What’s Wrong With PHP? Why Developers Hate It
Muhammad Usman

Muhammad Usman @web_dev-usman

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What’s Wrong With PHP? Why Developers Hate It

Publish Date: Feb 18
86 66

PHP has been hated for decades, and whether it deserves it or not.

What’s going on, guys? In this article, we’re going to talk about PHP and whether it sucks or not. And why developers hate It.

Now, stop right there. I know you’re about to click away because nobody cares about PHP, and you don’t either. But you should. Maybe. It might just be the most important thing you ever learn. No, probably not. But it is kind of important, and it’s worth spending a couple of minutes hearing what I’ve got to say about it.

The Hate for PHP

The Hate for PHP

PHP has been hated for decades. I mean, decades. I’ve been around a long time, and I can’t remember a time when somebody wasn’t complaining about PHP being absolutely terrible. But is it? That’s what we’re going to talk about in this article.

Why Does Everybody Hate PHP?

Why Does Everybody Hate PHP?

The fact of the matter is PHP is incredibly easy to use, and it’s very quick to use. There’s nothing to install, there’s nothing to configure. Every single cheap web hosting account out there has PHP already installed. And if you have a more expensive hosting solution like Heroku or AWS or whatever, it’s very easy to get PHP up and running on those as well.

If you’ve got a cheap web hosting account for like $10 a month — and let’s face it, unless you’ve got a website with hundreds of thousands of users, a $10-a-month hosting account is probably enough to get you started — if you’ve got one of those accounts, it has PHP on it. All you have to do is upload a file called index.php or whatever.php, type a little PHP code into there, and it will just work.

That’s opposed to every other web framework like Django, like Flask, like Ruby on Rails, like Node.js, where you have to learn two things: the programming language and the web framework. So you have to learn Python and Django, you have to learn Python and Flask, you have to learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails, you have to learn JavaScript and Node.js, and on.

With PHP, there is no framework to learn. Now, I know there are many PHP frameworks, and yes, you can use one. Because you don’t have to. It just works without it.

So that makes it incredibly easy to get up and running very quickly for small startups, individuals, people with not a lot of experience or coding skills. And that’s fantastic. But it’s also the reason why people hate PHP so much. And I’ll explain.

The Story of Billy and PHP

The Story of Billy and PHP

There’s a story that’s been going around for decades. I’ve heard it at least a dozen times in a dozen different ways, and I’m going to tell you the story today.

The Beginning
There’s a company. They hire an intern named Billy. And Billy’s sitting around without much to do because he’s an intern, and the company doesn’t really know what to do with him. So he’s just kind of watching.

Over the days, he notices that the company has a really weird inventory system. It’s mostly just a half dozen to a dozen Excel spreadsheets scattered all over the place. And anytime somebody wants to do anything with inventory, they need to pull up a specific spreadsheet, fill it out. It’s a hassle. Then at the end of the month, two or three people have to compile these spreadsheets and create all these reports. It takes two or three days every month just to do it, and it’s a mess.

Billy thinks, why don’t they have a centralized database for this and some little web interface to take care of all this stuff for them? So he starts to build it.

Billy’s PHP Solution

Billy’s PHP Solution

Now, Billy doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s not really a coder. But he’s watched a few PHP videos, and he knows enough to be dangerous. So he starts building this thing out — little database, little web interface, starts punching all this stuff together, creates a couple of reports where you press a button at the end of the month, and it does its stuff internally and spits out the report. It looks pretty good.

So he shows it to his boss, and his boss is ecstatic.

“This is great! We’ve been needing this for years! Thank you so much, Billy! But can you add this, this, and this report as well?”

Billy says, “No problem.”

Pulls up his code. His code’s four or five pages. It’s not bad. It’s kind of messy, it’s not really indented correctly because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, it’s all single-spaced, it’s a little hard to read, there are no comments at all. But Billy can read it because he just wrote it.

So he starts to modify it. He starts to add this, this, and this report. Shows it to the boss.

“Fantastic! Thank you, Billy. That’s great!”

The Growth and the Problem

PHP Growth and the Problem

A couple of months go by, and they use this thing, and it works fine. But then somebody else says, “You know what? We really need this and this report. And while you’re at it, this other report too.”

