php (since v3) has been making me money for 2 decades now. it is not my favorite language but I even bought a house from it

PHP was my first language and I started seeing this myth of it being dead but when you look at the market . PHP developers are in high demand. Great content as always

So much feels *sigh* I'm a teacher in a top University in our Country. I proposed a new subject around PHP but was rejected instantly because "PHP is now obsolete" Created a small web development company with my wife instead last January and now making some decent MRR. Most projects that pay require the use of PHP. When clients need a "new feature" that is "aligned with their business process" we saw that it just means making a PHP script that can communicate with whatever "framework/library" they have and they're outsourcing the task to us because none of their devs know how to code exactly (these were the young ones who grew up thinking that "coding" is just importing plugins and libraries they can't extend) Lessons: (1) Universities are designed to chase the hippest and newest tech, even if they are useless (non-solutions to non-problems). This is good for convincing parents (if they see the university is offering something they can also see in the news or also hear as a buzzword, then they feel the Uni is on top of their game), but won't give you any spine/foundation. Look for timeless tech (like PHP) and learn how it works and build something that's actually useful to people (2) Don't tire of the basics. An array will always be and array. A variable will always be a variable. Loops will always be loops. Find the vanilla version of the tech you're interested in and just commit to knowing everything about it. (3) If you must pick a tech, pick one that's in for the long haul. You don't want the fastest (If I'm in for the long haul I can simply catch up in speed in a long enough time frame), You don't want the one with most features (again, long enough timeline I can develop as much features as competitor X). All our high-ticket clients have a question for us in discovery meetings that the low-ticket clients don't ask, and that is "how long are you gonna stay in this business/game?". We say "as long as we live". The right clients think in decades as do the right software. The world belongs to and is created by those who operate in a slow and thoughtful pace. To success and nothing less, for you who is reading this.🍻

I love PHP man. Am a full stack PHP developper, i still use it since 2014 from scratch and i created my Own MVC and using it in projects of my clients. I also master javascript and i built projetcs with NextJS for fun, but for me PHP make the work so easy and fast.

PHP + js is killer combo for web, I do not care what anyone says.

This is so true! It is thanks to PHP that I was able to get into the industry through backend development. Thank you, Stefan, for creating awareness in the community.

You are absolutely right. PHP makes development so easy faster and better compare to other beckend languages. PHP with bootstrap and little bit of javascript can every magic where others do struggle.

PHP + vainilla JS + HTML/CSS - you don't need anything more than that.

Especially with Laravel is the best thing that happened, it gave life to PHP. Seeing what people said about PHP made me scared of it until I tried Laravel. Currently employed as a fullstack developer using Laravel and I love it.

What I like about PHP is that PHP devs tend to be go-getters and have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Couldn't agree more. I find a can google any php problem and get the answer in seconds.

The bottom line is that you can’t get easier, cheaper and faster (dev time) than PHP. And that’s why it rocks!

We use PHP to serve millions of users without any frameworks. In terms of shipping out features fast, PHP works well for our needs.

PHP is a cool language. In Venezuela, there are a few job opportunities in the tech industry, and many of them require PHP skills. By the way, working remotely in Venezuela is better, and PHP is the language of choice for remote programmers here.

I'm someone who uses PHP the most out of all other languages in my work and honestly, really appreciate it. PHP makes the simple thing in web development easy. I don't actively pursue learning about PHP in my free time because while PHP does the simple things easy it will get hard doing complex stuff and it isn't the pretties of languages but it definitely has it's place.

Your 100% spot on with this video !

PHP "forever." The dependence on dependencies with the npm-related languages and frameworks put a bad taste in my mouth, so I stayed loyal to PHP.

PHP is great. Was the first server side language I started with and used it in many projects.

I work in javascript land but I've been dying to jump in to laravel when I get some time. Great content as always.

I used to sell my VBA based programs from an order form on a website. But I wanted to accept online orders via credit card and issue software registrations immediately after an order was received. So I used PHP, HTML,CSS and a little JS to modernize my process. I liked PHP and it did everything I needed.

