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PHP vs Ruby: What are the differences?

What is PHP? A popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development. Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

What is Ruby? A dynamic, interpreted, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

PHP and Ruby can be primarily classified as "Languages" tools.

"Large community", "Open source" and "Easy deployment" are the key factors why developers consider PHP; whereas "Programme friendly", "Quick to develop" and "Great community" are the primary reasons why Ruby is favored.

PHP and Ruby are both open source tools. It seems that PHP with 23.9K GitHub stars and 5.53K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Ruby with 15.9K GitHub stars and 4.25K GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, PHP has a broader approval, being mentioned in 8904 company stacks & 2933 developers stacks; compared to Ruby, which is listed in 2530 company stacks and 1140 developer stacks.

Advice on PHP and Ruby
Caue Carvalho
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPythonPython
and
RubyRuby

Hello!

I'm a developer for over 9 years, and most of this time I've been working with C# and it is paying my bills until nowadays. But I'm seeking to learn other languages and expand the possibilities for the next years.

Now the question... I know Ruby is far from dead but is it still worth investing time in learning it? Or would be better to take Python, Golang, or even Rust? Or maybe another language.

Thanks in advance.

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Replies (8)
Angel Ramirez
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GolangGolangPythonPython
at

Hi Caue, I don't think any language is dead in 2022, and we still see a lot of Cobol and Fortran out there, so Ruby is not going to die for sure. However, based on the market, you'll be better off learning Goland and Python. For example, for data science, machine learning, and similar areas, Python is the default language while backend API, services, and other general purpose Goland is becoming the preferred.

I hope this helps.

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GolangGolangPythonPython

I feel most productive using go. It has all the features I need and doesn't throw road blocks in your way as you learn. Rust is the most difficult to learn as borrow checking and other features can puzzle a newcomer for days. Python is a logical next step as it has a huge following, many great libraries, and one can find a gig using python in a heartbeat. Ruby isn't awful, it's just not that popular as the others.

Another reason to use python is that it is not compiled. You can muck around in the interpreter until you figure things out. OTOH, that makes it less performant. You really need to think about your use cases, your interest in lower-lever versus high-level coding, and so on.

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Roman Glushko
Machine Learning, Software Engineering and Life · | 4 upvotes · 74.3K views
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GolangGolangPythonPythonRustRust

I enjoy coding in Python. I think it's minimalistic and readable syntax and lang features are just unparalleled. They are perfect for prototyping and for the software engineering in general. If I'm not wrong Gitlab marked Python as #2 popular language after JavaScript. Beyond that, Python ecosystem and areas of usage are enormous. In areas like ML/DL, it's important to know Python to leverage variety of existing tools and frameworks.

Then, I have learned and worked with Golang. I use it where I think I would need a slightly better performance than in Python. Plus, relatively small and self-contained executable is a great thing to have. If you plan to write distributed systems, extend Kubernetes or do similar things I think Golang is a great choice. It's also simple and straightforward, especially when you want to do effective multithreading. Although I don't like that Golang is more low-level than Python. Sometimes I feel like I need to implement myself too much things.

Now, about Rust. It's my second try to learn Rust. First time I decided to learn Golang as I understood it in 30mins or so while I was struggling to compile/do anything meaningful there for quite a bit. So I personally don't think Rust is super easy. I have got back to learning Rust as it's going to fill one of gaps in my problem solving toolkit - let me write low-level system programs (e.g. linux kernel modules). I don't want to learn "obsolete" C/C++ (my reasons are similar to why Google has recently introduced Carbon - a replacement for C/C++ codebases). If you are not going to tight your life with system-like programming, Rust may be an overkill for you.

Finally, I have never coded in Ruby, so are not going to comment it.

