PHP for backend vs frontend: which path to choose in 2024?

PHP: universal soldier or narrow specialist?

When a beginner enters web development, they face a crucial question: what exactly can PHP do? Many have heard that it is a language for "small sites" and "backend." But is that really the case? Maybe PHP is also capable of frontend? Let's figure it out without hype and prejudice.

I myself started with PHP back in the era of "bicycle" solutions in pure code. Since then, the language has evolved from a humble tool for forums to a powerful engine powering Facebook (partially), Wikipedia, and WordPress. But the main question remains: is it worth using PHP for frontend, or is its place strictly on the server? The answer, as usual, lies in the details.

A brief overview: how does PHP actually work?

Before arguing about backend and frontend, let's recall the basic principle. PHP is a server-side language. When a browser requests a page, the server executes a PHP script, generates HTML (or JSON, or XML), and sends the result to the client. Everything the user sees is pure output. There is no PHP in the browser. This is a key difference from JavaScript, which lives directly on the client.

<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n    <title>PHP Example</title>\n</head>\n<body>\n    <?php\n        $time = date("H:i:s");\n        echo "<h2>Current time: $time</h2>";\n    ?>\n</body>\n</html>

In this example, PHP inserts the time directly into the HTML markup. But this is not frontend — it's server-side templating. The client receives ready-made HTML. Now let's look at where PHP's strengths lie and where its obvious weaknesses are.

PHP for backend: king of server-side logic

Everything is obvious here. PHP was created specifically for backend, and over 25 years of evolution it has become one of the most convenient tools for building server-side applications. This became especially noticeable with the release of PHP 8, which brought JIT compilation, attributes, named arguments, and many other goodies.

Pros of PHP on the backend

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• Instant start. No need to configure complex builders. Install XAMPP or Docker — and start writing code. For a beginner, this is an ideal option.
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• Huge community and libraries. Packagist contains hundreds of thousands of packages. Need authentication? Install Laravel Sanctum. Need a PDF parser? There's a library. Everything has already been invented for you.
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• Modern frameworks. Laravel, Symfony, Yii2 — these are not "spaghetti code," but powerful tools with clean architecture, ORM, queues, and testing. Example of a typical Laravel route:
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// routes/web.php\nRoute::get('/user/{id}', function (string $id) {\n    return response()->json(User::findOrFail($id));\n});

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• Ease of deployment. A PHP application can be uploaded to any regular hosting via FTP. No containers, no complex CI/CD (though they are also supported). For small projects, this is invaluable.
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• Performance. With PHP 8 and OPcache, script execution speed has increased significantly. For 90% of web applications (online stores, blogs, CRMs), PHP is more than fast enough.
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Cons of PHP on the backend

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• Not suitable for high-load real-time systems. If you need to handle thousands of web sockets or stream video — it's better to look at Go, Rust, or Node.js.
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• Historical legacy. A lot of legacy code written in PHP 4/5 is still running. Maintaining it is a drag.
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• Weak typing (without strict modes). Although PHP 7+ fixed this, beginners often write a "mess" of strings and numbers.
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PHP for frontend: can it be done, should it be done?

And here's where it gets interesting. Technically, PHP cannot run in the browser. But that doesn't mean it's useless for frontend