Ask HN: python vs. php for web projects

I would use raw php, or codeigniter if a framework is needed. nod.js looks promising

Whatever language the person who's going to be doing the most coding is most comfortable with.

If there's no consensus there, then make a decision based on the strength of your framework's community, quality of your framework's documentation, and the availability of good libraries for what you anticipate doing.

I haven't used PHP much compared to Python but here are my 2 cents:

- PHP seems to have more security problems, so you should probably avoid it if security is important for your app.

- PHP is simpler to deploy, which might be important if you want to distribute your code for deployment by other people (eg. CMS, blog engine...)

Python is a better general-purpose language IMO -- you can do everything from smallish scripts, to web scrapers, to servers of varying complexity quite easily whereas I don't think PHP has this sort of breadth.

In terms of overall design, Python is mostly well thought-out -- PHP feels more like things were bolted on haphazardly. Also, some of the nuances about how types work in PHP just blows the mind...

Also, I'd ask around in the community a bit -- ask 10 startups that are on PHP vs 10 startups that are on Python if they'd stick with their language for a new startup or product. I'd bet hands down the Python guys outnumber the PHP guys.

Awesome thread!! I've been wanting to get feedback on this too, thx

Background: I did a 100k+ users web app using cakePHP and was very happy with it (2 years ago). Now a day, I use Django/Python as my main weapon of choice when I am thinking about complex web application. For simpler sites/CMS, I'm actually giving wordpress a try.

My thoughts on your question: I am a developer first, so I tend to forget the most important part of the business-have one! If your product isn't launched, you don't have a business just yet. Therefore, if using cakePHP can get your stuff out faster and with a simpler server setup, go for it. If you're comfortable with both (Django & CakePHP), then choose Python. It's easier to fix a painting when you make the first stroke. It's that blank canvas that scares us all. Go ahead, make the first stroke. Do the prototype in PHP if you can do it faster. Once the logic is written in one language, it doesn't take that long to redo it in another language. At least that's how my experience had been.

Good luck and hope you resolve your disagreement soon. There's no time to waste.

PHP's acceptance at the shared hosting level ended up being a curse of a sort IMO. While it was easy to install applications, it was nearly impossible to know what libaries were installed. You could never rely on PEAR or anything else.

You can imagine what kind of solutions people will come up with when the standard library is anemic (compared to python) and it was difficult rely on certain "standard" 3rd party libraries.

Python folks rarely had to deal with the shared hosting issues (until very recently) and by virtue were freer in what they could install and how they could secure the system.

There's a lot more people using PHP compared to Python, naturally there's more support of PHP in terms of libraries, support, etc.

But for a startup? Means nothing pretty much. Whichever helps you execute best. If it takes 10x longer to learn Python compared to PHP, do you really want to switch to Python? Or vice versa due if your founder has to learn PHP?

You say you and your co-founder disagree on this, who does the most coding?

You should go with what ever the one of you does the most coding prefers.

There are new languages popping up every day, each with legions of fans telling you why the new language is better than everything else.

In the end you can either spend your life being mediocre at every new fad language that comes out, or you can learn one language, and learn it well.

As for me, I'm primarily a PHP man, but I do like Ruby as well. Of course my opinion doesn't matter, it's about what works best for you as a team :)

I use python. I feel python is well designed, PHP is fun. Although it’s perfectly possible to write good code in PHP, it’s much easier to write great code in Python.

Some comparisons:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonVsPhp

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-learning-to-...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1507999

I went through the same thing last year.My startup went with python/django over php/codeIgniter. I think the top two selling points of the python/django solution were the quick-to-prototype (tones of apps) and the cool factor. My boss was worried about attracting hackers, so the cool factor was important to him. The development benefits of django apps were nice, features were implemented faster, but at times it was frustrating to customize. The other big benefit was south - a django app for managing data and schema migrations. In our php solution we had to manually write sql scripts.

All that being said, I agree with everyone else, the most important thing is to make the developer comfortable.