Since hypertext preprocessor (PHP) is one of the most commonly used and trusted open-source scripting languages in web development, many reputable international companies are still using it for their websites. With so many web development tools and techniques emerging every day, it’s hard to imagine that a lot of large tech companies still prefer to use PHP for their backend. Continue reading to learn more about the companies that still use PHP.
What Is PHP?
PHP was developed in 1994 as a small open-source project, but it has grown to become one of the most instinctive server-side scripting languages in modern web development. Today, PHP is widely used in both small and large business applications. One of the best things about PHP is that its scripts are executed directly on the server end. Furthermore, PHP compilers and extensions can be downloaded and used for free.
Just like any other main scripting language, PHP enables software and web developers to integrate logic directly into their creations, including web pages and web content. It also makes it possible for experienced developers to manage any data that comes from a web browser efficiently. This scripting language also has several unique extensions that allow software engineers to interact freely with databases. These benefits have made employing a developer with PHP knowledge a favorite choice for many companies, including some of the most advanced tech corporations.
Companies that Use PHP
With over 1.50 billion active users from all over the globe, Facebook is one of the most popular social media web applications. It is also one of the few social media platforms that have managed to remain technologically relevant for many years. Surprisingly, Facebook was developed mainly using PHP.
The social media platform has benefited immensely from PHP’s ability to produce active content in a few seconds since its establishment in 2004. The entire Facebook web application code was written in PHP. In 2010, Facebook created HipHop for PHP (HPHPC) – a transpiler that translates one source code. However, this transpiler has been replaced more recently by the HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM).
Slack
Since its inception in 2009, Slack has acquired over 3 million active users and become one of the most popular apps for team communications. Currently, Sack is valued at 4 billion dollars. But despite its popularity and global acceptance, the app still deploys PHP in its backend in order to improve its workflow proficiency. PHP has also made Slack’s web request time faster and minimized program defects.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is among the most trusted and popular public information websites that deployed PHP as their programming language. However, this website has since switched to HHVM. It has also proved to be able to load pages faster than Facebook.
Tumblr
As the origin of memes, Tumblr is estimated to have over 320 million blogs and receive 550 million visitors monthly. The site switched to PHP7 in 2016, citing improved performance and advanced language features that are easy to implement.
Etsy
With over 45 million active buyers, Etsy is one of the most trusted retail PHP sites in the United States. This makes the website one of the main e-commerce websites that have been built on PHP. It is also the most competitive company using PHP for retail purposes. In fact, Etsy has created a static analyzer that automatically recognizes inconsistencies between PHP5 and PHP7.
WordPress
Currently, WordPress is the world’s largest content management system (CMS), enabling millions of users from all parts of the globe to create or use its templates and website UI components, even if they do not have coding experience. With PHP, WordPress can fetch important constituents from the database and discharge them as static HTML.
MailChimp
As one of the leading email marketing companies in the world today, MailChimp has seven7 million active users from different parts of the world. This company is known to use PHP to send over 400 million emails for its users. MailChimp developers acknowledge that they use only PHP for their application development.
In Summary
If you were not sure what companies use PHP, this article has hopefully made everything clear. PHP is a dynamic scripting language that enables both small and large companies to save on lost time, allowing them to maximize their long-term return on investment. The acceptance of PHP7 as a server-side language amongst reputable tech and retail corporations means that it is a perfect choice, and should be considered by everyone, including businesses and web development teams.
