The fact that PHP is an open source programming language makes a great case against its competitors. It has a cheap, fast, reliable and widely supported environment to run in, therefore it is mainly used in standard web deployment, not only large enterprises. PHP became the most popular language on the Internet in 2002, and that with next to $0 marketing costs. None of PHP's main competitors – ASP, Perl and JavaScript – have such a great community to support them. On the other hand, commercial languages such as ColdFusion offer a lot more components, tools and support, but that comes with a lot of money also.

Why should you choose PHP? If you're a beginner, PHP is excellent for you. It is really easy to understand, and you can figure out most things on your own. PHP documentation isn't the most detailed one, but it can give you some information on what you're trying to find out. If you still cannot find what you're looking for, a search on the Internet will be worthwhile. There are a lot of tutorials and code examples, and most certainly you will find out more than you expected. Other languages, on the other hand, have a detailed documentation – even though it is sometimes too detailed and you can't understand anything from it – so you probably won't have to do any additional research on the Internet.

If you're an intermediate or advanced programmer, you may like PHP because there are a lot of things you can do with it. Flexibility and portability are two essential attributes of PHP. You can run it or almost every operating system in the world, and you can modify it as you wish. Besides, at the end of the day, you will not have spent any money into doing so. Other languages rely on the fact that having a lot of components and tools cover for their lack of versatility towards new ones.

When it comes to support, PHP is known for its excellent global community, which helps out people looking for answers. Alternatively, commercial languages provide support from well-trained personal who will answer you quickly, but then again the costs are much higher.

You will find both praises and critics to PHP. The best way to go is to try it for yourself. Just start fresh without taking into consideration other people's comments, and figure it out on your own.