PHP is just one of the many languages used to create websites like flash, HTML, Java, ASP etc. However PHP has fast become the most popular development language. There are several reasons for PHP’s massive success:

1. Programing in PHP is easy to learn and understand
2. PHP is delivers higher performance at a lower cost. It is specifically designed for small businesses with a limited budget, allowing them to do more with very little resources.
3. Using PHP you can design system structures and promote rapid application development and prototypes.
4. PHP is capable of differentiating between the data layer and the presentation layer.
5. PHP is extremely useful in content management systems (CMS) and many open source, web-based CMS’ are available for free.
6. PHP’s flexibility even allows developers to write extensions in C.
7. PHP web development can be run on almost all operating systems including MS Windows, Linux etc.
8. PHP supports file transfers from the local computer to the web server.
9. Websites developed using PHP provide considerably greater performance levels.
10. PHP is adaptable to database connectivity.

Looking at the above reasons, it is easy to understand why PHP is the preferred language for web development.