Ruby on Rails Vs. PHP: Which One’s Right For Your Project?
By: Bharti Purohit
Tags: Ruby on Rails, PHP, Development, Ruby On Rails Development, Software Development

If we look at the Ruby on Rails vs. PHP, there is a clash of titans; Basecamp & Airbnb vs. Yahoo & Facebook! The first two giants are developed with Ruby on Rails, whereas the latter are built with PHP.

Aren’t you wondering who’s right?

Let’s take into consideration more context related to our topic. Let me make the blurry difference between RoR and PHP clear. Rails is only a framework that is built with Ruby programming language, while PHP itself is a programming language.

Then, why are people so confused about this topic? Let’s clear the confusion;

What is Ruby on Rails?

RoR or Ruby on Rails is a framework that is written in Ruby language. It is developed for making coding faster, easier, and more convenient for web programmers.

There are various quality practices in RoR such as DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) that allows programmers to reuse blocks of code.

Ruby on Rails has powered around 824 thousand websites worldwide, becoming one of the most popular technologies. That stimulates more and more businesses to choose Ruby on Rails development company for their web development.

Ruby was ranked #13 in the list of most popular programming languages in the StackOverflow survey.

In the most popular language list, as per the TIOBE Index, Ruby on Rails got the place in the top 20 most popular technologies around the world.

What is PHP?

PHP is a scripting language that is considered as one of the most renowned technologies. It was developed with the aim of delivering web applications and websites in real-time. PHP is It is currently used by 79% of all the existing websites. Initially, Facebook was developed in PHP and then translated to C++.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP: Which one’s right for your project? — A face-to-face shootout

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP — User Interface

Ruby on Rails is famous for enhancing the user experience while delivering polished and shining websites. It is born after the UX principles, and this modern technology fully backs the development of user-centric websites.

PHP comes with a strong background for being the tool to connect websites with databases. PHP still needs the support of other technology such as JavaScript to deliver an exceptional user experience.

Verdict: Ruby on Rails outruns PHP.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP — Architecture

RoR forces users to follow the best practices for developing applications, as it has adopted the Model-View-Controller paradigm. Thus, this framework has a stable and well-performing architecture.

With programmers building their own stack of technologies, PHP usually used saute. PHP gives freedom to developers for delivering unstable architecture and messy code though the quality is only dependent on developers’ skills.

Verdict: RoR outperforms PHP.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP — Speed of coding

Ruby on Rails development allows programmers to perform what is best at — coding, because of the Convention over configuration forced and DRY principle.

RoR development helps to reduce the time, which is generally wasted for tedious work of delivering a programming environment and configuration.

PHP does not have any tools to speed up configuration or any other aspect; therefore, it falls short. Thus, it can give a headache while implementing the end solution even though it is relatively easy.

Verdict: Better luck next time PHP.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP: Speed of coding

RoR is elegant and fast. Ruby on Rails offers good performing code backed by reliable architecture and good programming practices. The latest version of both PHP and RoR runs on a JIT engine that improvises the speed.

PHP 7.0 comes with built-in web building capacities that amplify the performance without gobbling up more memory, and this is the thing that makes it a powerful server-side scripting language.

RoR also speeds through the performance, but it leads to the high consumption of memory. And to offset this, programmers are required to change the runtimes to compensate for the slowdown.

Verdict: No definite winner can be declared here as both PHP and RoR comes with their own pros and cons.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP — Community & support

There is a huge demand for PHP coders as it is a venerable, unsinkable, rustproof, and renowned language.

PHP has been here since 1995, and therefore there is a massive library of already solved problems, questions & answers, and tricks. Besides on Stack Overflow and Github, there are numerous PHP developers for help out of any issues and problems.

On the other hand, Ruby on Rails is much newer technology having a thriving community. Still, it is difficult for RoR to outrun the experiences of PHP since 1995.

Verdict: Many Times, nothing can beat experience, so PHP is the winner.

Ruby on Rails vs. PHP — Stability

Ruby on Rails offers stability with the DRY paradigm and MVC. And developers can also make sure of zero hidden dependencies or hard coded information that needs to be inserted as a variable by reusing blocks of code

On the other hand, there is total freedom with PHP. It includes the freedom to create as well as to destroy. As there are not any imposed rules, stability heavily depends on the programmer skills. And that’s something that makes the stability a matter of concern in the PHP.

Verdict: Ruby on Rails seems to be a better choice here.

PHP vs. Ruby on Rails — Learning Curve

In comparison with other programming languages, PHP is relatively easy and simple for beginners to pick up. It’s a different picture with RoR because it is more complicated than PHP. Therefore, it’s more difficult for one to become fluent in Ruby on Rails than PHP.

Verdict: Hats off to PHP here

Final Verdict

Here we have seen the thorough comparison of Ruby on Rails and PHP. So, we can say that there are always different technologies for different projects and different requirements, and there are no bad technologies. Based on the discussion, Ruby on Rails is the first pick in terms of speed and quick launches. You can also identify your requirements and hire Ruby on Rails developer for your project development.