First, I learned Python, then JavaScript, and NodeJS. Now I started learning PHP and I already started loving it. What I like the most is exactly what Stef said. You upload your files and are done with it. Python and Node need a lot of configuration and setup. This drives me crazy every time I want to start a new project.

Stef, quick question, hopefully you can do a video since I admire your sage wisdom. I've heard the nerds talk about the 80% something stat of PHP backends for server are totally wrong and can't be counted on because its nearly impossible to scrape a sites backend stack. Thoughts?

It’s true Stef, I was messing around with Python and tried some dynamic web forms, the circular imports drove me up a wall. I’m going to give PHP a shot now.

Whenever I lose enthusiasm from continuing with the php language, I find one of your videos, and the enthusiasm returns again strongly

Thanks sir. I was really lost. Now I know where to start. PHP.

I love laravel, but being able to use JS on the front and backends were a gamechanger for me. I don't need to context switch between langauges so I become more efficient and less prone to mistakes. Mistakes which take hours to fix.

PHP has been the foundation of my business (boutique web dev studio), and we custom build all our client apps and websites using it. We have our own in-house boilerplate/framework and our projects run circles around all the big platforms in terms of performance. We watch the trends come and go, and we simply just don't bother with things like React, Next etc etc. There's just no real reason for us to jump ship in our methodology whatsoever. If someone can give me a convincing reason to switch, I would. But a this stage, we can literally build anything our clients need, regardless of how complex their needs are.

Two little known superpowers of PHP are: Arrays and CLI. First, the PHP array (hash table) implementation is unique among all programming and scripting languages: Integer and string keys in the same data structure while _maintaining order of inserted items_ when iterating over the array and yet having O(1) for all operations. Second, PHP CLI allows for _system development._ Sure, you can run PHP CLI from cron jobs but you can _also_ develop and deploy root level, always-on system services that start with the OS at boot. Throw in PHP extensions (e.g. via PECL or roll your own) and you can expose any C library or system call to PHP CLI userland.

Php is an easy and straightforward language. I dunno why other devs hate it.😅

This is so true, my next goal is to learn PHP, I just kind of feel torn because I am still learning JavaScript (react).

You just affirmed my beliefs on the PHP matter, I'm a Laravel coder and dabble with Wordpress ironically... So the other day I was struck with feat to where the industry is headed, and all indicators are pointing to PHP!

It's true. We use php in our company for over 12 years now, updated ever since, and runs just perfect. It's easy to code, can interact with every database we throw at it, and does it fast. For the last 12 years when we had issues, it was never php..so that tells how robust this language and it's modules work. Me and a co-worker were the only ones who were able to program in php, but a new woman at our company started to learn it for herself (in her spare time), and now 5 months later she understands how it works and even made small corrections to the code without breaking the whole system. By the way...i'm not a php fanboy..i like other languages more, but php just works. Period.

I started my career, the first 12 years on PHP. I love it. Especially Laravel and as you say the eco system that goes with the language and that framework specifically. With all this said; PHP does lack a certain syntactical sugar that makes it truely annoying to program with once you get used to something like Typescript. That is specifically destructuring and the json object arguments that typescript has become famous for. The similar examples in PHP just do not feel or make it so easy as the Typescript does. All this said you are not wrong. 4 years after fully converting from PHP away on my daily grind, I still get boatloads of PHP job requests and its pretty obvious that top PHP developers will never have a problem finding work. I love PHP and I want to see it go onto better and better versions and i suspect given the time and continued development with various new features it will finally get all the love from the rest of the world as it will eventually have all the same features the other langauges have and thus its time to accept it as the true winner of all languages.

I believe at this point all the other developer communities just keep on making fun of PHP as a dead and childish language, because they fear what we might be capable of in the future. Arguably, PHP evolves and develops more than any other language out there, without making it harder to get started with it.

PHP is fun to me. I like the syntax and I think it's all pretty. I'm agnostic about these tools.

