PHP vs JavaScript – Difference Between Them
Key Difference between PHP and JavaScript
- PHP is a server-side scripting language, whereas Javascript is a client-side scripting language.
- PHP doesn’t execute within the browser, whereas Javascript executes within the browser.
- PHP supports databases, whereas Javascript doesn’t support databases.
- PHP accepts both upper cases and lower case variables, while Javascript doesn’t.
- When we compare PHP and JavaScript, PHP doesn’t support Objects & Arrays interchangement, whereas JavaScript supports Objects & Arrays interchangement.
PHP
Is not fair to compare PHP vs JavaScript, as they both have different purposes for web-site development. PHP is a server-side scripting language while JavaScript is a client-side scripting language. In fact, the most dynamic website is created when we use functions of both these languages together. If PHP is like a paint-brush to paint picture, then JavaScript is a paint-color.
PHP stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor”, is a programming language embedded in HTML that does all sort of things like build custom web content, send and receive cookies, evaluate form data sent from a browser, etc. It is integrated with number of popular databases like Postgre SQL, Oracle, Sybase, SQL, and MySQL. PHP also supports major protocols like IMAP, POP3 and LDAP.
PHP can handle forms, save data to a file, return data to the user, gather data from files, etc.
Example: Let say a website that takes user to view the order status after logging in. By PHP coding, you would send a query to the database that would then output the specific user information based on what information is in the database
JavaScript
While, JavaScript is designed for creating network-centric applications. With JavaScript, web pages will no longer be static HTML and allows the program that interacts with the user, control the browser, and dynamically create the HTML content. The advantage of JavaScript is that it has less server interaction, allowing you to validate user input before sending the page off which means less load on your server and less server traffic. JavaScript allows immediate feedback to the visitors.
Example: When you hover over the menu tab on the web-page, the drop down effect is done through JavaScript.
Note: JavaScript now supports server-side execution via NodeJS
Difference between Javascript vs PHP
Here is the main difference between JavaScript and PHP:
| Features | Java-Script | PHP |
|---|---|---|
| Developed by | Brendan Eich (1995) | Rasmus Lerdorf (1994) |
| Object-oriented | Yes | Yes |
| Easy to use existing code | Yes | Yes |
| Server side scripting language | No | Yes |
| Client side scripting language | Yes | No |
| Accepts both upper case and lower case boolean variable | No | Yes |
| Case sensitive to variables | Yes | Yes |
| Case sensitive in function | Yes | No |
| Objects & Arrays interchangeable | Yes | No |
| Requires HTTP to execute | Yes | Yes |
| Updates files on server | No | Yes |
| Execute with browser window | Yes | No |
| Supports framework | Yes | Yes |
| Platform Independent | Yes | Yes |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Support database | No | Yes |
| Memory Management (garbage collection) | Yes | Yes |
| Library | Yes | Yes |
| Exceptional Handling | Yes | Yes |
| Performance | Fast | Slow |
| Support of features | Less | More |
PHP vs JavaScript: Repository
Here is the main difference between PHP and JavaScript for repository:
| Repository | JavaScript | PHP |
|---|---|---|
| Github | 404077 | 387773 |
| Stack-Overflow | 1639397 | 1207635 |
| Source-Forge | 10814 | 25090 |
Trend of JavaScript vs PHP
Job trends from indeed.com shows millions of jobs search for Java-script and PHP from thousands of job sites. It relatively shows the growing and falling trend of the job for both languages in consecutive years.
Job Trends for JavaScript
Job Trends for PHP
Likewise, regional interest of people for JavaScript or PHP are also highlighted over-here. In this PHP vs JS graph, though we can see the fall of interest of JavaScript versus PHP languages over the period of time due to introduction of new languages, JavaScript still remains on top of PHP.
