Do you know what happens in classic Hollywood movies?

A climax always has the fight between two longtime friends who went their separate ways. Generally, bitterness occurs when one of the friends develops an interest in what had always been the unspoken realm of the other.

Let’s consider the same thing in the programming language – movie. The introduction of Node.js changes the buddy movie into a squabble: PHP and JavaScript, two companions who previously ruled the internet together but are now fighting for developers’ mindshare.

If we go back to previous days, the friendship was very simple. JavaScript took care of every small detail in the browser, while PHP took care of everything between port 80 and MySQL on the server-side. It was a good bond that has helped many important aspects of the internet sustain. Due to various websites like Facebook, Drupal, and WordPress, users are not able to give more than a minute on the internet without having to be experienced with PHP.

Then the bright friend found out the way to execute JavaScript on the server. And suddenly, PHP was not required in order to develop the next generation of server stacks. Just one language was required to create NodeJs and the frameworks that run on the client-side. And then, “JavaScript for everything and everywhere” became the mantra for some development.

An Overview: Node JS vs PHP

Since the invention of JavaScript, its popularity has skyrocketed. Node.js developers may now choose from the pool of various amazing frameworks and scaffolding, including Vue, Meteor, Angular, React, Express, Vue, and more.

The list goes on, and the most difficult part is to pick an excellent option for the project.

While talking about Node JS and PHP, both are powerful options for backend development services. However, the developer community is divided when it comes to choosing PHP or Node JS for the backend.

It’s PHP, which has remained one of the most widely used technologies in history. On the other hand, we now have NodeJS – the latest technology that allows us to use JavaScript for back-end programming as well.

So, which option is better to choose from the difference between PHP and NodeJS? How do you decide when to use Node JS or PHP technology for the server-side development of your project?

In this detailed comparison blog, let’s find out Node JS vs PHP. Furthermore, we are going to discuss the key features and differences between PHP and NodeJs.

What is PHP?

PHP (Hypertext Processor) is an open-source server-side scripting language used by giants like Wikipedia, Tumblr, and Facebook. Rasmus Lerdorf developed the language in 1994, and since then, there has been no going back.

A survey by W3Tech states that PHP is used for the data in almost 79% of websites. In addition, PHP has spread its wings in the CMS (Content Management Systems), such as Shopify, WordPress, Drupal, and WooCommerce.

It contains various built-in features and packages that make developing eCommerce and CMS websites very easy, despite being synchronous and only works with a central server in place.

PHP is a synchronous programming language with multi-threaded blocking I/O processing in terms of technology. On the server-side, PHP is executed by an interpreter – Zend Engine, working with Nginx and Apache servers. Without having access to the original code, the client-side waits until it receives the results of a script being processed, and no other code lines are executed until the previous result is received.

PHP is a very flexible language as you can easily integrate its code into HTML or HTML5. Also, you can easily connect to the various SQL databases like MariaDB, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.

If you hire PHP developers, they will bring various benefits to your business. However, you should understand and know some tips to hire PHP developers for your project. Let’s go through a few of them here.

Multiple Database Options

PHP has the ability to create a connection with any type of database. But MySQL is the most common and preferred database as it is free and popular. Furthermore, PHP is also compatible with other database management systems like mSQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, etc.

On the other hand, PHP is also compatible and used with non-relation databases like MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and Redis. This way, developers have the freedom to choose any database for their future app.

Faster Page Load Speed

When compared to other web development technologies, PHP allows website pages to load faster. For example, most of the time, PHP is almost three times faster than Python.

On the other hand, lower loading time is a significant SEO ranking factor that aids in promoting a website by providing competitive benefits. A faster application keeps consumers happy and, when combined with additional benefits, helps to grow and retain the client base.

Higher Customer Retention Rates

PHP has rapid data processing features that reduce the page load time. Users generally don’t like to wait for a website to load. However, they tend to leave if the website doesn’t reload in less than three seconds.

PHP-based applications load pages quickly, increase user retention and make your product more intuitive to use.

Rich Codebase

PHP has a large and robust codebase that includes popular web development stacks and platforms. Furthermore, it is so simple to use that even someone who is not familiar with technology can use it.

PHP has a large codebase for all kinds of solutions, from content management systems to amazing frameworks like Symfony and Laravel. For example, you can set up a blog in minutes with WordPress, a PHP-based content management system.

Drawbacks of PHP

Let us uncover the disadvantages of PHP development services that sometimes drive developers away from this technology.

Poor Code Manageability

PHP allows developers to merge HTML with the language syntax, making it even more difficult to add new functionality to PHP applications. Furthermore, managing the codes has become much more difficult with such a large codebase, which JavaScript frameworks rarely face.

