difference between Java and PHP: which one is the best choice for your project?

This article compares PHP and Java as two of the most popular choices for a modern web developer and highlights the pros and cons of each in terms of speed, ease of development, and scope of application.

For years, PHP had been an indisputable leader in the race for dominance in the web development arena. However, the emergence of multiple alternatives eventually made many programmers question its supremacy and even occasionally give it a scornful look when talking about complex application development.

Java, one of its main competitors, came from the enterprise world and quickly gained a wide following thanks to some of its powerful features. So what are the advantages of Java over PHP, if any? Is PHP faster than Java? Which is better? Let’s try to find out.

PHP

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, although it was formerly known as Personal Home Pages (back in the day when that was a thing). The first version of PHP was released in 1995 and has since become much more powerful and flexible. According to statistics, PHP is currently used by over 77% of all websites where the backend stack is known.

Some quick facts about PHP:

• PHP’s mascot is a blue elephant
• The latest version of PHP is 8.2, but many developers still prefer to stay on PHP 7 for stability and compatibility purposes
• The most popular PHP frameworks are Laravel, CodeIgniter, and Symfony
• PHP uses a mix of procedural and object-oriented programming
• PHP is free and open-source

The list of major websites and products built with PHP is truly gigantic and includes such big names as Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, Slack, Tumblr, Etsy, Wordpress, 9GAG, and many, many more.

Java

Java is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that can be used for web development as well as for building mobile apps for the Android platform. Unlike PHP, which is an interpreted language, its code is compiled into bytecode, which is then executed by the Java Virtual Machine.

The language pioneered the WORA concept, which is an acronym of Write Once, Run Anywhere (also WORE — Write Once, Run Everywhere). This concept refers to Java’s intrinsic ability to run on any platform with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed.

A few quick facts about Java:

• The technology could be called Oak, but that name was changed right before the release due to a copyright conflict
• The overwhelming majority of enterprises use Java for all of their software development needs, including web application development.
• Java gets downloaded over 1 billion times a year
• Java runs on more than 1 billion devices every day — mostly because Android uses lots of Java components and calls

Java (mostly in combination with other languages and technologies) powers some of the most complex eCommerce platforms and online services that we all know and use on a regular basis: Amazon, Uber, LinkedIn, Google and Android, Netflix and Minecraft.

Although the two languages are quite different conceptually, there are some similarities between them that are worth noting:

• Both are open-source and free to download and use. Whether it’s Java or PHP, you can download the distribution package and start working on your dynamic web application right away.
• Both support object-oriented programming, although Java does it natively and PHP offers OOP support as an option only.
• Ease of learning. Most Java developers admit that Java is harder to learn, especially when it comes to some of its subsystems, such as JDBC. However, they are still in the same league in terms of technical difficulty.
• The day-to-day syntax of both languages is similar, which makes switching from PHP to Java (and back) pretty simple.

The list of differences between Java and PHP is a bit longer:

If we want to find out whether PHP is better than Java (or not), we will have to take a closer look at what’s similar and what’s different in these two languages. Let’s consider several key aspects of both, including ease of development, performance, and fitness for different purposes.

PHP

Years ago, when PHP was still relatively young, its performance was somewhat disappointing, especially in high-load projects with predictably high code complexity. However, the release of PHP 7 changed everything and gave the language the much-needed performance boost.

PHP 8 took it even further by introducing JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation, a feature that proved to be a valuable addition to the historically interpreted language and made the PHP 8 vs Java performance comparison even harder. The use of JIT compilation brought substantial performance gains in tasks that required a lot of mathematical calculations but resulted in fairly modest speed enhancements in general.

Java

Being the number one language for enterprise applications, Java was built with speed and scalability in mind, which means that in most instances it is supposed to outperform PHP, especially in complex solutions with advanced features and elaborate architectures.

One reason is that Java code is precompiled and will run faster in most situations. Another important reason is that Java is a statically-typed language, which gives it a competitive edge in comparison with dynamically-typed scripting languages like PHP that spend a lot of time checking variable types at run-time instead of compile-time.

Conclusion: there is no clear winner here, because no synthetic benchmark can adequately simulate the real-life performance of a web application on a particular server and in a particular environment. We intentionally omit the topic of memory consumption, as memory usually comes cheap from any hosting company that you buy your VPS from.

However, when asked about the choice of PHP or Java for web development, most software engineers agree that performance-wise, modern versions of PHP are a great pick for building a website of moderate complexity.

When it comes to complex, multi-component enterprise systems, secure corporate portals, or solutions with heavy, real-time calculations running concurrently, Java will be a much better choice both in terms of performance and the number of tools/components you can choose from to achieve your goals.

PHP

A lot of myths about PHP and its alleged lack of security date back to the olden days, when the language was still in its infancy and needed a bit of refinement in terms of security. By now, all of those issues have been taken care of and PHP can be considered just as secure as any other language in the market, including Java.