Billy says, “No problem.”

He starts coding. His code turns from five or six pages to nine or ten pages. But it’s fine. He knows what he’s doing.

Another department hears about it. They say, “Hey, can we get in on this action?”

Billy says, “No problem.”

Now his code’s like 20, 25, maybe 30 pages. It’s getting harder to read.

Another couple of weeks go by, they ask for a few more reports to be added. Suddenly, it’s 40 or 50 pages of code.

Billy Moves On

Image description

Billy realizes he did a pretty good job. His bosses are thrilled. He puts it on his resume. In 30 seconds, he gets a half dozen job offers from other companies for double or even triple what he’s making as an intern.

Billy takes off.

A year goes by. The company hears from their manufacturer:

“We’re updating our inventory codes. Just letting you know.”

Company freaks out.

“Uh oh, Billy’s system isn’t gonna work with all these new codes. We need to update it. Bob, you’re our senior programmer, have at it.”

Bob opens Billy’s code. It’s 40 pages. No comments. He throws up a little bit inside.

Bob shakes his head and goes, “PHP…”

Does PHP Suck?

Does PHP Suck?

Bob thinks so. And all the other real programmers out there think so. Because they get code from people who don’t really know what they’re doing.

But PHP is just a tool. Like a hammer. If you hit someone over the head with a hammer, you’re an idiot. It’s not the hammer’s fault.

Conclusion: PHP Still Has Its Place

There is no doubt Python is a better programming language. Ruby is better. Even JavaScript is probably better. But PHP is still decent. If you’ve got an idea and want to crank something out with PHP over a weekend, you can.

Don’t just discount PHP because you heard someone say it sucks. It’s probably Bob. That’s all for this article. I’ll write you the next article. And PHP isn’t that bad.

Thanks for reading to the end — you’re awesome! 🙌

Let’s grow, learn, and build amazing things together! 🚀

Don’t forget to like, save it to your list, and follow me.

This article was originally published on Medium by me.
Here is the link!
Why Developers hate PHP

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Comments 66 total

  • DevUx Bookmark
    DevUx BookmarkFeb 18, 2025

    Nice post, but maybe you should rather bash JavaScript, which is worse in many regards Even if we write TypeScript, we must deploy code in an unsafe legacy language. Backend developers have a choice at least, not only between languages, but also to write clean code if the language supports it, and PHP 8 does. And PHP 7 did as well.

    • Ayesha Tariq
      Ayesha TariqFeb 18, 2025

      Yes, you are right!

    • Muhammad Usman
      Muhammad UsmanFeb 18, 2025

      I have shown the pretty good side of PHP as myself am a WordPress Developer.
      Thanks for reading!

    • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
      𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

      unsafe legacy language

      JavaScript isn't any less safe than TypeScript. They're the same language, one just has some extra annotations so you can run your code through a type checker and get some extra tests to catch possible mistake.

      The situation where the browsers are restricted to one language and it needs to remain backwards compatible is annoying, yes. But JavaScript does a relatively decent job at being the best possible language within those constraints.

      PHP does not have that excuse. It's just mediocre because it wants to.

      • DevUx Bookmark
        DevUx BookmarkFeb 21, 2025

        JavaScript isn't any less safe than TypeScript

        because TypeScript is compiled to JavaScript, so we could argue it's just a better JSDoc linter?

        • Andrew Martin
          Andrew MartinFeb 22, 2025

          It's technically transpiled but that doesn't undermine your point!

  • david duymelinck
    david duymelinckFeb 18, 2025

    Maybe you should look at Wordpress before you judge the language.

    With PHP, there is no framework to learn. Now, I know there are many PHP frameworks, and yes, you can use one. Because you don’t have to. It just works without it.

    Any code in any language can work without a framework. It are the developers at Wordpress who choose not to use a framework. The problem Is they also choose to support a language version that is unsupported for over two years now.
    And that is why you are missing out on great features.

    php.net/releases/8.0/en.php
    php.net/releases/8.1/en.php
    php.net/releases/8.2/en.php
    php.net/releases/8.3/en.php
    php.net/releases/8.4/en.php

    Billy in your story is Wordpress. And Bob does not blame the language , but Billy.

