PHP vs NodeJS vs Python vs Ruby: What Do The Statistics Say?

PHP or NodeJS or Python or Ruby... four server-side scripting languages, but which one is worth investing time and effort in? Thanks to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, and measures of server usage, we have the means to draw an objective conclusion about the respective strengths and weaknesses of these different backend languages. But... which one is worth your time?
#PHP #NodeJS #Python #Ruby
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[lostcarpark]

I think a lot of people disliking PHP haven't used it in the last decade. I think it's a much more exciting language than people give it credit for, and the improvements in versions 7 and 8 really make it a very different language from the PHP most people remember.

[awksedgreep]

Coming back to Ruby after 10 years away. It's my happy place. Find the language that inspires you and make yourself happy.

[whkoh]

Fair and balanced review of these four languages - something that (incredibly) is difficult to find online. Cheers and keep up the good work!

[eugeniogonzato]

This is the best analysis I never see before. Looking real data and not influenced from your personal preference. In a world of influencer. Thanks for your job.

[rockatanescu]

There is not such thing as "languages that are worth choosing for backend development". A lot of time has been invested in creating or developing those languages, regardless if you choose PHP, NodeJS, Python or Ruby. All of them have plenty to offer and all of them have some quirks and issues, so you can't go wrong with either one.

The differences come when you start looking at libraries and frameworks and after the first six months or so you'll see that it's much more important to understand those than what language you picked:

* Python is a great overall choice, as long as you're OK with the indentation. You have an excellent framework for building CRUD apps with Django and an excellent publishing platform with Plone, plus all the libraries for Maths.
* NodeJS has a vibrant community with significant backing from very high-profile companies like Microsoft, Google or IBM, however a lot of things are still moving targets. The latest rage when it comes to frameworks is NestJS, but it's far from being beginner-friendly. Also, it seems like Typescript is eating the Javascript landscape so you might want to pick that up from the beginning.
* Ruby isn't as popular as it was a decade ago, but its framework for building CRUD apps (Ruby on Rails) is arguably the best one there is. There's an excellent ecosystem around Ruby on Rails and you'd have to be *very* successful to need to migrate from Rails to something else.
* PHP has been around for ages and I think there's some library or framework for everything because most of the web is built with PHP. I don't think any of the frameworks for building CRUD apps is as polished as Rails or Django, but you have several (Symfony, Laravel, Yii and others). One of the big advantages of PHP is that you can start with Wordpress themes and plugins and there's a huge market for that and there's a lot of work for Wordpress developers out there.

There's a huge demand for any kind of developer, regardless of the language. The performance is excellent from either language as long as not running huge sites like Facebook or Twitter, but even then there might be some options. Just pick a book or an online course, spend 10-15 hours on each language and then see which one you liked most. If you have a friend to guide you, even better. Don't worry about what other people vote on Stack Overflow or what the Google Trends are.

[andrewcox]

I really love your delivery style! It feels like we are having a cup of coffee together.
Plus the information is just what I was looking for.

[SXsoft]

people dont like to work in php because of "legacy" but that word is used wrong
if you start a project now, with a modern framework things are just super fast to develop in and easy, with a huge comunity, and out of all langauges, i found the PHP docs soo much cleaner and easy to understand, with lots of examples
JS is a hell of packages and code, had to interact with people on a project they wrote so much bad code....they didnt even know how to use a inline condition and i'm like "ok you like hype tech but in truth you dont know the basics"

[nomad]

PHP is the Swiss Army Knife of scripting languages, it comes with everything you need built-in, you can code whole applications without any external libraries. PHP is also unbeatable when it comes to string and array manipulation.

[mouctechy]

PHP Frameworks like Laravel are better than any other framework for web development. 3 weeks ago I used both Express and Laravel for the same project. But the hell with EXPRESS external packages, version compatibilities, and the deployment failed my project after wasting 4 weeks. Once I turned back to laravel (PHP), my project was up and running within a week.

So as a beginner or an intermediate developer, don't get excited with all those rubbish comparisons out there, choose mature technologies and move forward.

[scrapbookk]

I've literally been searching for exactly this kind of video. Thank you sooo much

[berlinerfamily]

Unfortunately you did not mention or score the actual main usage of server side web application Ruby which is being used with the web framework Ruby on Rails and is the ideal solution for efficient ultra-quick creation of MVPs (minimum viable products) which is essential for creating any internet tech startup. With no other framework someone is up and running as fast an MVP. For creating a web application tech startup that has limited time and money (=all startups!), Ruby is clearly the No.1 choice.

[tt]

sometimes i feel like going to sleep when i listen your voice its like meditation

[ojsojs]

You start a project and you have to install Node, then Next, then write nextconfig in your root directory. Then there is another package for styling. The package requires you to write another config file in your root dir. Then you have to go to node's config file and import a function there and wrap the whole configuration with that function that comes from the styling package.

JS is still very much behind PHP when it comes down to the environment. It is not as developer friendly and the frameworks are not as opinated which adds to the configuration hell since you have to choose your own ORM and such and, with all those choices, comes a myriad of configurations

In general, PHP framworks are still miles ahead of what javascript has to offer IMO.

[wforbes]

I'd honestly be interested to see how C# and Java compare on these same metrics

[sakiib_m]

exactly what i needed, no less no more. Thank you sir.

[juboraj]

Thank you indeed for your very straight forward analysis - by the way you are having very polite and lovely voice. Good Luck

[ClaudioBrogliato]

I think Ruby is on a descending phase, the higher salary might be an indication that there are fewer juniors so in the long run its popularity will get lower and lower (Cobol?). The good news is that it is still used in great companies. Its most popular web framework is trying to make war against the SPAs (hence the need for js is highly reduced on all stacks) and I'd really like it if it could win because I still think SPA everywhere is nonsensical.

[jacobeul]

Good review but your salaries do seem to be a little off. I saw average internships working with php pay way more than that when I was applying. I think you should stick to one countries as a basis as I think different countries usage of each language probably threw that number off.

[syuo]

Thank youuui, I have liked and subscribed! Love your analys 😘

[youshy]

That's a very good video .. Thank you man <3