Is php DYING?

Nowadays, there’s an intense debate on whether PHP is on the decline or not. This is because of the advent and increasing popularity of other languages suited for the server-side such as JavaScript (Node JS), Python, Golang, and others.

People have been calling for the death of PHP for years now (you can find “Is PHP Dead?” posts as far back as 2011). And yet, PHP still persists…

This has actually led to a lot of funny memes targeting PHP

According to W3Techs’ data, PHP is used by 78.1% of all websites with a known server-side programming language. So almost 8 out of every 10 websites that you visit on the Internet are using PHP in some way. Which leads us to this fact…

I’m also a PHP developer, who’s dabbled in some backend JavaScript too, and I try to be impartial as possible.

No. The short answer is no. PHP is alive and kicking. Does that mean you should flock to it for all projects? Again, no. Should you instantly dismiss the language? No.

Let’s think — PHP is very much in active development. There’s many, many CMS’ based on PHP, and many great frameworks, too. One of the world’s most popular frameworks — Laravel, is based on PHP. The world’s most popular CMS — WordPress, is based on PHP. The PHP community is growing, and so is the quality of code.

But it’s not just WordPress, either. There are tons of other big and small sites built with PHP. For example, MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia, is written in PHP. And oh yeah, both Drupal and Joomla use PHP, too.

How’s the Theme Market?

With PHP being tied up with WordPress, custom-made or stock theme and plugin creation appear to be the main commercial avenues — especially if you’re looking to go freelance.

ThemeForest is currently the biggest commercial marketplace for WordPress-related stock assets, with 114 authors currently making more than $1 million — a seemingly big but actually small number in a marketplace of 47,000 active WordPress themes on sale. There is no easy way to ascertain what the average number of items is per author, but it is unlikely that their combined output is more than 10%.

It’s Easy to Find PHP Developers!

Because of PHP’s popularity, it’s easy to find PHP developers. And not just PHP developers — but PHP developers with experience.

In terms of job availability, PHP ranks better than a lot of other programming languages on the job platform Indeed. A lot of PHP developers make a good living making WordPress themes and plugins every year — the average PHP developer in the US makes $86,000 per year.

Conclusion

PHP remains a relevant and widely-used language in web development. Despite the mockery and debate on whether it’s still valuable, PHP developers keep earning good livings from working with the language. So, PHP doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Now, go code some PHP!

Thank you for reading, and keep coding.