    • Muhammad Usman
      Muhammad UsmanFeb 18, 2025

      Thanks for your opinion, much appreciated.

      • david duymelinck
        david duymelinckFeb 18, 2025

        It is not an opinion. I get it from the tone in your post.

        The fact of the matter is PHP is incredibly easy to use, and it’s very quick to use. There’s nothing to install, there’s nothing to configure.

        This shows me you never have touched a php.ini file or installed extensions.

        So that makes it incredibly easy to get up and running very quickly for small startups, individuals, people with not a lot of experience or coding skills.

        Any language can be picked up by people with no experience. But you still need to know how to set up a webserver if you are going to create a website.

        Does PHP suck? Bob thinks so. And all the other real programmers out there think so.

        You don't consider yourself to be a real programmer? You are a Wordpress developer.

        There is no doubt Python is a better programming language. Ruby is better. Even JavaScript is probably better. But PHP is still decent.

        That is not really a glowing recommendation for PHP. It is more a look I fixed a leak with duct tape vibe.

  • Elanat Framework
    Elanat FrameworkFeb 18, 2025

    Thank you, I read your article to the end.

    This title is better for your article: "Why we need to use PHP frameworks"

    Of course, I must say that you can still write good programs in PHP without using a framework.

    If you put some talent and creativity:

    • You can add layout and call it in PHP pages.
    • You can separate HTML from PHP codes.
    • Create proper configuration and correct layout for scripts.
    • Create documentation for the program structure.

    At Elanat, we are trying to make WebForms Core technology available for all programming languages.
    Installing tools for many programming languages ​​was complicated and difficult, but for PHP we just installed EasyPHP.

    WebForms.php Update to WebFormsJS 1.6

  • Oleksandr
    OleksandrFeb 18, 2025

    People think that PHP is bad because they don't understand that language is not the problem of their sucks projects and architecture

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  • Riccardo Bernardini
    Riccardo BernardiniFeb 18, 2025

    Sorry, but I think that PHP has several intrinsic defects and Billy is not to be blamed for them. Sure a tool, like a knife, but a tool can be a bad tool, like a rusty knife.

    Some of the issues I find in PHP

    • An incoherent API that forces me every time to check the manual (in implode the separator is the first or the second argument?)
    • I just discovered that implode exchanged the order of arguments in PHP 8.0.0. That's sadism ;-) I do not want imagine the mess in using an old code with the new version...
    • No static typing. Sure, convenient for small scale stuff, but a fairly serious issue IMHO if you want to write large and complex software. Static typing saves you lot of headaches and stupid errors. However, PHP shares this defect with many other languages (JS, Ruby, Python, ...). In Ruby I got the habit of putting a "guard" at the beginning of every function to check that the types are correct.
    • It converts everything in everything else. This is maybe the most serious defect (shared with JS and PERL, if I remember correctly). When a language has the triple equality operator === it is a bad sign: it usually means that the language converts everything and the equality is not transitive (Ruby is an exception to this since Ruby is is not an "hard core converter" and gives to === a different meaning).
    • In a boolean context the integer 0, the empty string "", the string with zero "0", float zero 0.0, an empty array and NULL are considered false. No, sorry, when you get a string or a float when you expect a boolean, you must raise an error, not hammer the value into a boolean. Sure, you can === with false, but you wouldn't need this hack if PHP did not try to convert whatever you hand it to a boolean.

    Those defects are not fatal, mind you, you can still write very large and complex software and you can have a smoothly working code if you are careful. The problem is that if is a big if: programmers are human being and they can be tired, worried, sick and make mistakes. A good language is a language that protects you from silly errors that you'll inevitably do, even if you are a seasoned professional.

    Languages like JS and PHP give you lots of freedom, no need to declare variables, no need to worry about the type of your data, ... but this freedom makes it easier for error to sneak into the code.

    Personally, give me a static and strongly typed language, possibly with contracts, a language that can act as a pair programming partner.

    • david duymelinck
      david duymelinckFeb 18, 2025

      True, PHP has issues. But the language improves with each new version.
      Php 8.0 has a saner number comparison.
      Type hinting is in my opinion on par with strongly typed languages.