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Recommends
at

Since you are very experienced, picking up a language will not take you more than a week. Rust is a very new language. Many startups are still experimenting with it. Golang is very popular nowadays. You can see a lot of golang jobs in the market. The best part is, compiled code is single binary and has a minimal footprint. Rails is a compelling framework; believe me, many websites like Shopify, GitHub, GitLab, etc., are powered by the rails framework. You can also leverage the power of metaprogramming in Ruby. Python is memory and CPU intensive. It is not as performant as the other three. If you want to go into Data Science, Python is the language. Good luck, buddy. Feel free to connect with me: https://twitter.com/avirajkhare00

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PythonPython

Because it opens endless possibilities you can do anything and everything you want to. from ai to app development to web development.

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Recommends

I'm almost same position as you. 8 years same company with c#. I tried both Python and Golang. I like working with Golang. Check this litte go doc. After reading this document and following its examples, I decided to work with "go" https://www.openmymind.net/assets/go/go.pdf

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GolangGolangPythonPythonRubyRuby

it is highly recommended to take a look at that survey

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/

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A Nielsen
Fullstack Dev at ADTELA · | 1 upvotes · 70.6K views
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GolangGolangPythonPython

Either Python or Golang, for all the enlightened reasons already mentionned in all advices/comments :) Enjoy!

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Needs advice
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JavaJava
and
PHPPHP

Hi, I am working as a web developer (PHP, Laravel, AngularJS, and MySQL) with more than 8 years of experience and looking for a tech stack that pays better. I have a little bit of knowledge of Core Java. For better opportunities, Should I learn Java, Spring Boot or Python. Or should I learn Drupal, WordPress or Magento? Any guidance would be really appreciated! Thanks.

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Replies (3)
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Hard to answer it depend on market. Python + Flask + Jinja2 is better that SpringBoot. Java can be paid better now but I think that future is Python. I code very good in PHP, Java, Python - prefer Python for less code and more effects. PHP is little ugly and limited to web.

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Ahmad Zain
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on
gogoPHPPHPPythonPython
at

easy and used in the most trending tech streams

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Recommends

What do you think about Node JS with React? I feel like this stack is fairly paid more than PHP.

I am also a Laravel developer, in process of transitioning towards Node js.

If you wanna personally connect with me, hit me up at @izshreyansh on twitter.

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Mahmoud Gabr
Software engineer at AlgoDriven · | 8 upvotes · 126.2K views
Needs advice
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GolangGolangNode.jsNode.js
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PHPPHP

I'm working in a company as a software engineer, Mainly we are focusing on PHP as the product is being developed in PHP (native) also there are a few products in Node.js, I tried to introduce Laravel but there is no luck to work on it. Now I have started learning Go language, should I focus more on Go or continue only with PHP and NodeJS. BTW I know PHP and NodeJS very well.

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Replies (1)
Recommends

Be flexible, be agile in your personal and professional life. Don't be afraid to learn new things and step outside of your confort zone BUT with reason. Reason can be a career path or just money. Does Go belongs to your career path? Does Go belongs to your company's toolset? Do yo seek for new job oportunities? Some people follow a complete career path by using a single language i.e, PHP or java, but if you want to standout in the crowd this is not enough. You already know PHP. This is an oportunity to learn something new. In general, I would advise you to learn at least one language & library/framework per stack . This will help you to lead a team someday.

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Needs advice
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JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
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PHPPHP

Hi there. I'm looking to build an employee time tracker web app. This should also be optimized for mobile. I'm trying to figure out what the best stack is for this. I have knowledge of Java, JavaScript, some C#. I don't mind learning a new language for this purpose. Any help or advice would be really awesome! Thanks.

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Replies (6)
Stephen Gheysens
Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 14 upvotes · 1.8M views
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JavaScriptJavaScript

Hi Otensia! I'd definitely recommend using the skills you've already got and building with JavaScript is a smart way to go these days. Most platform services have JavaScript/Node SDKs or NPM packages, many serverless platforms support Node in case you need to write any backend logic, and JavaScript is incredibly popular - meaning it will be easy to hire for, should you ever need to.