I stopped listening to those "no-life tech nerds" because they are constantly wrong about real life. You start with hippiest stack, everything is cool, then you start searching for a job, and then you realize, that "youtube\tech-blog life" and real business demands are SOOO different in how they perceive value of certain tech, and what they expect etc. One reason I am subscribed to Stefan - is because he brings that real life perspective.

I was reading about C# etc while my first job had some basic php. Years later as senior backend dev, using laravel with a lot of integrations google big query google storage, new relic queues horizon commands application services, I can say it is the best.

PHP has the biggest community and open source tools based on PHP. It's one of the oldest languages in the web, meaning there are many apps written by PHP. Meaning it will bring a lot of jobs. Plus it's a straightforward language.

I taught myself PHP at 15/16 years old... 32 now and although I haven't touched PHP in a couple of years, I still love it.

It's also a perfectly fine language, there's nothing ugly about it, OOP PHP looks like pretty much every other mainstream server language. Laravel stands up to pretty much anything i can think of in terms of ease of use, feature richness semantics, modernity etc. And it's in PHPland. I feel Laravel is actually pulling people BACK into PHP because it just makes it such a beautiful thing to work with and it's so astoundingly easy to do ridiculously advanced serverside things with it The gripes that old Java devs have with PHP are literally things that haven't been common in the language for like 15 years now, PHP has changed a LOT since those people last used it, their perception of it is today entirely invalid

Thank you Stefan for keeping us informed & updated. 🖖🏼

Thanks for this. Needed to hear it. Been learning php with @ProgramWithGio getting to 2years now (built a few apps) and I'm hopeful moving on to more Laravel soon. I've come across quite a number of php bashing online. So hearing from you helps to put things in perspective. I like js though, i like what it can do on the browser. But I've come to love php. My only qualms with php is that i have to stretch my finger up to get to the dollar sign when I'm typing a variable. Lol

I like that you used computer science jargon I don’t know!

Symfony Rules!! Great Video!!

I like it ! Im using Laravel and jQuerry(by choice) in my ecom project

Made a 25+ year career with PHP. Still going strong.

Every strict-typed language is a gangsta till you have to parse/build nested array-object mess to connect another random API

I'm a Brazilian guy, and the PHP has paid my bills since 2013, right now I'm in Europe and believe you or not I'm leaving here with my family as a PHP developer.

npm still has dependency issues. I just made a meeting finder for AL-ANON and used REACT APP and npm package manager and I can say that I had several dependencies that had to be switched to webpack!

Uncle! Thanks for great content. Please make sure you get enough sleep:)

The current state of web development is in chaos. Frameworks, build processes, pre-processors, dependency management, and on and on. Remember the good old days when you just write some PHP, HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript and it just worked.

Hahahah first time someone honest otherwise most will say php is dying 😂

Hie, following from Zimbabwe, we getting into a period where AI is going to be part of every software , does that not mean we should learn python and maybe django or we can still continue with PHP and laravel and there is a descent way of integrating that app with AI

"this video will piss off a lot of people" 🤣🤣🤣

Started my first (real) job doing php development part time next to uni for the last few years. I don't think I could've chosen a better language looking at the amount and quality of job oppertunities coming my way now I'm looking for something more serious.

in case this helps someone: I am looking for a job in Berlin, first one. Almost all offers (React offers; pure frontend) are asking for at least some PHP knowledge. It's EVERYWHERE. So maybe it's what I am going to learn next.

I know Spring Boot and Vue. I love Spring Boot. Is there a point for me to learn Elixir Phoenix for personal projects? What would be the benefit and is it really faster to develop? Thank you

PHP was the first language I was introduced using if/else before I even understood what it means because I did not understand English nor programming. That was more than 20 years ago.

i like your videos alot thanks for making beautiful videos for us stefan your fans from arab meadle east

I've been watching you for at least 7 years. I've only been programming for a little under 2. Idk what it is about you.. you're just a real cat. I respect it. Thanks for bein around Uncle Stef

I don't have income from my PHP skills but when I need something I'm doing by myself. Big love for PHP and for community ❤

I often chuckle when I see the php hate online, meanwhile making loads of $ from it.