Slow Testing Process

The most significant drawback of PHP, especially when compared to Node, is its poor error handling. PHP does not have many debugging tools that can detect flaws and notify the programmer in real-time. This feature of PHP makes it more error-prone and slows down the quality assurance process. Thus, it increases the number of errors in the finished result.

Security Vulnerabilities

The low entrance barrier for newbies is one of the reasons PHP has a negative reputation in terms of security. As a result, unskilled coders, trainees, or even amateurs create many websites and apps. The poor quality of their work adds to the rumors and truths about PHP’s overall security and performance issues.

What is Node JS?

Node.js is an open-source runtime environment, offering everything that is required to execute a JavaScript program. It actually enables the use of the JavaScript app on the server side and helps you build fast and scalable applications. It leverages an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model.

Previously, JavaScript was a special frontend giant designed to execute in a web browser environment, and it never came into contact with PHP. Now, Node.js has flipped the table. With the usage of Google’s V8 JS engine, it allows asynchronous JavaScript development, elevating JavaScript to the next level in more powerful programming languages like Python.

Well, with the help of JavaScript development, you can create many amazing and intuitive websites. Like other scripting languages – Python, JavaScript can now perform many other things.

Besides, another thing we can consider is its amazing support for JSON. Actually, JSON is used when data is sent to the web page from the server. It allows you to communicate with NoSQL databases. Microsoft, LinkedIn, and PayPal are among the companies that use NodeJS development services.

Benefits of Node JS

If you hire Node JS developers, you can leverage certain benefits for your upcoming projects. Let’s go through a few of them here.

Easy to Learn

As we know, JavaScript has been the most popular and used programming language. So, many of the front-end developers have a better understanding and knowledge about it. Hence, it becomes quite easier for them to learn and use Node.js for the backend.

Real-time Experience

Another benefit your business can leverage is that you can get real-time experience and real-time streaming with Node.js applications. Node.js allows you to build high-performance apps with advanced features like streaming services, real-time chatting, and transaction with the usage of an event-driven JavaScript environment.

Faster Server Connection

Node.js enables you to develop non-blocking I/O JavaScript apps by using an event queue that can manage multiple requests at once. You can construct a highly scalable server application utilizing JavaScript’s built-in asynchrony, which maximizes your server’s CPU and memory while handling more requests at the same time than traditional multithreaded servers. This makes Node.js suitable for real-time apps requiring many I/O operations.

While talking about PHP vs NodeJS, Node.js is an asynchronous, event-driven, and non-blocking programming language, whereas PHP is a synchronous programming language. This means that Node.js is a better option for speeding up the development process than PHP.

Flexibility

Node.js is flexible enough to let you develop an app with any technology. It doesn’t adhere to any strict rules for project development. Besides, NPM allows you to develop an application smoothly and quickly.

Since Node.js doesn’t have any strict rules for developers to follow, they get the required room to build apps.

Scalability

When comparing Node.js vs PHP, the features of Node.js – non-blocking and asynchronous, speed up application development and allow you to handle various requests at once. Node.js is the primary technology used to create SPAs and data-driven apps.

Drawbacks of Node JS

Let us find out the dark sides of Node.js development services that make developers not to choose this technology.

Hosting

Node.js can execute on the server-side without disrupting the connection. You can do it yourself or leverage the hosting services, like a virtual cloud (VDS/VPS, a server environment with full access) from the service providers. Unfortunately, not all hosts will be able to afford it, thus the costs will reflect this.

Immature Environment

One of the factors that make NodeJS frustrating for individuals is the use of a complicated coding structure.

Not Suitable for Intensive Apps

This framework is not capable of handling CPU-intensive tasks such as audio and video production, graphic editing, and so on. Node.js-based apps are more responsive, which makes developing graphic-centric applications more difficult.

NodeJS vs PHP: The Popularity Contest

While talking about the popularity of Node JS and PHP, the PHP-driven websites exceed NodeJS- websites by a huge margin. PHP is used to power the backends of around 80% of all websites on the internet, and around 40% of them are developed by PHP-based WordPress.

On the flip side, slowly and gradually, Node.js has gained popularity in the market and has become the most used programming language in 2020. Albeit, there are only 1-2% of websites that are developed by Node.js. And Netflix and LinkedIn are such examples of it.

Being in the market for the last two decades, we can surely state that the presence and usage of Node.js are going to increase due to its approach – JavaScript is everywhere. As we know, JavaScript has been the most demanded and convenient language for a few years now, while PHP developers are in considerably less demand.

A Stack Overflow survey shows that around 41.6% of developers ‘Loved’ and 58.4% of developers ‘dreaded’ PHP language. Besides, Node.js has secured its spot in the most loved Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools category with around 66.4% of the developers ‘Loved’ Node JS.

It’s worth mentioning that, while PHP has long been the more popular technology, Node.js is becoming more popular among professional developers.

PHP vs NodeJS: A Final Comparison

Now, we will discuss the difference between PHP and NodeJs, where we will look at the different aspects of backend technologies and determine the winner.

