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Databases

Timothy McMahan
Timothy McMahan
8,481 Points

Where to go next?

I am interested in developing database driven web applications. I just completed the Front End Web Development Track. What is the most useful back end langue for this purpose (PHP, Ruby, Python, or something else)?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,732 Points

I'll assume we can exclude SQL. Since you are asking in this topic area, I expect you already appreciate the need for that.

All back-end languages are useful for developing servers — that's what they were created for. There a several factors that might influence a decision, like popularity, demand, salary potential, trending, etc.

If you want to learn the skills currently most in demand by employers, JavaScript/Node would probably be first, then C#, Python, PHP, and Ruby/Rails.

But demand doesn't mean popularity, that order would be more like Ruby/Rails, PHP, Python, JavaScript/Node, and C# (almost the exact reverse of the demand!).

And then it might be worth looking at trends, as JavaScript and Python are both increasing and PHP is declining.

I would probably pick Ruby/Rails as a first choice myself. It's what Treehouse runs on.