FeedingTrends
2 months ago
4 min read

Php vs Angular - Which One You Should Choose for Web Development

When it comes to web development, you’ll be spoilt for choice since there is a plethora of programming languages, frameworks, and libraries out there. Choosing the right tech for your next web development project can be a hard nut to crack, especially if you are a novice in the realm of web development. If you are also struggling with the same dilemma, you don’t need to fret anymore. Fortunately, this informative piece will walk you through the key differences between PHP and Angular - the two popular choices among developers for building dynamic and scalable web solutions. Read on to this informative piece until the end to make an informed decision. 

Both PHP and Angular are used for developing web solutions, and at times, they are even used together in web development. However, this doesn’t mean both technologies are similar, instead, they are entirely different technologies. Let’s dig deeper to understand the difference between them. 

A Quick Overview of PHP

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that has been around for more than 2 decades and is widely used by PHP development services providers for building bespoke web solutions tailored to unique business requirements. This open-source programming language is used by 77.7% of websites having a known server-side programming language. In other words, PHP powers nearly 8 out of 10 websites on the internet. Not to mention, PHP is used by leading corporate giants including Fortune 500 tech startups in their end-to-end computing infrastructure. 

Key Features of PHP

  • Case-sensitive

  • Open-source, free, and easy to use

  • Cross-platform compatibility

  • Active community support

  • Fast and efficient performance

  • Real-time access monitoring

  • Third-party application support

  • Error reporting and handling

  • Loosely typed language

  • Memory and CPU usage information

  • An objective-oriented and interpreted language

A Quick Overview of Angular

Angular is a popular TypeScript-based framework that is widely used for developing dynamic web applications, progressive web apps (PWAs), single-page apps, native apps, and desktop applications. Led by Google’s Angular team coupled with a community of tech enthusiasts and corporations, this open-source framework is a complete rewrite of AngularJS, a JavaScript-based web framework launched back in 2010. 

Key Features of Angular 

  • Code reusability

  • Highly scalable

  • Declarative UI

  • Cross-platform support

  • Free and open-source 

  • Built-in components

  • Two-way data binding

  • Powerful command-line interface (CLI) 

PHP vs Angular - Scripting Language vs Web Development Framework 

The first and foremost difference between PHP and Angular is that PHP is a general-purpose scripting language, whereas, Angular is a TypeScript-based web development framework. Though both are aimed at web development, they are still truly different in nature. The important thing to note is that TypeScript is a superset of JS, this simply means that JavaScript developers are TypeScript programs by default.   

PHP vs Angular - Backend vs Frontend

Another key difference between Angular and PHP is that Angular is used for front-end development, whereas, PHP is used for back-end development. The front-end is the visual element of a website or an application that users can see and interact with such as GUI and the command line interface including the navigating menus, design, images, text, videos, etc. On the other hand, the back-end is the part of a website or a web application that is not visible to users but it’s the infrastructure that supports the front-end. In simple words, the back-end refers to the databases, servers, scripting, and architecture. 

PHP vs Angular: Server-Side Scripting vs Client-Side Scripting

PHP is a server-side scripting language, which means the code written in PHP is executed on web servers. Being a server-side scripting language, PHP allows web developers to deliver dynamic content through a database. On the other hand, Angularjs development services works on the client-side, particularly on users' laptops, tablets, and smartphones, unlike web servers.

PHP vs Angular: Which One is East to Learn? 

As stated above, TypeScript is a superset of JS, which simply means that, if you have sound knowledge of JavaScript, you can easily get your hands-on Angular and develop dynamic web solutions. On the other hand, you need to have sound knowledge of HTML, CSS, database languages, web servers, and CMS for PHP web development. Both PHP and Angular are easy to learn and use since they are quite similar to other popular programming languages such as C++, C, and Java and bank upon fundamentals like conditional statements, variables, objects, loops, scope, etc. 

PHP vs Angular: Tech Stack

PHP is a part of the LAMP stack, where, LAMP is a suite of four robust technologies that are widely used for web development. These include: 

  • L: Linux as the OS 

  • A: Apache, an HTTP server

  • M: MySQL, a relational DBMS 

  • P: PHP, a programming language

Angular belongs to the advanced technology stack i.e MEAN, an acronym for four popular technologies. These include: 

  • M: MongoDB, a document-oriented NoSQL database

  • E: Express.js, a back-end JS framework

  • A: Angular, a front-end web framework

  • N: Node.js, a JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome's V8 engine

Summing Up

From the above, it is clear that Angular and PHP are strong contenders in the realm of web development. Though both are used for developing web solutions, it’s considered wise to use Angular to build large-scale apps that require quick scalability while PHP is ideal for developing a dynamic website, a portfolio site, and an eCommerce store.