The only inherent vulnerability of PHP is that since it’s an interpreted language and it’s not compiled before execution, its code can be modified right on the server by anyone with sufficient access rights. Code injections are another source of threats, but PHP has enough built-in tools, as well as “secure” functions and operators to minimize security risks.

Java

Java was initially constructed as a secure development platform with multiple code checks built into the compiler. The very fact that the code is compiled and not interpreted gives Java the edge right away.

Conclusion: in terms of security features, both languages are absolutely on par with today’s high standards, yet Java has a small lead. Java offers more built-in functionality right away, while PHP lets you achieve the same results with a little more effort. In the end, it all boils down to how effectively the developer can mitigate security risks.

PHP

Thanks to PHP’s global popularity, PHP developer jobs abound. And their salaries are likely to be lower than that of their Java peers. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary of a PHP developer in the United States is $102K/year (and all the way up to $149K/year).

There is always an opportunity for companies to save on the budget and hire PHP developers from freelance platforms or, even better, acquire them from a competent outsourcing partner that will provide better processes, professional liability insurance, and extra confidence.

According to statistics from Upwork, the average fees of PHP developers are between $15 and $30 per hour. In case of agencies, expect these rates to be higher by around 30%, as companies add an administrative overhead and a target margin on top of the cost of resources.

Java

Java has traditionally leaned towards the enterprise sector, which means that the cost of such developers will be higher. According to market research data, Java developers in the US make $118K/year on average.

And that’s not the end of the story. In addition to the cost of developers, companies pay to Oracle for each commercial development license.

Based on data from the same source, Upwork, Java freelancers charge from $49/hour and above while advanced Java developers can be charging as much as $160/hour. Typical outsourcing companies charge between $50 and $100 per hour for Java engineers depending on their experience and skill set.

Conclusion: the PHP developer vs Java developer cost round concludes with PHP as a cheaper option.

PHP

PHP has been around for nearly 3 decades and has always been widely popular among individual developers, web design agencies, and larger software development companies. That is why the market is full of high-quality IDEs and other relevant products. Some of the better-known ones include:

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

• PHPStorm
• Zend Studio
• Eclipse
• CodeLobster
• Cloud 9
• XAMPP

Testing and debugging tools

• PHPUnit
• Selenium
• Xdebug
• DebugBar

Documentation

• PHPDocumentor
• PHPDox

Security

• RIPS
• Securimage

Performance monitoring

• Retrace
• New Relic APM
• AppOptics

Java

When it comes to Java, there is no shortage of great IDEs and development tools, either. The world of Java development is huge, with hundreds of companies competing for their place under the sun.

Some of the most notable tools and products used by Java developers are:

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

• IntelliJ IDEA
• Eclipse
• NetBeans
• BlueJ
• JDeveloper

Testing and debugging tools

• JUnit
• JBehave
• Serenity
• Selenium
• TestNG

Quality control

• SonarCube
• Embold
• GitHub

Performance monitoring

• Java VisualVM
• Oracle Java Mission Control
• NetBeans Profiler

Conclusion: the products mentioned above form just the very tip of the iceberg. There are countless other tools available from major software manufacturers, smaller teams or even individuals working on niche products. Therefore, it would be fair to say that there are no advantages of PHP over Java in terms of development tools — and the opposite is also true. It’s a solid draw.

Neither of the two languages being compared here are showing signs of decline. Both are going strong in their respective areas. Apparently, competitors like Python and Node.js are creating a lot of pressure and claiming their share of the market, but PHP still remains a very strong player in the web development field.

For beginners, PHP is one of the best tools to kick-start a developer’s career — it’s free, easy to learn and popular among web development agencies that can become first employers. For experienced developers, PHP can be a fast lane to delivering high-quality, easily maintainable websites within a short time frame.

Java is also not going anywhere and remains in the top league of web development languages with massive industrial support and extremely high popularity among enterprise users.

Conclusion: Java is likely to stay strong for years to come while PHP will be losing its share to Python (Django) and JavaScript with its multiple frameworks.

The bottom line is that PHP and Java are closer to the status of being alternatives than they are competitors. Created for different purposes, they can both be used for building certain types of mainstream solutions. Both are mature languages with massive global communities and plenty of development tools.

If facing the choice between PHP and Java, use the following simple rules:

• Your website will run in relative isolation and not be a part of an enterprise ecosystem — go with PHP.
• You are a startup that needs to go live ASAP on a budget and be able to quickly modify the website as the company evolves and pivots — go with PHP.
• You are building a website with robust security features along with a team of front-end developers to build advanced front-end functionality (such as real-time data streaming), multiple integrations, and complex data storage mechanisms — go with Java.
• You are building a solution that will scale with your business and adapt to various cloud platforms and deployment models — Java should be your #1 choice.