Learn php? Or just use Node? (Javascript)

Depends on your own preference Go for LAMP or MEAN or MERN...

That’s a matter of the type of projects you intend to do in the future?

If your good with JavaScript then nodejs should be a good step up, aslong as you don’t have an issue with changing things every other day to keep it working, and plugin hell.

PHP although this will probably see you being bashed around from a community stand point, there’s not a whole lot you can’t do with it, you may cry if you inherit a legacy system or two though, so be cautious of those and follow the PSR standards as close as possible, even if you use a framework.

If you wanna learn nodejs you would have to learn JavaScript but if you know JavaScript might as well learn nodejs.

@teganburns But isn't that learning? 🤔

@teganburns PHP isn't that hard to learn if you already know a C influenced language, like js. They're quite similar.

@teganburns "Influenced by Lua, Scheme, Perl, Self, Java, C, Python, AWK, HyperTalk"

@teganburns Javascript (as in ECMAScript) is basically just "how many paradigms can we fit into a single language?"

Not saying either option is bad. Heck, if you are on web development you will need to know JS and there is no way around it. I like the idea of keeping JS out of my server shit unless I am with Meteor. Php is good on the server and fairly simple. You may want to consider python or Java or Ruby as well :)

Javascript. You can't do much front end with PHP. With JS you can go fullstack with a single language.

@gosubinit how is knowing only a single language a good thing?

That doesn’t make you diverse or open to new ways of thinking.

Unfortunately you must know JS so just get good with that then branch out of you want.

@C0D4 when it comes to work, knowing a single language to do everything is handy

From the phrasing of your post, it sounds like you already know Node. If that's the case, give PHP a shot. It's a fairly easy language to learn, and despite it starting to go out of style because of the "hipster" technologies like Node and Ruby on Rails, having PHP skills will make you more flexible, and more marketable to employers.

I also honestly find writing PHP code fairly therapeutic, because it generally does what I ask it to, and the docs are probably the best docs for any programming language ever.

@explodingkittns really? i find it hard to read php docs. enlighten me please!

Learn Ruby.