My advice would be "don't reinvent the wheel". If you already have a skill set that will work well to solve the problem at hand, and you don't need it for any other projects, don't spend the time jumping into a new language. If you're looking for an excuse to learn something new, it would be better to invest that time in learning a new platform/tool that compliments your knowledge of JavaScript. For this project, I might recommend using Netlify, Vercel, or Google Firebase to quickly and easily deploy your web app. If you need to add user authentication, there are great examples out there for Firebase Authentication, Auth0, or even Magic (a newcomer on the Auth scene, but very user friendly). All of these services work very well with a JavaScript-based application.

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JavaScriptJavaScript

As you have knowledge of Javascript, I would go towards Vue/React in Frontend and Node (with suitable framework) with backend. From my point of view Java would be too bloated for suggested kind of an app. I myself use PHP as a backend a lot and React as frontend but moving thoughts towards full stack javascript world.

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JavaScriptJavaScriptPHPPHP

php is the best for beginners, and one of the best for web development at all, all the host servers can handle it, a basic knowledge in java is not enough for build a web site, but a basic knowledge in php is enough. learn php basics and oop and mvc design pattern or any framework like Laravel (optional), and javascript for frontend (a framework like React or Angular is optional but good) and you will build any web site you want.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 4 upvotes · 241K views

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 2 upvotes · 241.1K views
Recommends

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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Brandon Miller
Recommends

For just a time tracker app? I'd recommend going with a cloud-based approach. A couple serverless functions in whatever language you choose, and the front end can be a static website hosted inside a storage service (blob for Azure, bucket for AWS, etc). This will ultimately probably save you a little time, and them a little money on hosting.

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piusha kalyana
Senior software engineer at Getir · | 13 upvotes · 379.9K views
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPHPPHP
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PythonPython

Hi

I want to build a tool to check asset availability (video, images, etc.) from third-party vendors. These vendors have APIs. However, this process should run daily basis and update the database with the status. This is a kind of separate process. I need to know what will be the good approach and technology for this?

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Replies (5)
Hannes Holst
at 365 Consulting Services Ltd. · | 7 upvotes · 378.7K views
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on
PythonPython

hi - I think this depends on how you want to provide the information to the user. If you want to build a Wordpress-plugin: PHP If you want to build your own website: Python+Django / PHP / JavaScript+Node.js As Desktop application?

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 3 upvotes · 365.7K views
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PHPPHP

for what technologies you should use, this is depend on what technology do you prefer? your should think best structuing for your code because each API vendor has different to a nother one so it's better no merege code vendores together. your code must be using SOLID principle pattern and some design pattern such as Factory Pattern

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Recommends
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GolangGolang

The major advantage of Go is that you can run queries in parallel. Fire off a Go thread for each vendor and each thread can check the availability of assets from a specific vendor and update the database. Go supports hundreds of threads with ease.

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 1 upvotes · 361.7K views
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C#C#GolangGolangPHPPHP

your decision depend on what language do you know. if you know php you can use laravel framework

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Oluwafemi Lawrence
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GolangGolang

Hi, I would recommend Go because of strongly-typed nature which makes a developer more productive as it is less error prone compared to the other dynamic-typed language. Go also has cron-job library(powered by goroutines) that can help with your automated tasks.

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Needs advice
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HTML5HTML5csscss
and
PHPPHP

Hello,

I want to generate dynamic CSS for each user with an expiry link.

I've created a cloud-based tool (Example - https://www.tablesgenerator.com/) where people can create tables and use them on their website by pasting the HTML generated by the tool.

Now, there are a few styling options needed, which can be done using CSS. As of now, I'm asking the users to copy the CSS and paste it in the "Custom CSS" section, which is a bit hectic work as they need to change the CSS every time if I make any changes to the styling.

So, I'm just wondering if there's a way to generate dynamic CSS for each user with an expiry link.

Currently, I have around 200 users, and what's the best way to do it?

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Replies (2)
Grant Steuart
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on
csscss

Instead of having the user copy and paste the CSS directly, have them copy and paste the HTML that will include an external CSS file generated and hosted by your application. This will allow you to control when the stylesheet is updated as well as control privileges on who can request the file. Additionally, using a CDN service (e.g. Cloudflare) will allow you to cache the static assets being requested reducing overall server load.