PHP has been around for a long time and has flourished over these years. From afar, it may appear like PHP requires lesser lines of code to complete a function, making it easier.

But then, you must have a good understanding of operators and generators and how they work in LAMP (Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL, and PHP).

Node JS

On the surface, Node.js appears to require more lines of code to execute the same tasks as PHP. Since the complete development environment is written in JavaScript, you don’t have to memorize other languages’ syntax while coding. So, while Node.js may demand lengthier lines of code, it only works with one language.

Winner: Well, while announcing the winner for the coding parameter, Node.js tops the market in our books. However, both languages are easy to understand.

• Performance

PHP

PHP is an older technology. Hence, it has a different concept to handle requests, which is slower. Also, it has a synchronous code execution procedure, processing every module in the code-specified order. It blocks a process until it has completed all execution, resulting in delayed loading and no concurrency.

However, if you still want to utilize PHP, you can link it with the HHVM Virtual Machine. And this virtual machine is used to execute PHP web projects. It can increase your PHP web app performance by over 75%. Despite this, Node.js is still the speedier option.

Node JS

Node.js has an asynchronous nature. It uses the JavaScript V8 engine, which helps to enhance the execution speed along with quick startup time. Since Node.js is event-driven, it doesn’t block new requests until the old ones are accomplished.

Well, this order-independent execution is known as ‘concurrency’. When combined with Node’s concurrency, JS provides an excellent environment for developing high-performance apps.

Winner: Both technologies are the winners here. Just-In-Time Compilation is used by both PHP and Node.js. However, Node.js would be your choice if performance is your top priority.

• Functionality

PHP

When it comes to backend programming language, PHP is the pure one. Therefore, its area of development is limited. In terms of technology, it belongs to the LAMP Stack. Hence, a developer should have a good knowledge of various technologies along with CSS and HTML to create and maintain a PHP-based project.

Of course, the possibility of dealing with several technologies further complicates the learning curve. Despite the difficulties mentioned above, PHP continues to evolve dynamically, with its developers always coming up with new features and ideas to improve its capabilities and functionality.

Node JS

Node.js is a programming language that combines some of the most significant elements into a single, seamless package with no functionality fragmentation. It allows you to create a complete backend model (Need a database – MySQL, reverse proxy – Apache or Nginx, and an HTTP framework – Express.js)

Furthermore, JavaScript is a full-stack development language, which means it can create a whole web or mobile application using only JS.

Winner: We could consider it a draw. The powerful NPM is an add-on functionality that adds an extra point in the Node.js bucket. But apart from that, both have similar functionaries.

• Ecosystem

PHP

WordPress has made a significant contribution to the PHP community. The company is directly responsible for the operation of a significant percentage of the internet’s total number of websites. This only indicates the power of the PHP.

Moreover, the PHP community offers many online tutorials and materials for training and supporting technology to help newbies get started.

Node JS

The Nodejs ecosystem offers a large number of libraries and frameworks, although they are quite behind in comparison to PHP. Nodejs makes up for its lack of quantity with its diversity of projects. Since Node.js can be used for both server-side and backend development, the sorts of projects available are diverse and may be utilized for various purposes.

Winner: It’s worth noting that PHP has a larger ecosystem than Nodejs. Node.js has a greater variety in terms of projects, frameworks, and modules.

• Hosting

PHP

PHP dominates the internet world with almost 79% of all websites either directly or indirectly. The technology is designed to work with every major hosting service provider because of its broad reach. The LAMP stack of PHP adheres to the needs of many servers. However, LAMP is not considered the most secured technology stack for hosting.

Node JS

There are a variety of Node.js alternatives available that help the technology perform competitively.

It determines a technology platform’s range of interoperability with various hosting service providers. The quantity of options provided has a direct impact on hosting costs. The web app’s security and speed must be considered when you choose a host.

The company that supports Node.js – Joyent, offers a SmartOS solution that is great for performance, deployment, and debugging. Also, using Node.js for a Platform-as-a-Service project is simple with Nodejitsu and Heroku.

Winner: Like PHP, Node.js has a larger range of hosting service provider compatibility. If security isn’t a key concern, you might use any platform for your web development project. There isn’t a single distinction that would be a deal-breaker.

• Concurrency

PHP

PHP is a synchronous language, which means it executes code line by line. When PHP code is executed, it waits for the current line to complete execution before moving on to the next line, causing the request to be blocked.

Node JS

Since Node.js is asynchronous, code does not have to wait for I/O operations to complete. Node employs callbacks, promises, or JavaScript’s built-in async and await keywords to handle sluggish activities like I/O and remote data fetching. This makes Node.js very fast and allows a Node server to manage a large number of connections with ease.

Node JS vs PHP: A Detailed Comparison for Your Backend Development