What is PHP?

This article describes what PHP is, and why you might use it to develop your web site.

What is PHP, and why would I use it?

PHP is a server-side, cross-platform scripting language that can be embedded in HTML code. PHP-enabled web pages are handled just like regular HTML pages by web browsers, and you can create and edit PHP pages the same way you do for regular HTML pages. PHP syntax is similar to Perl and C.

PHP is a very popular scripting language for web development. It is free and open-source, and is installed by default with all of our hosting plans. Additionally:

• PHP is a relatively easy language to learn. Programmers with backgrounds in languages such as C or Perl should have little problem learning PHP. There are also a large number of free online resources available.
• PHP is a secure and stable scripting language. The open-source community is constantly improving PHP, as well as patching and fixing any bugs that are found.
• PHP loads and runs quickly without slowing down other processes. This is because PHP runs in its own memory space.
• PHP is flexible because it can connect to several different databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and others.
• PHP web hosting is cost-effective. Because PHP is open-source, there are no licensing fees associated with it.

Our Guru Crew technical support team are PHP specialists and very familiar with PHP-based sites. All of A2 Hosting's servers are configured to run PHP. Additionally, we provide many free PHP tools and applications that you can install with one click using cPanel, and you can choose from among several PHP versions in cPanel.

More Information

• To view the official PHP Getting Started guide, please visit http://www.php.net/manual/en/getting-started.php.
• To view the official online PHP documentation, please visit http://www.php.net/docs.php.
• For more information about PHP hosting at A2 Hosting, please visit https://www.a2hosting.com/php-hosting.