When your server (and optionally CDN) no longer are serving the file, consider the link expired. Unique URLs can be generated using a multitude of methods but maybe consider if there is any benefit to the users if it follows the scheme: yourdomain.com/USERNAME/CUSTOM_NAME.css rather than something like: yourdomain.com/style/SOME-UNIQUE-HASH-1234.css

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The best way, as usual, is a "it depends".

Still I would go to something as simple as storing the expire date+the generated css and other metadata in a table. If a user tries to access something that is expired than he's redirected to a specific page. Periodically (like once a day), a janitor process deletes the old data.

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Needs advice
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Node.jsNode.jsPHPPHP
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PythonPython

Hi, I have a project on my mind, and I need some help. First of all, I know it is all about personal preference, but I am a beginner in the back-end part. So, I am trying to figure out which language is better, for example, for user authentication and interaction between the users. Also, I don't know which framework is better for this work. My first thought was to use PHP, but after some research on the internet, I'm leaning towards Laravel. I will be grateful if you have some advice for me.

#newbie

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Replies (7)
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Node.jsNode.jsPHPPHP

First thoughts: * As a beginner you need to understand concepts first, all languages out there are great, each has it's own philosophy, each is better suited for a specific situation. Learn concepts first, do something, then you will understand the differences between them and why one should be chose over another for a task * As a project manager you want your project to come to an end. You will get lost in all the different solutions out there (and it's good), but don't get lost too far. Very often I see people getting lost in those debates and never achieving things, like someone writing a book that would still be choosing the font 6 months after (we've all done that it's ok, but we have to realise it)

Chances are your project can be equally good on any different stacks. I heard an interview of someone from Uber who said something like they started with python, went to node, went back to python and went to go, and with micro-services now they can have all of them all-together.

Last remark: from what I know Laravel is a framework for PHP, so it IS PHP. Just like Symphony for PHP, Express for Node.js, Koa for Node.js, Flask for Python ...

Now to answer your question :

  • PHP has a big community, it is great and easy to start with, and you will definitely will learn real object oriented structure
  • Node.js has a big community too, don't worry finding help will be as easy. It is less easy to start with but in my point of view it is a lot easier to keep on going with it on a long run. Why ? Because it's very easy to run a new project, and it executes javascript. How is it good ? Because chances are that your front will also be using javascript (React.js / View.js are crazy good). Thanks to that you will be able to master the language better because you will use it all day (and at first mastering one language is more valuable than barely knowing two) and you won't have to switch languages in your head when you code. And communication between front and back will be in json ... Which is crazy close to javascript.

Alexander is right, if you go with PHP take your time first to do things by yourself like building your own MVC, the benefit is huge and the risk is to never really be able to understand what's happening on a deeper level. (at some point you can switch to a framework though). He's also right on choosing a strongly typed language, problem is javascript is not. This is why, if you choose node, when you start being confident, add typesccript.

Hope it helps, good luck

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Octavian Irimia
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PHPPHP

Short answer, if it's a web project (and I guess it is) go with PHP and you can integrate NodeJs services later.

@adzaria (Ezra Fayet) gave a great answer and I'd like to emphasize the first part: As a beginner you need to understand concepts first. For me that means to understand the web, how servers and requests work, APIs and few others.

Now, I'd like to add few things so, this is the long answer:

Why PHP?

  • Everyone knows about the community - PHP is way older so you will find lots of resources and I am not only talking about learning - also lots of helpful tools and packages
  • PHP is great for OOP - not perfect, but with PHP7 got great - and if you are a beginner you want to know good OOP for your future. Let's say JavaScript's OOP is a bit strange; I will not get into details but, let's say "it's not by the book". You can still learn JavaScript for your front-end

Why not Python? Python got popular because of AI - don't use PHP for AI and don't use Python for web applications. I can elaborate a lot here but I guess you get the point.

Why not NodeJs?

