It’s hard to tell what exactly is popular in coding, and why – but two sources of information regarding programming language popularity have tried, and have come up with wildly different results. Among these results, however, some things are unarguable.
For one, Java and Python are the kings of programming language searches and interest online, garnering the most searches and interest on platforms like Wikipedia and StackOverflow, with PHP being a presumed third spot as per the PYPL. As per W3Techs, however, server-side language usage shows that PHP and ASP.Net are currently used more than other languages.
This split between statistics has to do with the fact that there are plenty of aging websites without updates or the intention to update – marking PHP has a historically popular language, in the least.
PHP
First built in 1995, PHP is a server-side programming language designed initially to introduce better functionality to a personal website. Since then, it’s grown into extreme popularity, producing plenty a competent PHP developer and firms with PHP specialization such as White Sunrise, and more. Its popularity, as any quality PHP developer will tell you, has to do with its widespread usage and compatibility.
Java
Java too was developed and released in 1995, written as a general-purpose code, capable of being run on any virtual machine regardless of its computer architecture. It has a reported 9 million developers, and is in its eighth iteration.
Python
Python is the oldest among the big three, first released in 1991, and it’s currently in version 3.5. Built as a general-purpose language with readability in mind, Python is typically shorter and more concise than other languages, but equally if not more complex.
Alongside Java and Python, the usage of PHP and the other two composes 85 percent of all websites whose server-side programming language is known.