Choosing between Nodejs and PHP For your Backend

PHP and Node.js are the two major backend technologies that power web applications. Choosing between NodeJs and PHP is a very important decision for your backend projects.

PHP is the older between them, so it has a larger community. The PHP community has begun seeing a lack of relevant and updated projects. This is where Node.js is most successful. In building a strong user base across projects meant for modern-day use cases.

Although both technologies were introduced at different times, They are quite similar for a number of reasons– for instance, both are considered useful for the backend of web applications, are open source, and have a large community. Choosing between Nodejs and PHP for your backend can confuse some developer\’s because of their similarities.

However, businesses with previous PHP projects tend to choose it over Nodejs. While Node.js is a favorite among developers tackling modern-day problems with its fast-growing libraries and frameworks.

Given their various differences, choosing between Nodejs and PHP can affect various things like time-to-market, resource utilization, product performance, budget, and much more.

Node.Js Vs PHP – Whether to Choose PHP or Nodejs

PHP is among the most reliable server-side scripting languages. It is used by some of the tech giants like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Tumblr. It has been around since 1995. With a very large supporting community around it. Choosing between Nodes and PHP can be quite a daunting task for new developers.

Although it’s execution is synchronous, it has several built-in functions and libraries that make building e-commerce and CMS websites super easy. 

Launched in 2009, Node.js has quickly established its dominance in key web-application projects. Used by LinkedIn, Netflix, Medium, and other big players, its popular asynchronous architecture gives it the efficiency and speed crucial for the handling of requests. Choosing Nodejs over PHP can be wise considering the speed. But then, PHP has been around for sometime, so choosing php over Nodejs can make it easier to access a larger community.

While PHP is a scripting language and Node.js is a runtime environment, both are widely used as backend technologies for web-app development. Choosing between node.js and PHP can be quite a challenge. With the help of libraries, frameworks, and APIs, both Node.js and PHP prove ideal for a number of projects. 

POPULARITY

Metric	PHP	Node.js
1. Number of Websites	7,400,000	129,000
2. Market Share (Across Websites Segmented by Traffic)	5/5	0/5
3. Lead in Geography	162/162	0/162
4. Stack Overflow Questions	1,290,000	281,000
5. Popularity Across Website Categories	6/6	0/6

Although the data clearly shows PHP’s staggering popularity across all the categories, it doesn’t account for the 14-year gap between the launches of the two. It also doesn’t show that PHP has struggled with new-age projects lately. We have to take that into consideration when choosing between them. This has made choosing between Nodejs and PHP quite diffiult because Issues with scaling and concurrency are primary reasons why it’s failing to keep up with today’s tech demands and is experiencing a downward trend surprising no one. When choosing between Nodes and PHP, this factor should be considered.

Node.js, on the other hand, offers more relevant packages for modern projects – easily out-performing PHP in this regard and gaining a devoted user base while at it.  Click to view more of our posts