      Sure you still can do all that bad stuff, but if you add a static analyser, like phpstan, to your development flow you will be yelled at.
      You can make the checks as strict as you want and even create your own. I think that is better than a compiler.

    • Amit Barzel
      Amit BarzelFeb 19, 2025

      and in asm the destination and source can swap places depending on what syntax you use as well as what version of it you use, so would you call that a bad language?

  • Stevie G
    Stevie GFeb 18, 2025

    I respectfully disagree with your assessment of PHP. The language has significantly improved with versions 7 and 8, introducing strict typing for enhanced code reliability. Its flexibility allows efficient coding, and performance has been boosted by the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler in PHP 8. As of 2024, PHP powers over 75% of websites, highlighting its robustness in web development.

    The PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG) has established standards, known as PHP Standard Recommendations (PSRs), to promote consistency and interoperability among PHP projects. These standards cover various aspects of PHP development, including autoloading (PSR-4), coding style (PSR-12), and common interfaces for logging (PSR-3) and caching (PSR-6). Adopting these standards fosters a unified and professional PHP ecosystem, enabling developers to create maintainable and robust applications.

    Additionally, the PHP community benefits from Packagist, the default package repository for Composer, PHP's dependency manager. Packagist aggregates public PHP packages, simplifying the discovery and integration of libraries into projects. This extensive repository streamlines package management and encourages code reuse, enhancing PHP's efficiency and appeal in the development community. With tools like Composer and Packagist, developers can rapidly spin up applications by easily managing and incorporating dependencies, thereby accelerating the development process.

    Furthermore, PHP-FIG standards, such as PSR-12, provide a comprehensive coding style guide that ensures code is neat and consistent across different projects. By adhering to these guidelines, developers reduce cognitive friction when collaborating, as the codebase follows a uniform structure and style. This uniformity not only makes the code more readable but also simplifies maintenance and reduces the likelihood of errors. The emphasis on consistent indentation, spacing, and naming conventions contributes to a cleaner and more professional codebase, facilitating better teamwork and code quality.

    • david duymelinck
      david duymelinckFeb 18, 2025

      While I agree with most of your comment.
      Sadly the biggest part of 75% of the websites are Wordpress sites. Which is not the best student in the class.
      So the likelihood that people are going to see that code is bigger than they are going to see standards driven projects.

  • Samuel
    SamuelFeb 19, 2025

    I loved PHP before v5. Before they added all the OOP-like stuff. Back when it was essentially perl macros. I loved perl, too. Inho, symfony ruined pho cuz everyone uses it now and it's just overkill for 90% of the projects that use it.

    • david duymelinck
      david duymelinckFeb 19, 2025

      Oh yes the times when includes where plentiful, and it was nothing more than a way to avoid writing C.
      It would be a nightmare to create solutions that others could use and expand.

      Even a language like Go, that has simplicity as a core value, has OOP-like features like structs and inferfaces.

  • Muhammad Usman
    Muhammad UsmanFeb 19, 2025

    I just wanted to send this message to the community that, why developers hate PHP because it is still a language, and didn't deserve the hate. Billy and Bob is just a story on hate on PHP, other than that you can see I did not bash, instead I presented a pretty good side of PHP and it didn't deserve hate.
    Hope you all understand.

    • david duymelinck
      david duymelinckFeb 19, 2025

      The reason you have to write this comment shows that there is something wrong with the content of your post.

      In my second comment I wanted to show you some examples. I shouldn't have written the first comment because it was a just a remark about Wordpress that had nothing to do with the post.

    • Pandita
      PanditaFeb 19, 2025

      Hi Muhammad, developers here in dev.to are uh... very passionate about about PHP. When I saw your post yesterday I was like "oh no! he opened the Pandora box, maybe it'll be different this time 😰", unfortunately it wasn't. There are some thoughtful comments and others not so much, you don't have to engage right now (or ever) with any of them.

      But you're right! Your post doesn't deserve hate but it did garner a lot of attention! I suggest taking this as a learning opportunity (or take it as a blog milestone! 😂), enjoy the engagement and I hope this doesn't stop you from posting here ✨

      Good luck!!

    • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
      𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

      I also think that a lot of PHP hate comes from the code inexperienced people produce, and I think I even mentioned that in some other comment a few months ago.

      But there's also many reasons to dislike the language itself. The classic "Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM" is a great example. phpsadness.com lists plenty more examples of very questionable design choices that make the language hard to like.

      Blaming it entirely on bad code from inexperienced devs is still missing part of the picture.

  • Engineer Robin 🎭
    Engineer Robin 🎭Feb 19, 2025

    PHP is widely used but often criticized for its inconsistent syntax, weak typing, and security flaws. While it’s easy to learn and has strong community support, its design feels outdated and messy. Performance has improved, but many developers prefer modern alternatives like Python or Node.js for scalability and maintainability.

    • david duymelinck
      david duymelinckFeb 19, 2025

      Most languages have security flaws in some of their versions, for example Python. It is not a PHP only problem.
      Python is older than PHP.

      Python and javascript are both weak typed languages.

      What is the last time you used PHP?

      • Engineer Robin 🎭
        Engineer Robin 🎭Feb 20, 2025

        You're absolutely right—security flaws exist in most programming languages, including Python and JavaScript, not just PHP. Security issues often arise due to improper implementation rather than the language itself.

        Python, which was first released in 1991, is indeed older than PHP, which was introduced in 1995. Both Python and JavaScript are weakly typed, meaning they allow implicit type conversions, which can sometimes lead to unintended behavior.

        As for PHP, I work with it frequently, especially when helping developers with Laravel projects, WordPress development, and backend solutions.

    • Adam Wodon
      Adam WodonFeb 19, 2025

      You don't know what you're talking about. Just so you know.

  • Fred Morgan
    Fred MorganFeb 19, 2025

    Just a quick comment, 40 pages of code is nothing. If a senior developer can't understand 40 pages of code by an intern, something is wrong with the senior developer.

    Using AI tools to document is pretty amazing, and it will be accurate. Unlike comments which often say what you think the code does and rarely are kept up to date.

    Perhaps the moral to the story is senior developers who can't read and modify other people's code.

    Yes,PHP can let you write awful code. And English can let you write comments that aren't worth reading. :) With great flexibility comes more responsiblty, perhaps having an intern write your inventory system without oversight is a bad idea...

    Seriously, first versions, especially when so small, are often scrapped. There is no reason not to use it as a prototype and do something better since it was useful.

    • Darth Bateman
      Darth BatemanFeb 19, 2025

      Can't or won't?

      If I have a function that leads to another function that leads to another function and I have a stack of 40 functions each with 1 different input and output, I COULD figure out what these do given time.

      But the question rises : "WHY THE HELL WOULD I DO THAT?!"

      • Amit Barzel
        Amit BarzelFeb 19, 2025

        so that your function isn't one giant function that illegible? same reason we break create functions for basic tasks and not make it an eye source for any new readers

        • Darth Bateman
          Darth BatemanFeb 19, 2025

          My question is pending, you big meanie.

    • Amit Barzel
      Amit BarzelFeb 19, 2025

      frankly, i've read some very beautifully thought out php code before. php works out the gate, which makes most people not work on improving the code since it works on their first merry go round. as for commenting, php lets you move quickly and without much friction so i find most people just choose to keep writing the next line of code instead of stopping to add a comment. when i write in c, it's a lot slower and i leave comments between pauses of thought.

    • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
      𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

      Being able to read code doesn't mean you won't hate it.

      I've had to work through some truly horrific code, and it's not enjoyable at all. You find yourself looking at a line, thinking it doesn't do anything at all, but second-guessing yourself because "it has to be there for a reason, right?" Then you remove it the program still runs.

      This is slow, unenjoyable and you spend the entire time remembering all the other stuff you could be doing instead if only this code was at least somewhat decent.

      An hour later, you're done with a task that could have taken 10 minutes and probably refactored some of the code while you had the file open, on top of feeding it through a linter to make it readable in the first place.

      What you're left with is frustration. You feel like your time was wasted.

  • Straight Busta
    Straight BustaFeb 19, 2025

    People who hate PHP are frontend noobs who learned programming by drag n drops.

