Is PHP still a good choice for web development?
Yes, for most business websites and web applications. PHP runs the majority of the web, it is cheap to host, and the hiring pool is large, so the real question is rarely whether PHP works but whether it suits the thing you are building.
- Choose PHP if you are building a business application, a customer portal, a store or a content-heavy site, especially on Laravel or WordPress, and you want hosting and developers that are easy to find
- Choose Node.js if the product is built around live updates: chat, notifications, dashboards that change while you watch, or an API that sits between many other systems
- Choose Python if the hard part of the product is data or machine learning that runs in your own code, rather than a call to an AI service that any language can make
What changed since this was first written
The 2022 version of this article listed seven benefits of PHP: it is free, easy to learn, has many frameworks, runs on any server and has a big community. All of that is still true, and none of it helps you decide, because the same list describes Node.js and Python almost word for word.
What has changed is the shape of the choice. PHP 8 made the language faster and stricter, Laravel became the default way to build a serious PHP application, and AI features now arrive through APIs that every mainstream language can call. This version covers when PHP is the right pick for a new build, when it is not, and the one question that matters more than the language.
Where PHP stands today
PHP is still the most widely used server-side language on the web by a long way. W3Techs' PHP usage survey (checked 22 October 2026) reports PHP on 69.3% of the websites whose server-side language it can identify, much of that through WordPress.
The same survey shows the weak spot. Only 65.3% of PHP sites run version 8, which leaves roughly a third on PHP 7 or older, and every one of those versions is past its end of life. The language is healthy; a large part of the code written in it is not maintained.
That split matters when you read about PHP. Most complaints describe old PHP running unpatched on cheap hosting, not a current version on a supported framework, and a new build has no reason to inherit either problem.
Where PHP is the right choice
PHP is at its best where most business software lives: forms, accounts, records, payments and the admin screens your team uses every day.
- Business applications and portals. Customer logins, booking systems, internal tools and dashboards over a database. Laravel covers queues, scheduled jobs, authentication and APIs out of the box, and when Laravel is the right fit goes into where it earns its place.
- Content-led sites. WordPress is written in PHP, so a site that is mostly pages, posts and forms is usually best served by it, with custom PHP only where the site needs something no plugin does well.
- Online stores. WooCommerce and Magento are both PHP, which makes PHP the default for a store that needs more control than a hosted platform allows.
- Budgets that have to cover the years after launch. PHP hosting is widely available and inexpensive, and PHP developers are easy to find, so you are not locked to the team that built it.
If PHP is settled but the framework is not, how Laravel, CodeIgniter and CakePHP compare sets the three side by side.
Where something else fits better
PHP traditionally handles one request, answers it and finishes. That model is simple and robust, and it is also why PHP is not the natural choice for a product built around connections that stay open.
- Live, many-user products. Chat, collaborative editing and dashboards that update without a refresh are where Node.js for web applications is usually the better fit, because it was designed for many open connections at once.
- A JavaScript team. If the front end is React and the people building it are JavaScript developers, one language across the whole stack can be worth more than any feature of PHP.
- Data and model work in your own code. Python's libraries for data processing and machine learning have no real PHP equivalent, so a product whose core is training or running models belongs in Python.
Mixing is normal. A PHP application can hand one live feature or one data job to a small Node.js or Python service and talk to it over an API, which is often cheaper than rebuilding everything in the language that suits only one part.
PHP vs Node.js vs Python at a glance
| Point | PHP | Node.js | Python |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongest at | Business applications, content sites and stores | Live updates, real-time features and APIs between systems | Data processing, machine learning and analytics |
| Main frameworks | Laravel, Symfony, plus WordPress and WooCommerce | Express, NestJS, Next.js | Django, FastAPI, Flask |
| Hosting | Available almost everywhere, including inexpensive shared hosting | Needs a host that runs long-lived processes | Needs a host that runs long-lived processes |
| Weak spot | Much old code still runs on unsupported versions | Fast-moving package ecosystem that needs regular upkeep | Less suited to simple content sites |
| Calling AI services | Straightforward over HTTP APIs | Straightforward, with official SDKs for most providers | Straightforward, and the home of most AI tooling |
Read the table by the row that holds your biggest risk. For most businesses that is cost over the years and the ease of replacing a developer, which is why PHP keeps winning the ordinary cases even when another language looks more modern.
The question that matters more than the language
Whatever you choose, ask which version it will run on and how long that version is supported. A well-built application on an unsupported version is a security problem waiting for a date.
PHP publishes its dates. The PHP supported versions page (checked 22 October 2026) lists security support for PHP 8.2 until 31 December 2026, 8.3 until 31 December 2027, 8.4 until 31 December 2028 and 8.5 until 31 December 2029. A new build should start on 8.4 or 8.5, not on whatever the host happens to default to.
- Ask the developer which PHP and framework versions they will use, and when each one leaves security support
- Ask the host whether you can choose the PHP version yourself, and how much notice they give before an upgrade
- Plan the upgrade as ongoing work with a budget, not as an emergency in the month support ends
Existing sites face the same dates from the other side, and what breaks when your host upgrades PHP covers what to test before and after the switch. Where the application will live is its own decision, and where to host a PHP application compares the platforms that run it.
Where AI fits in a PHP application
The AI features most businesses want, such as an assistant that answers customers, a summary of each enquiry or search that understands the question, work by calling a model provider's API. PHP calls those APIs as easily as any language, so wanting AI is not, on its own, a reason to leave PHP.
What changes is the design. AI-first app development means deciding at the start which tasks the AI handles, what it may see and what happens when it gets something wrong, then building the PHP application around those decisions rather than bolting a chatbot on later.
That is the kind of build our AI web and app development team takes on, and what a Laravel build really costs shows where the money goes. If the application also has to hand leads to a CRM, our CRM setup and management work connects the two.
Common questions
Is PHP dead?
No. PHP runs most of the websites whose server-side language can be identified, a new version ships every year, and WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento and Laravel are all built on it. What is fading is old PHP on unsupported versions, which is a maintenance problem rather than a problem with the language.
Is PHP or Node.js better for a new web application?
It depends on the product. PHP suits business applications, content sites and stores, with cheaper hosting and a larger hiring pool. Node.js suits products built around live updates, such as chat or dashboards that change in real time, and teams that already write JavaScript.
Which PHP version should a new project use?
Start on PHP 8.4 or 8.5. The PHP project lists security support for 8.4 until the end of 2028 and for 8.5 until the end of 2029, while 8.2 loses security support at the end of 2026, so starting on an older version only brings the first upgrade forward.
Can a PHP application use AI?
Yes. Most AI features work by calling a model provider's API, and PHP calls APIs as easily as any other language. The real work is deciding which tasks the AI handles and what happens when it is wrong, which is the same in any language.
Do you build applications in PHP?
Yes. We build web applications AI-first, usually on Laravel, and connect them to the CRM and automations that handle what happens after a customer acts. Work is quoted per project once the scope is clear (how our projects are priced explains why), so tell us what you are building and we will tell you whether PHP is the right base for it.
