Simon Willison’s Weblog

Which should I learn: Python or PHP?

16th April 2013

My answer to Which should I learn: Python or PHP? on Quora

Python will teach you more about programming than PHP—and you’ll be able to learn PHP easily if you learn Python first.

Posted 16th April 2013 at 4:01 pm · Follow me on Mastodon, Bluesky, Twitter or subscribe to my newsletter

More recent articles

Porting the Moebius 0.2B image inpainting model to run in the browser with Claude Code - 22nd June 2026
sqlite-utils 4.0rc1 adds migrations and nested transactions - 21st June 2026
Datasette Apps: Host custom HTML applications inside Datasette - 18th June 2026

This is Which should I learn: Python or PHP? by Simon Willison, posted on 16th April 2013.

php 190 programming 158 programming-languages 42 python 1,261 quora 1,005

Next: What are some interesting and unusual tactics to draw people to your booth at a large conference or convention?

Previous: What could be the reason my login with Twitter stopped work in web site?

Monthly briefing

Sponsor me for $10/month and get a curated email digest of the month's most important LLM developments.

Pay me to send you less!

Sponsor & subscribe