Symfony and Laravel really makes PHP shine at CRUD apps (which is basically most small busniess apps)

simply it is and even was good enough for a majority of tasks... and it was simple and friendly... we need/needed to do many relatively simple things on the web server... so a comparatively simple environment and language was and is the best for many relatively simple tasks

I remember a few years after peak ruby on rails hype, we had lost a few big clients to RoR shops and I got a message from someone at our biggest former client asking me to explain what the developers had said in an email. Short version, it sounded like they had no idea what to do with a CSV file. Hype is failure waiting to happen and hiding behind lies.

I am amazed that anyone would select a non-type safe, non-compiled language for a serious production application and I don't even know how good the database support is or the unit test support is. Granted there could be valid reasons for using it, such as speed of development, or availability of experienced developers, or low cost hardware, or access to open source tools, or runs on Linux, or whatever. And it is certainly better than JS or Python. And yes, it is a little more type safe than it used to be, and modern syntax checking editors help find the mistakes that we used to rely on compilers for. And while it is apparently object oriented, I doubt a lot of PHP developers make full use of that capability unless they came from another language.

Ahh...nice! I've been waiting for authoritative confirmation. I think you just help guide me towards a $2B valuation. Thanks! - james

I'm halfway into my Nodejs ...I think I'm going to integrate PHP into my portfolio. Wish me luck.

I'm a flutter dev. For my own project, which I don't know will success or not, I ended up using PHP for the backend. And it's vanilla PHP. No framework, no package manager, no router. Just classic 1 file for 1 API function. Just need a few reusable functions to do common things like verify the request and giving well formatted uniform response. Code is very clean and easy to get it run. I can host it on a very cheap shared hosting. And with the new Git on cPanel feature, deploying is very easy. My node js co-workers never understand how simple and cheap it is to use PHP for early stage of a project. Of course when later needed, rewriting to js isn't that hard at all (and chatgpt/copilot can help a lot).

thanks dude

Any courses or online platforms that you would suggest to learn php? I have already learned html5 and have a decent working knowledge of CSS3 not to big on JavaScript as of yet.

WordPress or not I don't think it's controversial at all that PHP is Super effective for what it does. I have code going back 18 years that's still running flawlessly with little to no maintenance. And all the other advantages that you've stated. There is no controversy

PHP is king! I've been using it since 2002!

Hey Stefan, do you have any resources on what it takes to build a saas?

Kudos to PHP for keeping the security industry booming

Is it possible to get a job as a jr php dev with no experience especially if you only know php?

PHP is used because they already have a ton of project in PHP so its better to have PHP dev to both maintain and create new project less cost

I love Laravel, but how can you make it scale to 1000s of users in a single instance? I've been eyeing elixir/ phoenix but the syntax drives me nuts. I like my curly braces and ;

Stef, you're the PHP FINAL BOSS

One thing thing to point out is that PHP is strictly a server-side language. You still need HTML, CSS and Javascript to program the frontend and many websites require a database that necessitates programming that, too.

PHP core is nice indeed but I don't see any essential difference between strict OOP-style PHP (as used in all the major frameworks) and any other strictly OOP language (C#, Java) besides minor syntax.

Yeap, I agree. I'm a Dot Net and developer but I have to deal with PHP backends alot. PHP is great, it's easy to deploy, setup etc. But in my case I don't like the syntax. I'm a curly brace person. Another thing I didn't go with PHP is you can only make one kind of application. With C# and .Net, I can make different kinds of applications. My C# skills are transferrable.

Sad, but true. Sad for anyone who has completed a boot camp worshipping JS and React.

i only learned PHP and didnt regret the last 20 years :)

PHP is a awesome honestly, regardless of what the hipsters say.

