--- title: 'Python Vs. PHP - Which Is Better?!' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=sjIybeAaAGc' video_id: 'sjIybeAaAGc' date: 2026-06-22 duration_sec: 0 --- # Python Vs. PHP - Which Is Better?! > Source: [Python Vs. PHP - Which Is Better?!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sjIybeAaAGc) ## Summary The video compares Python and PHP for new coders across six factors: ease of learning, ease of coding, primary use cases, community and resources, job outlook, and final recommendation. Both languages are beginner-friendly but serve different niches, with Python being more versatile and PHP dominating web development through WordPress. ### Key Points - **Ease of Learning** [0:23] — Both are easy for beginners, with Python slightly easier due to clean syntax. - **Ease of Coding** [0:50] — Python is more readable (pseudo code, indentation), PHP uses more symbols. - **Use Cases** [1:17] — Python: data science, ML, web dev, GUI, automation. PHP: server-side web scripting, especially WordPress (43% of websites). - **Community and Resources** [2:41] — Both have large communities and abundant resources. - **Job Outlook** [3:04] — Python offers more diverse job opportunities; PHP jobs are plentiful in web/LAMP environments. - **Final Recommendation** [3:38] — Python is better overall for versatility; PHP excels in web. Suggests comparing PHP to JavaScript instead. ## Transcript Python versus PHP, which is better? Let's talk about it. Hey guys, John Elder here from codemy.com and if you're a brand new coder looking to get started, which programming language should you pick? Python or PHP? Let's break it down to these six things. One, how easy are they to learn? Two, how easy are they to code? Three, what are each good for? Four, how are their communities and resources? Five, what's the job outlook for each? And six, what's my final recommendation? First, how easy are they to learn? And the answer is, pretty easy. If you have any sort of coding background or if you already know some other programming language, you can easily pick up the basics through, I'd say, intermediate levels of both Python and PHP in an afternoon. I've several intro courses for both at codemy.com and I also wrote a best-selling Python book and some PHP books that could help. If you're brand new to coding, you can still pick up either in a few days to, I'd say, a week with no problem at all. Python is probably a little bit easier to learn, but PHP is pretty simple, too. Next, how easy are they to code? Python is definitely the easier of the two to code, but PHP is really not bad at all. Python is known for its readability and simplicity. Its syntax is clean and resembles pseudo code, more natural language-like, and it uses indentation to make things easier to read. PHP, on the other hand, can seem just slightly more complicated. The syntax is a little less readable because it uses lots of weird characters, semicolons, and lots of brackets and things like that. It's just a little harder to look at and easily comprehend. Not super hard, but harder than Python. Third, what are each good for? Python is a great general-use programming language. It excels at data science, machine learning, and AI because of popular libraries like NumPy, Pandas Matplotlib Scikit-learn and PyTorch. We've got tons of videos on all of those here on the channel. Python is also great for back-end web development because of popular frameworks such as Django and Flask. It's also great for graphical user interface apps, GUI apps, using the Tkinter and PyQt libraries. We've got tons of Tkinter, PyQt, Django, and Flask courses here at codemy.com. Python is also great at just general-purpose coding. Have repetitive tasks? Python is great at automating them. PHP, on the other hand, is a great server-side scripting language for web pages. While it can be used on its own or in a PHP framework such as Laravel, Cake, or Symphony, the majority of its use will be in powerhouse content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. As of 2024, some sources put the number of WordPress websites on the entire internet at 43%. Think about that. 43% of all websites are made with WordPress, and PHP powers WordPress. That gives it a ton of clout. Though, outside of web development, you'll be hard-pressed to find many uses for PHP. You may have heard of the term LAMP, which is a massively popular way to deploy web apps. LAMP stands for Linux machines, Apache web servers, MySQL databases, and PHP. LAMP LAMP is super popular because of its relative ease of use, yet pretty high level of functionality. And PHP is usually always installed by default on most basic web hosting packages. Fourth, community and resources. Both Python and PHP have extensive, massive, fanatic communities with robust resources. If you have a question or a problem with your code along the way, you can always expect to find dozens of answers instantly via Google or Stack Overflow for each. Learning resources for each are endless, as well. There are tons of tutorials, books, online courses, and bootcamps for each of them. Five, what's the job outlook for each? Both Python and PHP are two of the most in-demand programming languages in the world. Neither are going away anytime soon. Just head over to any job listing website like indeed.com and search for jobs in your area for each of them. You'll likely find more diverse job opportunities for Python simply because Python does more stuff than PHP does. But, if you're looking to focus solely on web development, especially in a LAMP or WordPress environment, PHP jobs are plentiful and decent paying. Remember, 43% of all websites on the entire internet use WordPress, which uses PHP. Salaries for each are competitive, and it really just comes down to what sort of work you're interested in doing. Finally, which is better? Which do I recommend? Well, to pick between these two isn't really fair since Python is used for so many more things than PHP is used for. So, in that sense, Python is clearly better. But, for what it does, PHP is no slouch. A better comparison might be PHP to JavaScript since they're both primarily web page scripting languages. If you're interested in that comparison, check out the next video in the playlist which should appear somewhere up there. And as always, you can learn all of these languages and frameworks over at codemy.com where you can get 50% off lifetime membership today using coupon code YouTube50. My name is John Elder from codemy.com and I'll see you in the next video.