  • NodeJs got popular because of sockets - and it works great, but as a service
  • Try to find a good and affordable hosting for NodeJs. How about for Python?
  • I would not ignore the security issues that it had and could appear. PHP is older and, therefore, wiser :)

Now, about a framework... is this a learning project or something that you need to do fast? My advice is to start a small project and not use any framework. However, you can use packages and inspire from a framework's architecture - Laravel is a good role model.

Why not start a big project? You will get distracted, get into details and product design stuff and get scared or border and abandon it. For your project you need an MVP - list of minimum required features that you put on paper - that you will complete. After that you can improve.

Good luck!

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somes kumar k
Member Technical Staff at Manage Engine, division of Zoho Corp · | 3 upvotes · 360.5K views
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Node.jsNode.js

you can choose Node.js Here are my points

Node.js is build over chrome’s v8 and its works on non blocking io. Node.js have huge community and great packages (npm) to help you out in most cases and makes development faster Node.js has been adopted by many multi dollar company Hope this helps😊

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Alexander Santos
Fullstack Developer at 3CON · | 2 upvotes · 356.3K views
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PHPPHP

The reason why i chose PHP is the amount of content you can find on the internet easily. As you quoted being a beginner, i think a more mature language would be better. And that's also another reason for following with PHP.

Python is simple and "mature", but it can be a bit hard to understand if you are a beginner. Python relies on heavy abstraction, and that's the reason behind it's simplicity. Python is an "easy to play, hard to master" language, i never recommend it to beginners. Also, one [maybe personal] reason why i don't like to use Python as back-end is: Python is very data-focused. So if your app has focus on business logic, Python wouldn't fit very well. And with that becomes an advantage, if your app has statistical focus, being data-focused or something like that, Python has huge advantage among all other languages due to many great tools the community has built.

About Node, it's like PHP, but less mature. It's as easy as PHP to find tools that can help you, for example, to abstract the database-connection's logic. But to find architectural-focused content, more advanced concepts, it's a lot harder. While that, Laravel's community, for example, has a lot of materials that involves those concepts.

Still, if you are really a beginner, i don't recommend using Laravel with PHP. Do things on plain PHP first, understand the reason behind using frameworks and Laravel's motivation.

Also, consider a strong-typed language first, those are considered more didatic, but less flexible.

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Recommends
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DjangoDjangoPythonPython

I have used Laravel, but with Django you can develop faster, as authentication and admin panel are configured out of the box. It users SQLite by default and you won't have to worry about the database in the begginning

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Tarun Batra
Senior Software Developer at Okta · | 2 upvotes · 348.9K views
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on
DjangoDjangoPythonPython

Python, PHP and Node.js all are capable of being used to create good complex software. There are many examples of similar applications built on all of them. If I have to pick one, I would say consider Python and Django. It is fairly easy to develop web applications on top of this stack. Scaling and maintaining the application should also not be a problem given a lot of resources are available online.

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Recommends
on
Node.jsNode.jsPHPPHPPythonPython

You cannot choose between Python | PHP | NodeJS Since they are entirely for Different purpose.

In Bird view

Python - Large Scale Projects and if you want a job in big IT company.

Node.JS - Huge computing projects and if you want job in Silicon valley startup.

PHP - Cost Effective and If you want start a business in near future.

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Needs advice
on
JavaJavaPHPPHP
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PythonPython

Hi everyone, I have just started to study web development, so I'm very new in this field. I would like to ask you which tools are most updated and good to use for getting a job in medium-big company. Front-end is basically not changing by time so much (as I understood by researching some info), so my question is about back-end tools. Which backend tools are most updated and requested by medium-big companies (I am searching for immediate job possibly)?

Thank you in advance Davit

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Replies (4)
Pierrick Martos
Engineering Manager at Akeneo · | 20 upvotes · 353.3K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

Go with Python definetly. It's used everywhere by web developers for backend developments : API, website backend, workers... but also by data scientists (lot lot of resources, models and libraries in Python it's language #1). For the web parts, best web framework are in Python : https://stackshare.io/microframeworks (Flask #2 and Django #3). Java is good but trend is not great in terms of popularity amongs developers and tech leaders.

