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General Discussion

Become a PHP Developer or Become a Web Developer

I'm a keen learner in the language world, i am exceptionally fond of HTML, CSS and Javascript. I have been looking to extend this knowledge to a language to help me decide whether i will become a PHP Developer or Web Developer. This is mainly due to the difference in languages which has left me stuck. I can choose between Ruby on Rails or PHP, personally i know PHP basics and can perform certain tasks. But i would like a better insight if anyone can offer it into what the future is moving towards? What sort of things PHP can do on a high scale and finally what sort of things i can do with Ruby on Rails.

Thank You,

Matt.

2 Answers

If your looking at things for job experience PHP is the 5th most used language in the world, only behind C (C, C++ Objective C) and Java. It is also responsible for running more than 85 percent of the webs back end. That isn't to say you won't find work as a web developer, but statically there is a higher need for people in back-end fields.

Ultimately, I think it comes down much more to what <em> you </em> enjoy. They each have their benefits (maybe one more than another), however if this is something you are deciding to do for a source of income, you really don't want to pin yourself into a scenario where you are getting up to work and not doing what you <em> love </em>.

Andrew Chalkley
STAFF
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Many high scale sites use PHP and Rails. No matter what you'll use you'll need to do some advanced things for them to scale well.

That being said. Try both. Go with the one you enjoy :) If you enjoy both - great!