PHP vs Flask: Which One Is Better?

It’s been a hot topic about which language or framework is better in the case of PHP vs Flask. In this article, you will get a clear view of which one you should use for your project or which one you should learn if you’re a beginner. Flask is a web development framework written in Python.

What Is A Web Development Framework

Web development frameworks are tools that help developers create web applications with specific structures in mind. These frameworks provide templates, tools, and best practices to make the web development process more accessible and easy.

A framework is a set of instructions for completing a task or series of tasks (think ‘recipe’). A web development framework is designed to help developers by providing them with instructions on how they should go about building their websites. This includes the general layout, the programming language it uses, and any libraries or packages that you can use in your application.

What is Flask?

Flask stands for “a simple, extensible web application framework for Python”. It is a popular and powerful framework that allows programmers to build websites.

It is the most lightweight way to create a server-side web application in Python. Flask can be used as a stand-alone microframework or as a base for larger applications. Flask is simple because it doesn’t require you to use any other library apart from its form of template system, routing, and other utilities.

History of Flask

The Flask framework was developed by a group called Pocoo. It was first released on 1st April 2011. After that many big companies started using the Flask framework. Now it has become one of the most popular backed frameworks.

What is Python?

Python is a general-purpose programming language. It has broad usage in the fields of web development, artificial intelligence, data science, and many more.

The python programming language was created by Guido van Rossum in the late 80s. It’s one of the most versatile languages out there and is used for both simple and complex tasks. Python has an easy-to-learn syntax that makes it perfect for beginners to get started with programming.

What Is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used open-source server-side scripting language that is easy to learn and powerful to use.

It is used to create everything from small Web sites and basic applications to complex e-commerce systems and content management systems.

History Of PHP

PHP was first released in 1995. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf. It is a free, open-source scripting language designed for the Web. PHP is a very popular programming language.

Comparison Table: PHP vs Flask

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Both?

Both PHP and Flask are very popular and powerful technologies for web development. But still, both of them have their pros and cons. Following are some of the pros and cons of PHP and Flask.=

Pros of PHP

• More popular than Flask.
• Bigger community support than Flask.
• Easy to learn and use.
• More compatible with other programming languages.
• Easy to deploy and maintain.

Pros of Flask

• More powerful than PHP.
• Faster than PHP.
• Optimized for more performance.
• Different Python libraries can be used easily.

Cons of PHP

• PHP is slower.
• PHP is less secure.
• PHP can cause fatal errors.

Cons Of Flask

• Less popular and less community support.
• Not beginner-friendly documentation.
• Hard to learn, set up, and use.

What Is The Use of Both?

You can use both Flask and PHP to create a project. You can use both to create a simple website. You can use both to create a blog. You can use both to create a CMS. You can use both to create a small application. You can use both to create a medium application. You can use both to create a big application.

Stats Of PHP

PHP is also a very popular and powerful scraping and programming language. Many big websites started their journey with PHP. Following are some of the interesting stats of PHP:

• More than 78% of the dynamic sites on the internet use PHP in 2022.
• Its era is dwindling by the year, although it is still frequently used.

Stats Of Flask

Flask is a very popular language that’s why many big companies use it. Following are some of the interesting stats of Flask:

• On GitHub, it has over 51,000 stars.
• More than 30,000 websites on the internet use Flask.

Code Run Latency

Code run latency is a very important aspect of choosing between web development technology. Low code run latency makes your website fast and fast websites are preferred by Google. As Flask is made using Python and it’s faster than PHP hence Flask is faster than PHP.

Which Is More Secure?: PHP vs Flask

Flask is way more secure than PHP. Flask has built-in support for different web vulnerabilities like CSRF, SQL injection, etc. While PHP has no built-in security system.

Simple PHP is most vulnerable to fatal vulnerabilities like SQL injection, CSRF, RCE, etc.

Is PHP Still Relevant?

PHP is one of the most commonly used languages on the internet and is installed on millions of websites. Despite its widespread use, many developers feel that PHP has become outdated and no longer holds the same relevance as newer languages like Python or Ruby on Rails.

But that’s not true at all still, PHP is very popular and one of the easiest languages to learn. That’s why many of the popular websites like Wikipedia, WordPress, Tumblr, etc use PHP.

How Many Websites Use PHP?

As we have discussed earlier that WordPress is made using PHP. And according to a study, 43% of the websites on the internet use WordPress which technically means that they use PHP.

Some Applications You Can Make With PHP

Using PHP you can make some very remarkable applications. Many big startups also used PHP for their web development. Following are some types of applications that you can make with PHP.

Networking Application

Search Engine

Content Management System(CMS)

WordPress Plugins, Themes, etc

Web Crawler

Database Application

Limitations Of PHP

PHP has strengthened over the years, but it still has limitations. Designers are just getting around to utilizing the new features that PHP provides. That being said, PHP is a very powerful language for developers to use.

Doesn’t Have A Lot Of Built-in Functions

One limitation of PHP is that it does not have a lot of built-in functions and libraries for designers and developers to use when they need them. For example, a designer might need a library to help them create a widget or interactive map on their site.

Not The Best Langauge

PHP is not the best language if you want to do any sort of server-side programming because it requires you have your server run scripts. To run scripts from your computer, you will need an application installed on your computer that can handle these types of tasks.

Makes Website Slow

PHP is very slow as compared to any other web development framework or programming language that’s the reason why it makes your websites much slower.

Limitations Of Flask

Flask is a framework created with Python that’s why it’s very powerful but yet it has some limitations. Some of these limitations will not even affect your work if you’re using it for your website.

Not Suited For Small Projects

Flask is not suited for small projects like if you’re creating a personal site on which very less visitors will come then don’t use Flask. Because it’ll take more time to make and makes it even harder to make your website.

How To Setup PHP and Flask?

It’s the first step in learning or developing any programming language or web development framework. It’s really easy to set up Flask and PHP.

Setup PHP

PHP is very simple to set up and develop. You can simply install any web server such as XAMPP, LAMP, etc because PHP is already pre-installed in it.

You can download XAMPP from this link https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html

Setup Flask

To set up and run Flask you will need to install Python onto your computer first. The procedure of installing Python is different in Linux and Windows both.

Setup in Linux

To install Python in Linux just open the terminal and run the following command.

$ sudo apt install python3

After installing Python you would need to install Flask now. To install Python just run this command.

$ pip install Flask

Setup in Windows

On Windows, you can download and install Python from this link https://www.python.org/downloads/

And now for Flask, you can easily install it by running this command.

$ pip install Flask

Conclusion

PHP and Flask are very powerful and popular web development technologies. But they both have their pros and cons which we discussed in this article. Now it depends on the person which he wants to use.

If you want to make a personal site or a small site then you should use PHP but if you want more features if you’re going to make a big project on which many visitors will arrive then you should Flask.

What do you think which one is better in the case of PHP vs Flask? Let us know in the comments.