A back end web developer has a lot of different tools in his belt. Here are the main ones with a short description of each.
PHP
PHP is a programming language, specifically it’s a general-purpose, loosely coupled, scripting language, mainly used for web development. It’s extremely popular because it can be used on most web servers and most operating systems for free.
As of 2021, W3 Tech says that “PHP is used by 79.2% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know.”
PHP was originally created by someone who wasn’t intending to create a programming language. That’s typically why PHP gets a bad rap, but after a quarter of a century, it has become just as good as any other language.
It’s called a scripting language because it’s interpreted at runtime instead of being compiled. Practically, this means playing around with PHP is a breeze. Make a change. Refresh the page, and, presto, there’s your change. No need to build the entire application.