What is the Future of PHP?

Is there any future of PHP as a programming language? If you are looking to this query, you are at the right place. In this blog, we will find the answer to this query in an elaborative way! So, let’s begin:

PHP is a popular scripting language founded in 1995 designed to perform several functions. Do you think the essence of PHP has faded away since the newer languages have come into the market?

If you think so, then let us tell you that your perception is totally wrong! In fact, in the contemporary market of software development, it has become the most popular language in server-side programming.

If you take a look at the statistics, PHP is used by 79.8% of the websites for server-side programming. Undoubtedly, this is a huge number and it is evidence to the fact that PHP is an immensely popular choice among web developers.

This depicts that version 5 of PHP is most used among the compared four versions. The upgraded versions are now providing the ability to run command line interface functions. This is the reason behind the increasing popularity of new versions.

Hypertext Pre-processor has good compatibility with HTML and helpful in developing a single page. It is a widely used language by various renowned websites like Wikipedia, Facebook, etc.

Moreover, it is the most preferred language of well-known content management systems like WordPress, Magento, Joomla etc. New programming languages like Python, Lua etc didn’t make any difference to its popularity among software developers.

Here is the comparison of PHP with other server-side programming languages by w3techs.com:

By server-side language, we mean that it is first executed on the server before it gets to the web browser of the user. It provides many benefits that overpower the other newer languages in every software development company’s eye.

There are many reasons because of which the future of PHP is highly secured in the upcoming years. Let’s have a look at what does the future of PHP holds:

The release of Version 8.0.0

Provides dynamic access

Expert assistance

Friendly language

Sufficient documentation

1. The release of Version 8.0.0

The recent updates of PHP versions have given significant improvement in performance. Version 7 and its succeeding versions like version 7.1, version 7.2 etc are known for providing lower memory usage.

Before this version, PHP development was focused on improving by using Just In Use (JIT). Although this resulted in remarkable improvements but provided little difference to real-world applications like Joomla.

It is evident from the above pictorial representation that the various versions of the PHP are amazingly popular among WordPress users.

The speculated date of the version 8.0.0 release is September 2021. There is very less idea about the added features in this version. Both JIT and version 8.0.0 remain in the future of PHP for which PHP developers are waiting enthusiastically.

2. Provides dynamic access

There is no other language other than PHP which allows PHP development companies to formulate websites so dynamically. There are various functions that allow making its code within itself.

Although it sounds very interesting if you could not find a proficient PHP developer then it might pose some repercussions. Undoubtedly, there is no other language which provides so much of liberty while developing.

Moreover, there are many PHP libraries which are used by expert PHP development companies to provide amazing solutions for eCommerce as well as CMSs. These libraries have kept PHP alive and maintained steady growth for its development.

3. Expert assistance

Have you ever got stuck while working on PHP? There is an expert rescue service for you. There are many PHP experts that are specifically helping website owners and developers.

You can take their help while coding in PHP. Their technical issue resolving capabilities are brilliant. This is another reason that gives PHP developers an upper hand over other language programmers.

They always have an expert to provide their clients with complete solutions.

4. Friendly language

When we say friendly language, by this we mean that it is easy to update and amazingly adjusts within different operating systems like Linux, Unix, MAC OS, Microsoft Windows and many more.

It can be easily packaged which makes this language to run with two commands on the command-line. This language is extremely user-friendly and anyone without much technical knowledge can utilize it for programming a website.

It is an amazing programming language for a start for any new web developer. This is the reason a lot of bad code is often written while programming in this language. Unlike other popular languages, PHP has a single and widely-loved package manager which is called composer.

This makes it an easily packaged language. The well written and maintained libraries make coding in this language an extremely strain-free task.

5. Sufficient documentation

It provides all kinds of support that are required for documentation. This is the reason why software developers choose to use this language. Have you ever struggled while looking for a PHP documentation?

It is a relief for web developers that many PHP documentation is available online along with a document generator. This is the reason why it is the favorite language for content management systems.

They have ample benefit of customized documentation system like class methods, functions, file headers, classes, and their properties. There are top CMSs that are based on PHP. some of them are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, SilverStripe, Cake PHP etc.

Final words:

PHP has almost all the features and over-the-top benefits that every software developer looks for. It has libraries, modules, and that assures dynamic development. Even the statistics shared in this post proved that it is the most opted language for server-side coding.

The perfect evidence of this fact is that most of the websites and content management systems are based on PHP programming. There is no near sign or reason that can stack down PHP popularity in upcoming years.

Therefore, if you are worried about the future of PHP and looking for alternatives then trust us that its future is more secure than any other newer programming language.

What is the Future of PHP? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.