Node.js and PHP are the two most popular technologies in the tech arena for developers to use for server-side development. Both techniques are used for the same purpose (Backend development) but in different ways. You can say that two old friends went in different ways. Now, you need to look who is doing well for selected platforms and purposes so that you can know which one to use Nodejs or PHP in 2020. For that, comparing these two technologies, purposefully, is the way to go to make the decision between the two giants.

Let’s begin from the basic to get everything clear from the beginning. I believe that most of our readers would be aware of the two technologies, though there may be some who would like to know the basics of Node.js and PHP. I hope you understand my concern. Getting a glimpse of PHP and Node.js may refresh your memory. So, here we go;

What is Node.js?

Written and published by the top celebrated software engineer, Ryan Dahl, Node.js was publicly released in 2009. Initially, it was compatible with only a few selected OS such as Linux and Mac OS X. Currently, Node.js has released its latest version 10.16.0. Node.js is one of the most favored open source back-end development environments written in C#, C++ and JavaScript programming language which is built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. It is popularly known for executing JavaScript run-time environment that executes JavaScript code outside the browser. NodeJs Developers, using JavaScript, can write command line tools and using server-side scripting to build dynamic web page content. In short, you can create highly scalable network application using Node.

What is PHP?

Designed by Rasmus Lerdorf and developed by The PHP Development Team at Zend Technologies, the PHP has been ruling the tech arena for more than two decades. It was released in 1995 and has grown to become the world’s largest open source server-side scripting language. PHP is the acronym of “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor” which is designed for web development. Importantly, it executes scripts or PHP code on the server.

Let’s compare these two tech giants Node js vs PHP from bottom to the top.

The Popularity of Node.js and PHP

In popularity, Node is far behind to PHP, though it doesn’t mean that Node.js Development is less popular than PHP. There are plenty of reasons why Node.js lags behind in terms of popularity. We’ll talk about the reasons later in this article, but first, we need to focus on current point ‘popularity and market share of the technologies.

129,137 are the total number of websites currently active on Node.js 7,474,278 are the total number of sites currently active on PHP

Even though Node.js is far behind as compared PHP, it is growing in terms of the trend while PHP is extremely popular in terms of download, though the downfall in terms of trend is visible.

Market Position of Node.js and PHP

Node.js

PHP



These two diagrams show the market position of two technologies -Node.js and PHP. You can see that many sites use PHP while Node.js is used by fewer sites. However, there is one very crucial difference between the two.

A large number of sites developed with PHP as you can see in the first image where PHP stays at the top in the graph (in terms of “the large number sites using PHP), but all sites built with PHP development fall under low and medium traffic sites.

Node.js is used by less number of sites as compared to PHP. However, all websites/sites which use Node are high traffic-driven websites, as you can see in the image above.

Market Share of Node.js and PHP

PHP is leading in this case, as well. You can see the numbers PHP remains at the top in the all market share segments.

StackOverflow Stats – NodeJS vs PHP

If we consider StackOverflow, then there are also 281,141 questions tagged with Node.js versus a whopping 1,292,636 questions tagged with PHP.

Performance of Node.js vs PHP

Node.js Performance: js brings fast Server-side solutions as it is powered by event-driven, non-blocking I/O model.

It executes codes faster than expected -thanks to Google Chrome’s latest V8 engine.

Released under MIT license, it does not buffer any data.

It supports multi-platforms such as Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, etc. PHP Performance Code or script written in PHP performs faster than that of written in other languages including JSP & ASP.

Rich code base supports faster development and helps developers to understand it easily.

That means if you are fresher in PHP, you can work like a pro.

PHP is easily portable and can run on any server it has been designed to run such Apache, IIS, etc.

PHP also supports multi-platforms such as Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.

Major Differences between Node.js and PHP

Base Code Syntax and Access to command line

Node

PHP



Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous

First, you need to understand what Synchronous and Asynchronous are.

Synchronous refers to when the code is executed line by line. That means you need to wait until the current request is executed and back to you. Only then you can send the next request to the file system.

Asynchronous refers to when the code is executed at the same time. That means when a request is sent to the file system, it gets ready to handle the next task.

NodeJS PHP Node.js follows Asynchronous programming, and that enables the JavaScript engine to run through the entire code in one request without waiting for the request or the function to get back. Asynchronous programming makes faster development. PHP follows Synchronized programming process, and it keeps you waiting until the current request is executed. That means if any code line or function which takes a lot of time to execute, the next function or line in a row has to wait until the current function is completed correctly and return. However, there are some APIs (in PHP), which supports Asynchronous programming.

Modules

NodeJS PHP Node.js comes with built-in modules such as bundled NPM (Node Package Manager). As a result, the package management system is registered by default; it makes things easy to use and publish. PHP does not have built-in modules, and you need to install third-party modules such as PEAR (a veteran package system), and Composer. PEAR is a framework and distribution system work as a reusable component for PHP.

-The composer works as a dependency management tool in PHP, and it helps developers in declaring and managing such installation and update the library on which the project depends.

Framework

NodeJS PHP Node.js uses many frameworks like Express, koa.js, hapi, total.js, sails.js etc. while it also uses full-stack frameworks such as Meteor and Derby. Using the frameworks, Node helps developers astounding network applications. PHP also uses plenty of frameworks such as Laravel, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, etc. to help developers in creating highly secure and robust web applications.

