PHP or Node.js: The right technology for your project
Tags: php, node, javascript, webdev
Published: 2021-07-26 14:41:31

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language whereas Nodejs is an open-source, cross-platform, back-end, JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. To gain in-depth knowledge of their functioning, lets take a look at the article.


 
PHP is a programming language that interacts with HTML and allows the users to interact with the database. It is a robust tool for developing web applications. PHP was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. Since then, PHP has only grown, and become better since then. There are a lot of popular companies which use PHP, they include Facebook, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, WordPress, Tumblr, MailChimp, Flickr etc. 

Reasons why you should use PHP for your project:

Integrate code and content: Since PHP is embedded in HTML, you do not need separate files to write HTML and PHP code. You can build the logic as well as prepare the content of your web page right in one file. 

The world (wide web) is using PHP, what are you using: A large fraction of the websites on the internet are built with PHP as their server-side language. Most of them are built on older versions of PHP but patches are being made worldwide to provide updates. 

Save your browser from overloading: PHP does not require any heavy packages to be loaded along with the loading of the web page.
SQL’s best friend: PHP was built to be integrated and work closely with SQL.

Survival of the fittest: Owing to the advancement of other server-side applications, PHP is building itself bigger and better than ever to stay afloat in the competition.

Which projects work best in PHP?

Projects which need to have a continuous inflow of data from the database
Applications which need forms and hence flow of data from the web application to the database. It can modify, create and delete elements while working with SQL.

Data Encryption

PHP can be used for encrypting your data and creating applications which require authentication and based on the result of the authentication, some pages are displayed to the user and some pages are not. 

WordPress Development: The plugins and themes available on WordPress have PHP backing them up. In order to create custom themes and plugins, one can utilise PHP effectively. WordPress is growing to provide the users with an option of creating fast search engine optimised websites, and if the developer is well-versed with PHP, it adds glitter to gold and offers the website a more customised experience.

What is NodeJS?

We have always heard that Javascript is a language which runs in the web browser. Earlier, frontend code had to be integrated with languages like PHP for server-side scripting. But with the evolvement of technology, NodeJS emerged and enabled Javascript to be run outside the web browser. 

It enables the developer to produce efficient dynamic web page content. NodeJS is a revolution in the ease of utilising one language which is all powerful, JavaScript. Developers now do not have to pick different languages for making a full-fledged application. However, with different requirements come different solutions. 

NodeJS is scalable, highly optimised and is capable of asynchronous I/O. Companies which use NodeJS: GoDaddy, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Walmart, Yahoo!, Amazon Web Services etc. 

Reasons why you should use NodeJS for your projects: 

Asynchronous: All aspects of the NodeJS library perform asynchronously which means, that after making one call, there is no delay while waiting for a response, rather the application moves to another call and one event is not affected by the previous calls. The previous calls are handled by the Events Mechanism of NodeJS. 

Fast: NodeJS is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript Engine; hence it offers swift, productive and effective code. 
No buffers: NodeJs applications do not buffer rather they output data in chunks. 

Non-blocking I/O: This feature of NodeJS prevents applications from crashing. 

Sharing is Caring: NodeJS library codes can be shared among the developers and reused. 

SEO Friendly: To make one’s site more visible, it is essential that the website is search engine optimised. NodeJS is built to make the website gather more engagement and hence adds to its optimisation. 

Which projects best work in NodeJs?

Real-Time Communication Web Applications

NodeJS can be a good option for backend development while building communication/social media applications as comments, likes and other features can be incorporated easily. Popular frameworks such as Express.JS and Feather.JS with Socket.IO integrity is used to build social media applications. 

Games: NodeJS along with ExpressJS and Socket.IO can be used to make console-like gaming applications. The game code which requires some calculations is handled on the server-side by NodeJS. ExpressJS assists NodeJS in fulfilling the integrity of front end with backend and Socket.IO helps in communication between the web browser and the server. 

IoT Devices: NodeJS’s package manager NPM has multiple packages for IoT support. Since IoT applications work on MQTT protocols, NodeJS is the best choice because it is built for handling MQTT protocols with ease and delivering real-time data which is the base of an IoT application. Since the server-side programming of IoT devices does not need resources of CPU and RAM, NodeJS is definitely a great choice. 

Data Streaming Applications: NodeJS can effectively handle real-time data and set up proxy servers with ease which lets data to be streamed from multiple locations and/or in real-time. Use of NodeJS by Netflix can be a very good real-life example that supports this fact. 

JSON APIs Based Applications
If you wish to build REST APIs, NodeJS combined with ExpressJS and JSON is a fast, easy and least code solution. 

Single Paged Web Applications
NodeJS combined with ReactJS is a really powerful tool for building single-page web applications. The logic of the application is being handled on the client-side and calls to the server are only made when the DOM needs to be changed dynamically.

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