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General Discussion

Posted by eli sultanov
eli sultanov
3,164 Points

Which should I learn, Rails or PHP or nodeJS

I want to know which language to learn for the back end and why. Please explain the difference between Rails, PHP and nodeJS and why whichever you choose is better.

3 Answers

eli sultanov
eli sultanov
3,164 Points

Why??

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

There's no better, short of whats best for you, and that depends on who or where you want to work, and what those places are already using. If you're just wanting to learn, go learn all 3, I have to some extent. If you want to be a wordpress developer, learn php, if you want to work for a company that uses Rails, learn Ruby. the same is true for Node.

They all accomplish the same thing, they are a server side language. Node is cool, and the new kid on the block right now because it makes live data updates in the browser more natural, but don't rule out Ruby or PHP, both languages can also have live data updates like Node.

I started in PHP, than moved to Ruby, now I'm working in Node. Don't spend too much time fretting, just go learn.

Neil Anuskiewicz
Neil Anuskiewicz
11,007 Points
Neil Anuskiewicz
Neil Anuskiewicz
11,007 Points

Please elaborate on your goals as that will influence which of those tracks would be the best choice for you...

Speaking for myself, I found it useful that I was able to complete the front end track and dive right into the full stack JavaScript track. JavaScript is becoming the lingua franca of the web, necessary to understand how things fit together.

Node itself not only has the largest ecosystem of open source libraries in the world but it gives you the flexibility to go beyond the web into other domains such as the Internet of Things. And from a purely pragmatic point of view, Node's growing in popularity, while the other two you mentioned are stagnating.