Also Read our Article : Top 11 Nodejs Web Development Frameworks Trends for 2020

When to Use Node.js Vs. PHP

Both PHP and Node.js used for server-side programming language. However, you need to choose the technology smartly based on the project in hand.

When to Use Node.js over PHP When You Need Same Language across the Stack: When you want to create dynamic single page applications (SPA) which require MEAN stack development software such MongoDB, ExpressJs, AngularJs, Node is an excellent choice. When Your Project Involve Real-Time Data: If you have projects which require real-time data, Node can be applied for. However, for projects such as financial applications and others, you can consider using alternate technologies. When You Require Speed: Projects requiring faster development, Node.js is the way to go. We have already discussed that Node.js supports asynchronous, which naturally supports speedier development. When to Use PHP over node When you have Centralized Server: When your application has to work on a centralized server and does not require scaling on multiple servers, then PHP is one of the options to go with. When You Require Portability: Any platform which supports Apache, IIS and a supported database system installed, PHP can work wonder for you.

My View: If you can see in the image, Node is nowhere as compared to PHP, and as per trend PHP should be the winner, but, we cannot ignore the ever-increasing popularity of Node.js. Now, you may have a question regarding why PHP is so popular when both technologies are used for server-side development?

There are many reasons that we’ll get to know from the following points;

Node Js PHP Node.js is new as compared to PHP PHP has been in the tech arena for a long time (almost two and half decades old) It is cost-effective, though compared to PHP, it could be costly to use PHP is cost-effective It is free to use It is Free to use It’s not as easy to learn as PHP Easy to use and learn It is nowhere in terms of popularity as Node is used by 0.7% of all the websites World’s 80% websites are based on PHP

Limitations of PHP and Node.js

I have explained everything good about both technologies -Node.js and PHP. That does not mean they have only good inside; they have limitations as well.

Cons of Node Not a Good Choice for CPU-Intensive Project: Due to a single threaded and event-based environment, the Node.js is not efficient enough to handle CPU-intensive projects. It may remain unresponsive in managing concurrent requests. In short, if you have projects that contain graphics, Node.js may not be useful to go with. Not Mature Enough: Node.js has plenty of third-party modules, still these modules are immature, which may not provide quality support for certain application development. Cons of PHP Need to Learn PHP Framework: PHP uses many frameworks, which I have explained in the above paragraph that developers need to learn. These frameworks help you develop PHP application even if you are not proficient in the PHP. Lack of Options to Modify Core Behavior: PHP along with PHP frameworks are very good in developing custom web applications, but you may face little barrier when it comes to making changes in the core behavior. Good Turns into Bad: PHP and its frameworks are equipped with robust and powerful features and tools which necessary for high traffic, large and complex websites. As I have mentioned that most of websites/sites built on PHP belong to small and simple, hence, these tools may impact on the performance of the applications.

Popular Websites Built on Node.js and PHP

Node.js and PHP both are popular as per their usability, features and tools they have. There are plenty of top websites that have been developed on the top of these tech giants. Here’s some of them as for examples.

Node.js PHP PayPal

LinkedIn

Yahoo

Mozilla

Netflix

Uber

Groupon

GoDaddy

Ebay Facebook

Wikipedia

Baidu

Yahoo

Tumblr

Flicker

WordPress

Flipkart

Digg

iStockPhoto

Overview of Node.js vs PHP

Features Node.JS PHP About Written and published by the top celebrated software engineer, Ryan Dahl, Node.js is an open source JavaScript runtime environment to develop dynamic network applications. Designed by Rasmus Lerdorf and developed by The PHP Development Team at Zend Technologies, the PHP is the world’s largest open source server-side scripting language Released Date Node.js was publically released on May 27, 2009 First appeared in 1995 Latest Stable Release Node.js 10.16.0 PHP 7.3.6 Type Runtime Environment General Purpose Programming Language MVC Framworks Symfony, Laravel, Yii, Codeigniter, Zend, Phalcon, CackePHP Koa JS, Express JS, Sails JS Community Support Has smaller community support compared to PHP PHP has larger community support compared to Node.js Documentation Nodejs.org PHP.NET GitHub Stars 62,369 23,784 Runtime Environment Node.js itself a runtime environment for JavaScript on the server-side Built in features which can be used on Server-Side development Powered by Google Chrome’s V8 engine Zend engines Complexity Node.js is easy to use, but not as easy as PHP, developers needs write extra coding and aware of colors and callback functions PHP is easy to use JSON JSON.stringify() and JSON.parse() used by Node which work better with it compared to PHP. json_encode() and json_decode() functions used by PHP which is slighter than that of Node Code Execution Node uses Asynchronous programming for code execution PHP uses Synchronous programming for code line execution Execution Speed Execution is faster and lightweight Execution is slightly slow compared to Node.js Web Server As it’s a runtime environment, it does need Web server to run In general case, PHP uses Apache web server and if it is to be used on window, then IIS web server comes into use Package Manager NPM (Node Package Manager) Composer

Which one Out of the Two (PHP and Node,) should You Go With?

I have explained everything good and bad about both the technologies and detailed how they can benefits you in your projects. However, I cannot say that one is right over others as both of them have their own, and it entirely depends on the projects you have. Therefore, I would suggest you take the decision smartly after going through every single detail of the projects.