What Is PHP And What Are Its Applications

What is PHP? The Hypertext Processor is the answer. But what exactly does it do? This blog discusses its functionalities and other benefits. Reports show that 80% of web developers prefer the best PHP frameworks for building websites and applications. Thus, many popular websites like Google, and YouTube are built on PHP. 

Beginners may find it challenging to use it and build robust websites and applications. Thanks to PHP forums, documentation, and online communities that bring the same mind on one platform. It allows users to access any information related to this web development framework. Rasmus Lerdorf, a Danish-Canadian programmer, developed PHP in 1993 and released it in 1995.

Beyond that, what applications can work on the PHP platform? Stay with us as we explore this in greater detail.

What Is PHP Programming Language?

PHP is a very popular open source programming language and is widely used to build internet based websites and systems. Originally, the acronym PHP meant Personal Home Page, but it was changed to be a recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, which could be translated literally as a hypertext preprocessor. As its name suggests, the PHP script is rendered on the server, and only static content (such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, and others) is sent to the user’s browser.

Because it is a language that runs only on the php hosting server, the end user cannot “see” the PHP script. Only developers and people with server access will be able to view the program source code written in PHP. Because of this feature, PHP is known as a back-end language.

The popularity of PHP is due in part to the fact that it can be merged with HTML, which is the markup language used on any web page. HTML is not a programming language and its content is static. PHP allows you to create content dynamically, through scripts and schedules on the server. This web development framework is compatible with operating systems like Windows, UNIX, Linux, and MacOS, and supports databases like MySQL, Microsoft Access, and Oracle.

PHP can be integrated with a wide variety of databases making it a very powerful language to use. According to the W3Techs website, PHP is used on more than 80% of websites across the internet. A large portion of web developers will leverage PHP 8.3 in 2025.

What Does PHP Do?

The fact that PHP can be mixed with HTML makes the language very accessible for beginners in programming, unlike languages like C or Java, which require complex maneuvers to generate an HTML page. Thus, PHP offers a myriad of possibilities, from the creation of simple sites to much more complex systems, such as virtual stores and online management platforms.

Let’s look at some of the types of web applications that can be created with PHP. You’ll even see that many of the systems we use daily are written in PHP.

– Dynamic websites

We call dynamic website to any website whose pages are controlled by an application present on the server. Thus, parameters and scripts defined in the site source code determine how pages will be assembled before they are sent to the user’s browser. With PHP it is possible to build several types of dynamic websites. They may or may not be integrated into a database.

Many content managers were built with PHP, including some quite popular. We can include WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal in this list. In the universe of eCommerce systems and virtual stores, we can mention Magento, Open Cart, and PrestaShop. All of them are created with PHP. This list is much larger, we are just citing a few examples.

– Web-based systems

You can build almost any type of system using PHP. Do you need an intranet system with login and password for your company employees? PHP can solve. Need a help desk system to serve your customers? A distance learning system? PHP can also do this. There is also a free and open source distance education system written with PHP. We are talking about Moodle.

As we have seen, innumerable types of system can be constructed with this language. And not necessarily they need to be published on the internet. It is possible to run PHP on a local server, available only to users connected to an internal network.

– Desktop systems

Although it was not created for this, it is possible to use PHP to write programs installed on personal computers. For this, there is a library, called PHP-GTK. If you know PHP well and are comfortable with the language, then this library can be a great solution to build an installed program.

More information about this can be found at the project website, available at gtk.php.net.

– PHP scripts with command line

For programmers on call, it is also possible to fire PHP scripts directly from the terminal, using the command line. In this mode, it is not necessary to have a web server, such as Apache or Microsoft IIS. Only the PHP interpreter will be required for you to run shell scripts with the language.

Below we have shared the popular PHP CLI tools to streamline the web application development. 

PsySH:

• Purpose: An interactive PHP REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop).
• Features: Testing PHP code, debugging, and the experimentation. 
• Use Case: Interactive PHP shell for quick experimentation.

Phinx:

• Purpose: Database migrations for PHP. 
• Features: Version control for database schemas. 
• Use Case: Managing database modifications in projects. 

Robo:

• Purpose: A modern task runner for PHP. 
• Features: Automating tasks like deployment, and file handling.
• Use Case: Simplifying task execution in PHP projects.

Deployer:

• Purpose: Deployment tool for PHP.
• Features: Automated deployment processes with predefined recipes.
• Use Case: Managing and automating deployment pipelines.