PHP Ecosystem keeps growing. Now we have NumPower. NumPower library was created to provide the foundation for efficient scientific computing in PHP, as well as leverage the machine learning tools and libraries that already exist and can benefit from it. This C extension developed for PHP can be used to considerably speed up mathematical operations on large datasets and facilitate the manipulation, creation and operation of N-dimensional tensors. The area of ​​image processing and computer vision will also be able to benefit from this library. Some features of NumPower are: * GPU and CPU compute support * Dozens of different operations for manipulation, arithmetic, linear algebra, statistics and etc. * Single precision float points (float32) for improved memory usage * Custom CUDA kernels for almost all operations * AVX2 support when available on hardware * Support for GD images in RGB format for easy image manipulation.

If shared hosting started to support node, I think that websites with PHP would start to disappear over time. Today, every hosting supports PHP whether it is a shared hosting or not. Node only has the disadvantage that the client is forced to buy a VPS or AWS to deploy the application... That's why Wordpress is so well-known because hostings allow you to install those spaghetti codes from wordpress cms with one click, if hosting companies would do this on node where some cms is installed that can be done the same way as wordpress with node, it would be interesting for the PHP community.

PHP is a great and most popular language. My favorite language.

PHP is basically WordPress and Laravel. Laravel seems to have taken off in the last few years and despite SquareSpace and Wix Wordpress is still favored for corporate and business brochure websites. So yeah PHP is still super important.

I've been making a living off PHP since the 2000s. It has been good to me ever since.

Some salaries close to min wage for some php/WP roles where Im from though.. demanding whole arms length dev skills (they want WP, html, sql, scss, js, php, jsFrameworks, git, etc), whilst others do at least pay around average national wage for the role. But I think it might be good entry into dev to get just (wp,sql,php,html&css,js).. then later migrate to c# dev perhaps... or maybe Java dev. Obviously if one can learn enough to start their own business with WP/php then its totally worth it.. if they get clients.. they'll make some serious money.

Nice video, thanks. Do you know why PHP salaries are smaller then java or C# or even python or ruby?

PHP is straight foward and can build legacy web apps.

Thing is I found that PHP actually have very comprehensive documentation out of the box, compared to other languages. And most if it's modern framework like Laravel, Yii or Symfony also do very good job at reference and guides. I have experience in Webapps dev for like 20 years since my high school. Written Perl, Java, PHP, Python, Node JS, TS, Lua, C#, whatever. I feels that, actually, PHP is very mature language, and because of that Dev that wrote most of framework also mature in Programming and do the right thing from the start (not counting antique PHP Wordpress code). And also because of NodeJS devs are like new in the game. Their framework mostly do shit things out of the box too, and with NPM, another people code depends on another shit things and so on. You find out the best Model and ORM/ODM Implementation out there are all in popular PHP framework. And when you hit NodeJS framework for the first time you be like ... OMG How these people live with these shitty ORM and tools.

i started php when i was twelve. learned it together with html/js/sql stack. php is one of the best languages when you want to do web. period. ive seen companies do their hompages in **cking react and nodejs. like really. the issue with php are its cms systems build around it. anyone who dislikes it has had experience with a cms. doesnt matter which, 98% they are a pain in the ass and everything is mixed together. (i now program since 20 years and have like 12 languages behind me). php is good. but if you want the smartest dev in the world to hate a language, let them do cms

do you teach everything I need to know about PHP-if so please leave link so I can start right away --thx uncle stef

any recommend to learn PHP in systematic ways?

Uncle Stef, can one skip the whole JS world and jump on PHP? Like starting web dev using only PHP ecosystem.

I bought my house with PHP so ya'll can keep hating it while I make my money

To be fair PHP 8 is a solid language wich is great! The only pitfall I experienced was with PHP Frameworks, to be precise Symfony. It's a huge Framework that requires intensive learning to understand how it works and can be configured. That made the Framework massively unintuitive unless you dedicate to learn it inside out, which most devs are not keen on. Thankfully there are some frameworks like laravel that have a more approachable path.