Jan "Jenkings" Škoda - blog

PHP, the scripting language that helped shape the modern web, celebrates another milestone this year. Thirty years. From its humble beginnings as a set of simple tools for tracking personal website visits, PHP has grown into one of the most widely used server-side languages in the world.

During the fifteen-odd years that I have been using it, I have heard countless announcements that it is dead and that we should use a newer, cooler language. The 'cool' language has changed over the years, while PHP has stayed the same. With an estimated 80% market share on the web, I would say it is still not dead and will not be in the near future.

It has changed significantly, especially since version 5.6, and, to be honest, I really like it. Since version 7, I have had hardly any complaints. It runs all my websites.

Does anyone still remember ColdFusion, ASP.NET or Django, which were supposed to replace PHP? I don't know of any websites that run on any of these, and even Microsoft, the creator of ASP.net, recommends against using it for web development.

So, what should we do? I guess we should still use PHP. It still has something to offer, and it won't be replaced by any other technology soon.