There are tons of PHP driven websites out there. After all, it was the go-to language of non-enterprise server-side development. It’s what WordPress, the most popular development platform in the world (unfortunately), runs on.

So what is Node and why is it so popular?

A major simplification would be… Node allows you to do everything PHP does in the same (programming) language that you’ll use client-side if you develop any kind of web application.

In a nutshell, PHP is fossil fuel. There is a ton of infrastructure out there supporting PHP. It’s the “tried and true” solution (even though it’s really rather crude and clunky).

Node is a renewable. No longer do you have to duplicate code or logic to communicate front to back! No longer do you have to translate and transcribe in 2 different languages!

Not to mention, Node has a rich ecosystem thanks to their Node Package Manager (NPM). There is a ton of functionality that is plug and play (for the most part). Express, Webpack, Jade, Grunt, Gulp – these all gained their popularity in no small part due to this package management system. There are

Final thoughts:

PHP still has its uses, but it’s on its way out. Node is here to stay, and the infrastructure for it grow larger every day (as PHP’s use continues to shrink). Sometimes it’s necessary to keep with the old way, but every day that you’re devoting resources to a dying language – the more your costing yourself in the future (and right now!).