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Vijayakumar Rajagopal
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on
JavaJava

As per my experience java is most wanted for web development as of now. micro service is evolving . with frameworks like spring boot supports rapid development. Spring boot + Docker + kubernetes great combination.

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sharik zama
Software engineering Intern at EPAM Systems · | 5 upvotes · 352.5K views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

I would recommend learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (most important). JavaScript forms the backbone of web development. And, there are many popular and widely used frameworks like Angular and React that heavily rely on the knowledge of JavaScript. The number of job opportunities are much more when it comes to javascript.

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Chathuranga Bandara
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on
PythonPython

I would recommend Python as the programming language and as you are a new developer, Flask to start with. It gives you a solid understanding on the web patterns such as REST and will get you up and running in no time. However, I suggest you to read and study on front-end technologies like (React or Vue) and databases (SQL and NoSQL) and probably some NodeJS as well. First grasp the concepts (which Python is ideal for) then it does not really matter the language as such.

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Decisions about PHP and Ruby

A developer and project manager from our team X says the following about our use of Rails at i22:

"We use Rails to build stable and flexible backend systems. Rails is extremely good for managing data structures and quickly setting up new systems. It is the perfect base for most use cases."

I asked the same Team X member why the team prefers to work with Ruby on Rails, rather than Python and Django:

"Because Python is a scripting language and from my point of view not suitable for building stable web services. Python is for me rather good for scripts and fast small tools. Not for stable business applications. And if I want it fast I prefer Go."

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Olivier B Deland
Web Developer, Consultant at ConseilsWeb · | 13 upvotes · 140K views

Coming from a C/C++ background, I picked up PHP 20 years ago. Today, the language is still in constant evolution while still having a stable base. It powers all of my backend project. It is fast to prototype and get started, and is supported almost everywhere.

Python and Node.js do not provide anything that PHP cannot already offer, so there is no point for me to switch to those language. Mature framework like Laravel provides real ease and speed of development to kick-start any new web project, be it a simple API or a robust ERP running on server-less architecture. There are libraries available for machine learning, crypto, web3 and pretty much anything you can think of.

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Jacob M
Brand Director at NCINTEV · | 15 upvotes · 121.2K views

I’m well aware of the hate that php receives and some of it is well warranted. But the ease of implementation for so many features that I find myself needed on a daily basis is head and shoulders above what I could achieve with JavaScript on my backend. I can do more without the need of frameworks but I still have many options if I want that. Especially with database handling I find many of the complainants about php to be pure rhetoric.

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Kirill Mikhailov

Go is a way faster than both Python and PHP, which is pretty understandable, but we were amazed at how good we adapted to use it. Go was a blessing for a team , since strict typing is making it very easy to develop and control everything inside team, so the quality was really good. We made huge leap forward in dev speed because of it.

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Ing. Alvaro Rodríguez Scelza
Software Systems Engineer at Ripio · | 12 upvotes · 381.7K views

I was considering focusing on learning RoR and looking for a work that uses those techs.

After some investigation, I decided to stay with C# .NET:

  • It is more requested on job positions (7 to 1 in my personal searches average).

  • It's been around for longer.

  • it has better documentation and community.

  • One of Ruby advantages (its amazing community gems, that allows to quickly build parts of your systems by merely putting together third party components) gets quite complicated to use and maintain in huge applications, where building and reusing your own components may become a better approach.

  • Rail's front end support is starting to waver.

  • C# .NET code is far easier to understand, debug and maintain. Although certainly not easier to learn from scratch.

  • Though Rails has an excellent programming speed, C# tends to get the upper hand in long term projects.

I would avise to stick to rails when building small projects, and switching to C# for more long term ones.

Opinions are welcome!

