Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

General Discussion

Posted by Mike Hansen
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Mike Hansen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 3,419 Points

What language to use for making social websites

Hi, so i'm sitting here and i'm kinda thinking: What should i use to make social websites? What if i want to make a website like facebook, what would be the language to use for something like that? cause i hear a lot of different things from my friends etc. Like some of my friends tell me to code social websites in Python where my other friends is telling me to use PHP so i really don't know what to use. What do you guys think?

2 Answers

rh12
rh12
4,407 Points
rh12
rh12
4,407 Points

Use the language(s) and tools that you are most comfortable with and that you find fun to write code in.

Issues related to scaling, performance and finding development talent tend to come up when folks are discussing which language is best, however to even get to these types of issues you need to first have something that is built and more importantly being used. And when you do encounter these types of issues, not only is your social website a success, but then you can refine your technology choices to reflect your current reality.

A considerable amount of time can be wasted trying to build the "right" technology stack. The time is better spent writing code :)

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Agreed!

Mike Hansen
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Mike Hansen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 3,419 Points

Right now i'm using PHP, that is the language i am most comfortable with i've made e-commerce stores, a cms system etc. in it but then again i find Python really easy to use because there is so many libraries in it. But i think i will stick to PHP then :)

Juan Perez
PLUS
Juan Perez
Courses Plus Student 8,944 Points
Juan Perez
Juan Perez
Courses Plus Student 8,944 Points

Hey Mike,

You can actually write the app on any of those languages, because it really goes down on how confortable you feel with the language. Im no expert, im also starting to learn these languages and I like you have an interest on developing a new app. So, i would tell bits and pieces of what I have learned on my way. PHP is the oldest language for web development this means there are lots of prewritten code that might help you in your journey. When I tried learning to code PhP was some what hard and a little bit more time consuming for me to learned and along the way got discouraged, but when I learned about python and django framework I picked it up so easily.

Python in my opinion is very powerful and easy to learn and the django framework is growing exponentially, and it greatly supported.

Ruby and rails is another language I am tackeling its really easy to learn aswell.

In conclusion, it really comes to what language you feel more comfortable writing or learning. But any will do. Hope this helps!! Good luck!