  • Damian Cyrus
    Damian CyrusFeb 19, 2025

    No PHP blaming from my side. It is a tool, and how you use it.

    For the story, I would turn the table: the one to blame in this case it's the company. It let the intern do whatever he wanted, and as he got something they let him do whatever he wanted without a Bob mentor. Bob on the other side spend too much time with this environment, so he would never blame that environment first without understanding its circumstances.

    All in all, Bob should be thankful to the young developer. Now he has a strong argument to refactor the code or bring in a new tool, as the old one doesn't fit the requirements anymore. Win-Win situation for everyone.

    Try to find the jokes here. 😁

  • David Hahn
    David HahnFeb 19, 2025

    This can be said of any language. The largest companies use PHP, I would not be so quick to bash it. Unless you are not a seasoned developer.

  • Trumps Ear
    Trumps EarFeb 19, 2025

    Why are you so easily state that developers/everybody hate/s PHP??

    What is your statement based upon? 🤔 Making such subjective conclusions are wrong.

    • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
      𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

      Because it's true. Everyone hates PHP.

      Making such subjective conclusions are wrong.

      It's an objective observation.

      • Vsevolod Ukrainsky
        Vsevolod UkrainskyFeb 21, 2025

        Oh, really?

        I love PHP and use it in 90% of my projects, so when you say that "everyone hates it", you are wrong.

        You seem to be confusing objective and subjective statements - but don't worry, you'll learn the difference in school next year.

        • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
          𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 22, 2025

           so when you say that "everyone hates it", you are wrong.

          Nope. It is correct.

          You're the one who's misunderstanding language and missing the hyperbole.

          You seem to be confusing objective and subjective statements - but don't worry, you'll learn the difference in school next year.

          And once again it is proven: Being a smart-ass and unnecessarily condescending are comorbidities. Further evidence in favour of the hypothesis that they are both just expressions of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

  • Francisco Gonzalez
    Francisco GonzalezFeb 19, 2025

    Having worked with PHP and a handful of its frameworks for over 10 years, alongside other languages, I can say with some authority to those using this stack:

    Drop PHP while you can.

    Yes, PHP has had a massive presence on the Web, but it has been stigmatized for years as a 'second-class' language. Why? I'll outline the reasons:

    The Legacy of Ease and Chaos:

    PHP's accessibility was its greatest appeal, but also its downfall. Anyone could start, leading to a sea of low-quality code, like the infamous 'Billy's code.' This lack of entry barriers has created an ecosystem with a vast disparity in developer quality to this day.

    The Absence of Standards and Certifications:

    Unlike other languages, PHP lacks solid or globally recognized certification standards. (Yes, there are Zend certifications, but in these 10 years, I think I've met 1 person who bothered to get certified in PHP and use the Zend framework). Well, this means that companies often hire developers without guarantees of competence, perpetuating the cycle of poor code and 'technical debt.'

    The Responsibility of Companies:

    Companies that continue to use PHP have a responsibility to demand a higher level of professionalism, but they don't, nothing out of the ordinary. They should invest in training their teams, adopt good development practices, and seriously consider migrating to more modern technologies, but they stick with what they have because 'it works' and the professional market is 'cheap.'

    The 'Bob Effect' and the Frustration of Professionals:

    The character of 'Bob' represents the frustration of many experienced developers who have to deal with legacy PHP code, and I've seen all sorts of things in recent years. This frustration is understandable and valid. PHP, as a tool, is not the problem, but its widespread use without standards has created a toxic environment, and little can be done if developers do not become aware of the need to certify knowledge and commit to deepening their understanding of the language/framework and using good development practices.

    I'm not saying PHP has no value. For small and quick projects, it may be enough. But for enterprise applications and long-term projects, PHP is being viewed very poorly, especially by veterans in the industry, who have barely looked at the evolution of this language, only to adopt what is in vogue. This means that your options in the search for job opportunities will be truncated, and if you do find a job, don't expect great professional growth unless you are committed to strongly certifying your knowledge.

    What I've said may apply to any technology, but PHP is the most affected by the lack of professionalism and the lack of standards in the industry.

