PHP vs Spring Boot: Top 5 Differences

It’s been a very hot topic, on which one is better in the case of PHP vs Spring Boot. In this article, we’ll discuss the top 5 differences between PHP and Spring Boot.

First, below is a comparison table made to clear about the differences. We will discuss all of the differences in more detail later in the article.

What’s PHP?

PHP is a free, open-source, and very popular server-side scripting language. It’s used as a backend language for millions of websites.

Furthermore, it’s used to create everything from a small website to a big project or even a CMS like WordPress.

What’s Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is a sub-framework of Spring written in Java. It’s used to create a backend of an application or website. Spring Boot is used to making stand-alone applications with just simple backend functionalities.

Top 5 Differences: PHP vs Spring Boot

Both PHP and Spring Boot are widely used and powerful web development technologies, yet they differ in some important ways. The top 5 differences between PHP and Spring Boot are listed below:

1. Speed

There’s a huge difference between PHP and Spring Boot regarding speed. Spring Boot is faster than PHP.

PHP is a scripting language that makes it slower than Spring Boot.

2. Written in

PHP is written using C programming language, while Spring Boot is based on Spring that’s written in Java.

3. Ease of Use

It’s the most important aspect to consider while choosing your first web development framework/language. PHP is quite easier to use while Spring Boot is hard to learn and use because of its Java syntax.

4. Popularity

PHP is way more popular than Spring Boot. More than 77% of the websites on the internet use PHP for their backend.

Spring Boot is very less popular even though many big companies use it.

5. Community Support

As we have discussed that PHP is very popular, and that’s why community support for PHP is huge. You can almost find answers to every problem in PHP on forums like StackOverFlow and Quora.

PHP vs Spring Boot: Infographic

Community support for Spring Boot is huge as well, but not the same as PHP. The documentation for Spring Boot is also easy to understand and beginner-friendly.

Pros of Using PHP and Spring Boot

Cons of Using PHP and Spring Boot

Famous Companies Using PHP and Spring Boot

PHP and Spring Boot both are very popular and powerful. As a result, many companies use them for their backend.

Following is the list of some famous companies and websites using PHP and Spring Boot:

Companies/Websites using PHP:

• Wikipedia
• Yahoo!
• WordPress
• Facebook
• Tumblr

Companies/Websites using PHP:

• Udemy
• iFood
• Trivago
• Rappi
• Quinto Andar

Alternatives: PHP vs Spring Boot

In case you don’t want to learn PHP and Spring Boot, then the following are some of the alternatives to them:

Django

Django is a free and open-source web development framework written in Python. It’s very popular and several famous companies like YouTube, Google, and Instagram use Django.

Read our detailed article about the comparison between Django and PHP.

Flask

Flask is also a free, open-source, and popular web development framework written in Python. It can be replaced by PHP and Spring Boot. Django and Flask are also mostly compared.

Play

Play is a framework written in Scala. It can be a good alternative for PHP and Spring Boot.

It’s mostly compared with Spring Boot.

Node.js

Node.js is a server-side JavaScript framework. It’s used to run JavaScript out of the browser. Many popular companies use it as their backend.

Recently Netflix also shifted to Node.js which improved the performance and lowered the burden on their resources.

Which One Should You Use?: PHP vs Spring Boot

There’s no one-word answer to this question. It depends upon your needs and what you want to use.

For instance, if you want to make a website with moderate backend functionalities then you should use PHP. And if you want a website with basic backend functionalities then you should Spring Boot.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

There are some commonly asked questions and misconceptions about PHP and Spring Boot. Following are some of the FAQs related to them:

Why Use PHP?

You should use PHP if you are a beginner because it’s easy to learn and use. Many popular companies also use PHP so you could get a job as a PHP developer too.

Is PHP Hard To Learn?

If you have a quiet knowledge of programming then PHP will be very hard to learn for you. But if you’re learning to program for the first time, PHP will be hard to learn.

What’s the Difference Between Spring and Spring Boot?

Spring is a framework written in Java while Spring Boot is a sub-framework based on the Spring framework.

Does PHP Have a Future?

PHP is used by more than 77% of the websites on the internet. Numerous popular companies also use PHP so you could get a job as a PHP developer too.

So there’s a future for PHP for about the next 10 years.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve discussed the top 5 differences between PHP and Spring Boot.

Furthermore, some of the FAQs were also discussed in the article. Spring Boot is faster than PHP but PHP is easy to learn than Spring Boot.

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