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Timm Stelzer
VP Of Engineering at Flexperto GmbH · | 18 upvotes · 649.3K views

We have a lot of experience in JavaScript, writing our services in NodeJS allows developers to transition to the back end without any friction, without having to learn a new language. There is also the option to write services in TypeScript, which adds an expressive type layer. The semi-shared ecosystem between front and back end is nice as well, though specifically NodeJS libraries sometimes suffer in quality, compared to other major languages.

As for why we didn't pick the other languages, most of it comes down to "personal preference" and historically grown code bases, but let's do some post-hoc deduction:

Go is a practical choice, reasonably easy to learn, but until we find performance issues with our NodeJS stack, there is simply no reason to switch. The benefits of using NodeJS so far outweigh those of picking Go. This might change in the future.

PHP is a language we're still using in big parts of our system, and are still sometimes writing new code in. Modern PHP has fixed some of its issues, and probably has the fastest development cycle time, but it suffers around modelling complex asynchronous tasks, and (on a personal note) lack of support for writing in a functional style.

We don't use Python, Elixir or Ruby, mostly because of personal preference and for historic reasons.

Rust, though I personally love and use it in my projects, would require us to specifically hire for that, as the learning curve is quite steep. Its web ecosystem is OK by now (see https://www.arewewebyet.org/), but in my opinion, it is still no where near that of the other web languages. In other words, we are not willing to pay the price for playing this innovation card.

Haskell, as with Rust, I personally adore, but is simply too esoteric for us. There are problem domains where it shines, ours is not one of them.

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Andrew Carpenter
Chief Software Architect at Xelex Digital, LLC · | 16 upvotes · 427.7K views

In 2015 as Xelex Digital was paving a new technology path, moving from ASP.NET web services and web applications, we knew that we wanted to move to a more modular decoupled base of applications centered around REST APIs.

To that end we spent several months studying API design patterns and decided to use our own adaptation of CRUD, specifically a SCRUD pattern that elevates query params to a more central role via the Search action.

Once we nailed down the API design pattern it was time to decide what language(s) our new APIs would be built upon. Our team has always been driven by the right tool for the job rather than what we know best. That said, in balancing practicality we chose to focus on 3 options that our team had deep experience with and knew the pros and cons of.

For us it came down to C#, JavaScript, and Ruby. At the time we owned our infrastructure, racks in cages, that were all loaded with Windows. We were also at a point that we were using that infrastructure to it's fullest and could not afford additional servers running Linux. That's a long way of saying we decided against Ruby as it doesn't play nice on Windows.

That left us with two options. We went a very unconventional route for deciding between the two. We built MVP APIs on both. The interfaces were identical and interchangeable. What we found was easily quantifiable differences.

We were able to iterate on our Node based APIs much more rapidly than we were our C# APIs. For us this was owed to the community coupled with the extremely dynamic nature of JS. There were tradeoffs we considered, latency was (acceptably) higher on requests to our Node APIs. No strong types to protect us from ourselves, but we've rarely found that to be an issue.

As such we decided to commit resources to our Node APIs and push it out as the core brain of our new system. We haven't looked back since. It has consistently met our needs, scaling with us, getting better with time as continually pour into and expand our capabilities.

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Kyle Harrison
Web Application Developer at Fortinet · | 17 upvotes · 374.7K views

Node continues to be dominant force in the world of web apps, with it's signature async first non-blocking IO, and frankly mind bending speeds. PHP and Python are formable tools, I chose Node for the simplicity of Express as a good and performant server side API gateway platform, that works well with Angular.

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Octavian Irimia

Both PHP and Python are free but when it comes to web development PHP wins for sure. There is no doubt that Python is a powerful language but it is not optimal for web. PHP has issues... of course; but so does any other language.

Another reason I chose PHP is for community - it has one of the most resourceful communities from the internet and for a good reason: it evolved with the language itself.

The fact that OOP evolved so much in PHP makes me keep it for good :)

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Thomas Miller
Talent Co-Ordinator at Tessian · | 16 upvotes · 248.2K views

In December we successfully flipped around half a billion monthly API requests from our Ruby on Rails application to some new Python 3 applications. Our Head of Engineering has written a great article as to why we decided to transition from Ruby on Rails to Python 3! Read more about it in the link below.

