IT Glossary
What is PHP?
The server-side language behind WordPress and a huge share of the web — old, mocked, and remarkably alive.
Few technologies carry a wider gap between their reputation and their track record. PHP, a server-side language born in 1995, is a running joke among developers and, simultaneously, the engine behind an overwhelming share of the working web: WordPress alone powers over 40% of all sites, and WooCommerce, Magento, Wikipedia and millions of business applications run on it daily. The mockery targets sins of its youth — the permissive chaos of early versions — while modern PHP 8+ is fast, mature, and paired with frameworks like Laravel that rival any fashionable stack. If you are buying software, the sensible question is not whether PHP is 'good' but what picking it implies, and here the answers favour pragmatism: a deep, affordable talent pool (switching vendors will never be blocked by scarce skills), cheap universal hosting, and native fluency with the WordPress ecosystem. Two hygiene checks still matter: which PHP version your project runs on (unsupported 5.x and 7.x installs are walking vulnerabilities) and the quality of the codebase, because the same language writes both elegant Laravel and fifteen-year-old patchwork. On current versions with a modern framework, PHP is a solid, economical choice; the jokes are an industry sport, not a procurement criterion.
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Why it matters for your business
A deep, affordable talent pool
PHP developers are everywhere, from freelancers to large agencies — your project never depends on a rare and expensive specialty.
Native to WordPress and WooCommerce
Customisations, plugins and integrations for the platforms that dominate the web are written in PHP — the local language of most sites.
Universal, low-cost hosting
PHP runs on virtually every hosting plan on the planet, often for a few euros monthly, with no demanding infrastructure required.
Frequently asked questions
Is PHP outdated — should I ask for something else on a new project?
No. PHP 8+ with Laravel is a modern, productive stack chosen rationally for business web applications and anything orbiting WordPress. Node.js or Python are equally legitimate; the healthy criterion is fit with your project and the labour market that will maintain it, not fashion. Avoid old versions and framework-less code — not the language.
Our site runs on an old PHP version — how urgent is the upgrade?
Quite urgent: below PHP 8 you are on releases without security support, so new vulnerabilities stay open forever while automated scanners actively hunt them. The upgrade is a project of days to weeks including testing, not a rewrite — and far cheaper before an incident than after one.
Laravel keeps appearing in PHP proposals — what is it and why does it matter?
It is the dominant PHP framework: structure, security defaults and mature tooling for everything a business application needs. It is also a quality signal — teams working in modern Laravel tend to produce tidier, more transferable code, which means cheaper maintenance and a realistic path to changing suppliers later.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247