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Ask HN: Whats the most popular web scripting language?

3 points by cakeface ↗ HN
A recent discussion with one of my coworkers inspired me to do some research about what is the most used language for building web sites. My claim was that there are more web sites out there right now written in PHP than any other single language. I haven't been able to find any evidence or comparisons on just programming languages and the web though.

Does anyone have any good links to research? Does anyone know the answer? I have $1 riding on PHP and I'm looking to collect!

3 comments

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davidw
These show Java as being more popular than PHP, but it's not limited to the web:

http://langpop.com/

In any case, though, it's very likely one of those two. If you're just looking at the number of sites rather than how big each one is, I'd put my money on PHP too. Then I'd go buy a Rails book with my earnings:-)

ddemchuk
Java isn't a scripting language though so I'm guessing PHP is the winner
davidw
The OP is a bit inconsistent. The title says 'scripting language', the text says:

> the most used language for building web sites.

My guess is he's interested in all languages, but if it's only scripting languages, then yes, PHP wins hands down.