Backend development is one of the most sought-after skill today. Almost any new business/startup needs a website and a mobile app – both of which connect to a server in the backend. Many programming languages that are being used for backend development are emerging in the market. Python and PHP both are the most popular backend programming languages in today's market. Both are programming languages, and that their creators had a totally different goal in mind when they were designing them. PHP was initially made to be a server side, backend developer tool, while Python is far more versatile and can be used for building things other than web solutions. PHP was developed for web developers, and it is a scripting language that operates on the server side. On the other hand, Python is far more versatile and can be used for dozens of purposes other than web development. Let's find out which one is best for your website backend: Python or PHP? Python vs PHP Python is one of the most popular choices of backend programming. It is relatively new and has enormous library support. PHP has been in the market for a long time and it is widely used even today. Facebook, for instance, has its substantial backend developed in PHP in initial days. Python is one of the most secure programming languages and as a stand-alone solution, it can be used to write the most delicate pieces of software. PHP, on the other hand, has several security issues and those have to be handled through the use of additional tools. Python is far more versatile and can be used for dozens of purposes other than web development. PHP developers always have to be on the lookout for solutions that will make their code less hack-friendly. Python is also more flexible than PHP, but this comes as no surprise since PHP was strictly developed as web development program language. Python provides many opportunities for those who decide to use it for developing web applications. When it comes to the PHP syntax, you can see that it strongly resembles the syntax of the C programing language, while Python is extremely easy to read the language, i.e. there are no dollar signs and -> like in the PHP code. Python has true object orientation. When you add to this first-class classes and functions, it is far superior to PHP. The PHP community offers far more support than the Python community. PHP is far easier to get into the Python. PHP developers are far more affordable than the prices of those who specialize in Python. Python can handle huge amounts of traffic on a daily basis without any problems. Learning PHP has been seen to take more time as compared to learning Python. For beginners, Python is much easier than PHP. PHP has been in the market for quite a while, particularly for developing web applications. As a result, there is a huge community of PHP developers which is ready to provide support. There are loads of Python developers in the market who are continuously developing Python applications. As a result, community support is outstanding. Python has exceptionally well-developed library support for almost all types of applications. PHP lags in this aspect wrt to Python, but Packagist (PHP packages repository) is a strong backbone holding PHP. The most commonly used Python-based web frameworks are Django, Flask, Pylons, Pyramid, etc. On the other hand, the most used PHP based web frameworks are Codeigniter, Zend, Laravel, Symfony, etc. Python provides a powerful debugger called PDB (Python Debugger). PHP, on the other hand, provides XDebug package for debugging. Considering the PHP, Python or any other languages as solutions for the server backend development, first of all, type of the application that you are going to create should be taken into account. PHP, while inconsistent as a full-fledged programming language, is nevertheless ideally suited for writing web applications. And Python is suitable for both creating web applications and self-contained software. Among these two, Python is easier to master and simultaneously more flexible tool, while PHP, though much more sophisticated but more universal and independent language, and provides more opportunities. Definitely naming one of the described languages the best for backend development, however, is difficult. Everything depends on the ultimate goal pursued by the developer. We hope that this article helps our readers to better understand the main properties of these two popular languages and facilitates the complex process of choosing between them. You can share your comments with us in the comment section. Thank you!