Compare with Python (Flask):

from flask import Flaskapp = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')def hello():    return "Hello, World!"

The difference is obvious: PHP requires no imports, routing, or templates. Just an opening tag, code, a closing tag — and you're done.

2. Dominance in CMS and Hosting

Most popular content management systems (CMS) are written in PHP: WordPress (43% of all websites worldwide), Joomla, Drupal, Bitrix, OpenCart. If you rent cheap hosting, it almost certainly supports PHP. Python hosting is more expensive and requires configuration.

Example of a typical WordPress template in PHP:

<?php get_header(); ?><div class="content">    <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>        <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>            <h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>            <?php the_content(); ?>        <?php endwhile; ?>    <?php endif; ?></div><?php get_footer(); ?>

3. Vast Library of Built-in Functions

PHP has over 5000 built-in functions. Want to send an email? There's mail(). Need to work with images? imagecreatefromjpeg(). Databases? mysqli_connect(). For many tasks, no external libraries are needed.

Example of sending an email in PHP:

<?php$to = "user@example.com";$subject = "Hello from PHP";$message = "This is a test email.";$headers = "From: admin@pythonlib.ru";

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {    echo "Email sent!";} else {    echo "Error sending email.";}?>

4. Performance of PHP 8+

With the release of PHP 8 and JIT compilation, the language has become not just fast — it outperforms Python in web scenarios. Tests show that PHP 8 processes requests 2-3 times faster than Python (Flask).

Example of modern PHP 8 code:

<?php// Using named arguments (PHP 8)function createUser(string $name, string $email, bool $isAdmin = false) {    return "User created: $name, email: $email, admin: " . ($isAdmin ? 'yes' : 'no');}

echo createUser(name: "Ivan", email: "ivan@example