Key Features of PHP

– Cross-Platform Compatibility

PHP is a versatile web development framework that runs on almost any computer. It depends on which OS you are installing and using Windows, Linux, or Mac, the installation process may differ a little but that’s it. Additionally, it works with all the popular web servers, such as Apache, NGINX, and IIS.

– HTML Embedding

PHP code is easy to embed in HTML. You can also use tools like Twig or Smarty to streamline the processes. With this, your content appears and disappears, and even gets personalized for each website visitor. This feature is special for larger web projects. 

– Community Support and Ecosystem

Do you aim to build visually compelling websites? You’ll be glad to know that PHP has a big community of developers who are always sharing tips, tricks, and resources. Unlock the potential of these resource libraries to design eye-catching and dynamic websites.

PHP is bundled with different frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, and Codeigniter making complex web applications easier. If you are in lookout of something specific, there’s probably a library out there that can do it for you.

How to Install PHP on Linux?

For Ubuntu/Debian

• Update the package list:

sudo apt update

• Install PHP and common extensions:

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-mysql php-curl php-json php-cgi php-xml php-mbstring –y

• Check the installed PHP version:

php -v

• Restart the Apache server (if using Apache):

sudo systemctl restart apache2

For CentOS/RHEL

• Update your system:

sudo yum update –y

• Enable EPEL and Remi repositories:

sudo yum install epel-release -y
sudo yum install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm -y

• Enable the desired PHP version:

sudo yum module enable php:remi-8.1 -y

• Install PHP and common extensions:

sudo yum install php php-cli php-mysqlnd php-json php-xml php-mbstring –y

• Check the installed PHP version:

php -v

• Restart the web server (if using Apache):

sudo systemctl restart httpd

For Fedora

• Update your system:

sudo dnf update -y

• Install PHP and common extensions:

sudo dnf install php php-cli php-mysqlnd php-json php-xml php-mbstring -y

• Check the installed PHP version:

php -v

• Restart the web server:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

For Arch Linux

• Update the package list:

sudo pacman -Syu

• Install PHP:

sudo pacman -S php php-apache

• Check the installed PHP version:

php –v

• Restart the web server:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Great sites created with PHP

Great websites were built with language. Although not everyone uses PHP in the backend currently, we can cite as an example Facebook and YouTube as platforms originally written in PHP.

The Wikipedia, one of the world’s largest repositories of information, has also been created (e is maintained to this day) with PHP. The system’s source code is open and is available for download on the project’s website, MediaWiki.

In addition to those cited, many other sites were written with this programming language. Unfortunately, because it is a server language, it is not possible to identify whether or not a particular site has PHP in its code just by visiting the page. In this case, it is necessary to rely on the authors’ statement on the language used.

PHP versions

As we said earlier, PHP needs an interpreter to work. It must be installed on the server where you want to run the script. The interpreter is the program responsible for transforming a code written with PHP into its final format, which would be HTML and other files that make up a website. The PHP interpreter is constantly evolving. From time to time, a new version of the interpreter is released. When we say “PHP version”, we are referring, in fact, to the interpreter version of PHP.

PHP has been introduced in versions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 since its launch in 1995. The variations of version 5 (5.2, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6) were the most significant and most used throughout the existence of the language. There was a community effort to release version 6 of PHP, which would support the Unicode standard, but there was no consensus on this and the project was not materialized. Version 6 has never been released.

In 2015, 11 years after the release of version 5, version 7 was released, bringing numerous improvements, including a considerable performance gain. Version 7 was quickly adopted by developers around the world. This is the recommended version for any new application written with the language.

Web Hosting and PHP

The PHP can be installed on any operating system, including Linux, Mac, and Windows. This versatility means that virtually any hosting company offers web hosting compatible with sites and applications are written in PHP.

When researching about web hosting services, you will find a very large offer of Linux and Windows servers. Although Apple owns a web server service, it is not as popular as the two mentioned above.

Thus, it is possible to host a PHP site in almost any company that offers services of this nature. Preferably, however, Linux is indicated as an ideal platform for sites in this language. This is because PHP is a language native to this operating system and the runtime will be slightly shorter on Linux web hosting servers. Choose a Windows hosting server only if you also want to host, in the same environment, a native application of this operating system, such as ASP.NET.

Where to learn PHP for free

There is plenty of free stuff on the internet for those who wish to take their first steps with language. We have separated some links that can be useful for beginners as well as for other language programmers who want to know more about what PHP is and how to start programming.

• PHP Manual – The official language repository, contains the PHP documentation in several languages.
• W3 Schools – The world’s largest web development site, with courses in several languages, all free.