    Let's invest in our training, adopt modern technologies, and demand a higher level of professionalism. If you like PHP, get certified, adopt good development practices, but if you don't like it, look for other technologies that make sense to you and offer better growth opportunities.

    • Adam Wodon
      Adam WodonFeb 19, 2025

      All of that has changed. Years ago. Get over it.

  • Ec Jep
    Ec JepFeb 19, 2025

    Hi, I don't think people hate php, it's just not cool anymore.
    I am a php developer for the last 25 years.
    People Do not now how powerful Php is.
    Find me a language that you can run both C & Lua in the same script.

    Php doesn't have a sponsor like Java or C#.
    Until 10 years ago, before microsoft took over on python, it was geeks language.

  • berend
    berendFeb 19, 2025

    Wasn't it Stroustrup...: "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses". I rest his case.

  • leob
    leobFeb 19, 2025

    What's wrong with PHP? Nothing :-) but maybe there's something wrong with the way it's often being used ...

    People who use a framework like Laravel don't hate PHP, they love it! Especially newer versions (PHP 8), which have added a lot of performance, and some cool features ...

    Yes, if you see WordPress code it tends to be "stone age" and terrible, but there's a lot of love for Laravel, and I think that has also made people reconsider their views of PHP.

    In other words - any programming language can be used in a cool way, or in a terrible way ;-)

  • davidmarccram
    davidmarccramFeb 19, 2025

    So PHP isn't actually bad...it's just worse than everything else? :-)

    • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
      𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

      Maybe not everything else, but just most of the popular alternatives.

      I'd rather build a website in PHP than in C.

      But I wouldn't pick it over Ruby, Lua, JavaScript, maybe even Python, etc.

  • Michael Chaney
    Michael ChaneyFeb 19, 2025

    I'm an RoR dev who used PHP up until 20 years ago. I discovered one of the very major bugs early in PHP 4.0 dealing with session fixation.

    PHP 1-4 was awful. This guy sums it up nicely:

    eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fract...

    Back in the day, there was a global namespace, everything lived there, I could go on. I don't need to.

    Obviously, the language has gotten much better over the last few years as it's attracted better talent into the task of bringing it up to modern standards. But it offers nothing over the alternatives. I think Laravel is probably moving it forward more than anything else, and that's a good thing. It's good to have a lot of alternatives for web development.

  • Adam Wodon
    Adam WodonFeb 19, 2025

    Python is not definitely better. PHP is just as good or better. Try being better informed than this pedestrian article. Author attempts to defend PHP, but instead perpetuates nonsense.

  • Khairul Shahid
    Khairul ShahidFeb 20, 2025

    I've been daily driving PHP since PHP 3 and MySQL 3. Over the years, I've encountered many situations where PHP was criticized as inferior to other technologies. One particular case stands out—my team was turned down for a project simply because we used PHP. The client had heard that XYZ was better.

    Long story short, the first project was awarded to XYZ, but it failed because it didn't meet user requirements. In the end, we won the second project award.

    • Muhammad Usman
      Muhammad UsmanFeb 20, 2025

      I didn't mean any disrespect of PHP, here is the clear message of the article, that is,
      But PHP is just a tool. Like a hammer. If you hit someone over the head with a hammer, you’re an idiot. It’s not the hammer’s fault.

      Conclusion: PHP Still Has Its Place Don’t just discount PHP because you heard someone say it sucks. It’s probably Bob. That’s all for this article. I’ll write you the next article. And PHP isn’t that bad.

      This is what I really meant for the PHP.

  • 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️
    𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 20, 2025

    That’s opposed to every other web framework like

    First mistake: You're comparing a language (PHP) to a series of frameworks. For any serious PHP development, you'll need a framework as well, so this entire point just falls apart. Most other languages have some kind of web-server as well; or they could even interface with a server via CGI. For a small website that's looking at requests per hour rather than per second, this is perfectly fine.

    There is no doubt Python is a better programming language. Ruby is better. Even JavaScript is probably better. But PHP is still decent. If you’ve got an idea and want to crank something out with PHP over a weekend, you can.

    I think you've hit the nail on the head, but what you're missing is that there's no reason for anyone to use a decent tool when they could use a really good tool.