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Pros of PHP
Pros of Ruby
  • 953
    Large community
  • 819
    Open source
  • 767
    Easy deployment
  • 487
    Great frameworks
  • 387
    The best glue on the web
  • 235
    Continual improvements
  • 185
    Good old web
  • 145
    Web foundation
  • 135
    Community packages
  • 125
    Tool support
  • 35
    Used by wordpress
  • 34
    Excellent documentation
  • 29
    Used by Facebook
  • 23
    Because of Symfony
  • 21
    Dynamic Language
  • 17
    Easy to learn
  • 17
    Cheap hosting
  • 15
    Very powerful web language
  • 14
    Awesome Language and easy to implement
  • 14
    Fast development
  • 14
    Because of Laravel
  • 13
    Composer
  • 12
    Flexibility, syntax, extensibility
  • 9
    Easiest deployment
  • 8
    Readable Code
  • 8
    Fast
  • 7
    Short development lead times
  • 7
    Most of the web uses it
  • 7
    Worst popularity quality ratio
  • 7
    Fastestest Time to Version 1.0 Deployments
  • 6
    Simple, flexible yet Scalable
  • 6
    Faster then ever
  • 5
    Open source and large community
  • 4
    Cheap to own
  • 4
    Has the best ecommerce(Magento,Prestashop,Opencart,etc)
  • 4
    Is like one zip of air
  • 4
    Open source and great framework
  • 4
    Large community, easy setup, easy deployment, framework
  • 4
    Easy to use and learn
  • 4
    Easy to learn, a big community, lot of frameworks
  • 4
    Great developer experience
  • 4
    I have no choice :(
  • 2
    Hard not to use
  • 2
    Walk away
  • 2
    Interpreted at the run time
  • 2
    FFI
  • 2
    Safe the planet
  • 2
    Used by STOMT
  • 2
    Fault tolerance
  • 2
    Great flexibility. From fast prototyping to large apps
  • 1
    Simplesaml
  • 1
    Bando
  • 1
    Secure
  • 1
    It can get you a lamborghini
  • 0
    Secure
  • 607
    Programme friendly
  • 538
    Quick to develop
  • 492
    Great community
  • 469
    Productivity
  • 432
    Simplicity
  • 274
    Open source
  • 235
    Meta-programming
  • 208
    Powerful
  • 157
    Blocks
  • 140
    Powerful one-liners
  • 70
    Flexible
  • 59
    Easy to learn
  • 52
    Easy to start
  • 42
    Maintainability
  • 38
    Lambdas
  • 31
    Procs
  • 21
    Fun to write
  • 19
    Diverse web frameworks
  • 14
    Reads like English
  • 10
    Makes me smarter and happier
  • 9
    Rails
  • 9
    Elegant syntax
  • 8
    Very Dynamic
  • 7
    Matz
  • 6
    Programmer happiness
  • 5
    Object Oriented
  • 4
    Elegant code
  • 4
    Friendly
  • 4
    Generally fun but makes you wanna cry sometimes
  • 4
    Fun and useful
  • 3
    There are so many ways to make it do what you want
  • 3
    Easy packaging and modules
  • 2
    Primitive types can be tampered with

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Cons of PHP
Cons of Ruby
  • 21
    So easy to learn, good practices are hard to find
  • 16
    Inconsistent API
  • 8
    Fragmented community
  • 6
    Not secure
  • 3
    No routing system
  • 3
    Hard to debug
  • 2
    Old
  • 7
    Memory hog
  • 7
    Really slow if you're not really careful
  • 3
    Nested Blocks can make code unreadable
  • 2
    Encouraging imperative programming
  • 1
    No type safety, so it requires copious testing
  • 1
    Ambiguous Syntax, such as function parentheses

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What is PHP?

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

What is Ruby?

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

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What are some alternatives to PHP and Ruby?
JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.
Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
Java
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
HTML5
HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.
Node.js
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
See all alternatives