I received a job posting recently which has php in it, I decided to avoid it for multiple reasons, but it got me thinking: why do companies seriously believe that php is "easy to learn/use/pick up"? It has an horrible syntax, a lot of inconsistencies and lacks functionalities... Is there something I am not seeing?

Because it really is easy for the beginner stuff, especially since its almost always included by default in any cheaper webhosting (.net are often not as popular and mostly available for larger companies and at a higher price.

This means that almost anyone can get a rudimentary page up and running through copy & paste.

Once you go beyond the basics your already committed.

And despite all complaints, php it very capable and with good structure you can write good code.

Its just that so many without any real programming experience start out with it and never really learn good structure until it’s to late.

@Voxera
The thing is I see it in a lot of big projects as well and I really believe I am missing a point... It is absolutely true about the cheap hosting (I worked a good share of my life as a freelancer and php + WordPress was the everyday routine for most low budget customers), but while I would expect if for small companies I really don't get it in big ones... And not in a "I don't get why people do stupid stuff" way, just in a "I am curious maybe there is a point I am missing" way.

While it's true that with good structure you can write good code that is true for every language, and it is not really specific to php.. I feel like the main benefit it has is that you can mix a lot of frontend and backend, but I am not sure whether or not it is a benefit... But maybe I am mistaken!

@piratefox Once you have gotten past the beginner stuff and is committed, possibly also having learned a couple of frameworks or platforms built on php your quite likely to recommend it to your next employer and since they often know less than the dev they have no reason to question the choice.

Also, being able to point to facebook and wikipedia as php projects also helps.

I also used php quite a lot earlier but then the main competition was perl, c or vbscript and php was a good option :)

But even vbscript was enough to build a cloud application that reached 200+ customers and around $300 000 yearly subscription turnover before upgrading to C#.

So, was vbscript the wrong choise despite being less powerful than php?

No, with vbscript we could get more developers on the project and get it running.

Trying to find another php dev at the hight of the .com boom would have put the project back a year ;)