    PHP would never have been used if it was utter garbage; but the reason everyone hates it is that it just has too many flaws. The syntax is unwieldy, the naming of the standard library is a nightmare, performance is quite bad, and the language just overall shows that it started out as glorified string interpolation and grew from there.

  • Meli
    MeliFeb 20, 2025

    Thank you,you know I did PHP at my college and I am struggling to get a Job because many Companies want people who know Javascript if not Python.So I have taken the trouble to learn JS

  • Slobi
    SlobiFeb 20, 2025

    If you think about it, besides terrible choice of some signs (based on my taste) PHP was ahead of its time with single-use callable functions, now we call it lambdas.

  • Wes Grant
    Wes GrantFeb 21, 2025

    Great story! I was in PHP for the first 12 years of my career. I eventually learned to embrace the frameworks that were available to help tame the Wild Wild West nature of PHP. What I will always miss was the fact that I could build a working solution in less than ten lines of code that would take me hundreds to do now in Java. (Tens of thousands if I write unit tests) ((just kidding but not really))

  • keyr Syntax
    keyr SyntaxFeb 21, 2025

    I am sure if there hadn't been a framework called Laravel, you guys wouldn't have used PHP. Hadn't it been for Wordpress, PHP would have been dead by now. I don't why you guys try to convince us that PHP is a good programming lang. No! PHP sucks. Even the creator of PHP has clearly said "I don’t know how to stop it; there was never any intent to write a programming language." But this doesn't mean PHP is useless. PHP is a tool and gets the job done just like any other language.

  • nasoma
    nasomaFeb 21, 2025

    PHP is so old. I love "Modern" web app development. Unlike PHP, "Modern" web development with "modern" tools is so easy. If in doubt, just see below:

    Authentication = $30 per month.
    File uploads = $10 per month.
    Logs and monitoring = $10 per month.
    Image hosting = $5 per month.
    Database hosting = $25 per month.
    Email sending = $15 per month.
    Form handling = $5 per month.
    Search functionality = $10 per month.
    Hosting = $25 per month.

    Just a mere $135 per month before you have a functional app. You will have to be mad not to see how modern this is. I would rather use a VC backed authentication system that use one that comes in the box like in the case of Laravel. Its 2025, we have a duty to support VCs.

  • Kwame Adoko
    Kwame AdokoFeb 21, 2025

    Nice post, well I see my self as a business man who know PHP, it’s just a tool.

  • Muhammad Usman
    Muhammad UsmanFeb 22, 2025

    🚀 Just finished my very first frontend challenge for Dev Community!
    dev.to/web_dev-usman/discover-your...
    Give your feedback there, and support me.

  • Ikram
    IkramFeb 23, 2025

    good story with clear points

  • Steve Edwards
    Steve EdwardsFeb 23, 2025

    Devs love/hate C for same reason!

  • Federico Torrisi
    Federico TorrisiFeb 24, 2025

    As of 2025, PHP has significantly evolved from its early days in the 2000s. Decades ago, PHP was primarily a procedural language, originating from a templating engine, which contributed to its approachability and simplicity.

    Now, 30 years since its inception, PHP has undergone substantial changes. It now offers features like type safety, attribute metadata, and boasts a vast ecosystem of reliable frameworks such as Symfony and Laravel. Additionally, there are numerous mature libraries, abstractions, and tools that are actively maintained.

    While it's true that PHP's ease of use allows beginners to create insecure code, adhering to sound architecture and design principles ensures that PHP is no less secure than any other language. Much of the criticism directed at PHP stems from unmaintained codebases, particularly outdated WordPress installations, which are vulnerable to exploits like DDoS attacks and malware distribution. However, aside from these issues, PHP remains a relevant and robust choice for modern web development.

  • Robert Campbell
    Robert CampbellFeb 25, 2025

    If someone really wants to hate on a language, try VBA. Or any business app written in any derivative of BASIC.

    There were too many Billy's hacking too many mission critical apps using VBA that stay around for way too long.

  • Zeb
    ZebFeb 28, 2025

    Nowadays you could just use AI to figure out what that monstrosity does

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