Difference Between Java and PHP

Last Updated : 17 Mar 2025

Java and PHP are both the two most popular programming languages. There are so many differences and similarities between both of them. Let's understand both of them one by one, and after that, we understand the similarities and differences between them.

Java

Java is one of the widely used open-source programming languages that follow OOPs concepts. The Java code is compiled into byte code and run on a JVM. The language developed by Sun Microsystems has a VM platform that allows us to create compiled programs that we can run on any platform. So, Java code follows the concept of "Write Once, Run Anywhere".

Let's take an example to understand how we can write the code in Java:

CalculateCompoundInterest.java

//import required classes and packages
package javaTpoint.JavaExample;
import java.util.Scanner;
//create class CalculateCompoundInterest to find compound interest
public class CalculateCompundInterest {
	// create the calculateInterest() method that calculate and print the compound interest
	public static void calculateInterest(float p, float r, float t, float n) {
		//calculate the compound interest
		// formula to calculate cmpInterest = p * Math.pow(1 + (r / n), n * t)
		double amount = p * Math.pow(1 + (r / n), n * t);
		double cinterest = amount - p;
		// print calculated compound interest and amount
		System.out.println("Compound Interest after " + t + " years: "+cinterest);
		System.out.println("Amount after " + t + " years: "+amount);
	}
	public static void main(String args[]) 
	{
		// create instance of the Scanner class to take input from the user
		Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
		// declare variables
		float p, r, t, n;
	    // take input from the user for variables
	    System.out.println("Enter value for the Principal(p) : ");
	    p = sc.nextFloat();
	    System.out.println("Enter value for the Rate of interest(r) : ");
	    r = sc.nextFloat();
	    System.out.println("Enter value for the Time period(t) : ");
	    t = sc.nextFloat();
	    System.out.println("Enter the number of times that interest is compounded per unit t(n)");
	    n = sc.nextFloat();
	    calculateInterest(p, r, t, n);
	    sc.close();
	}
}

Output:

PHP

Unlike Java, PHP is a server-side scripting language. We mainly use PHP for developing and designing web applications. Two main characteristics of PHP are as follows:

PHP code can be easily embedded in the html code.
We can also write the html code in the PHP file.

PHP codes are executed on the server because it is a server-side programming language. The HTML code embedded in the PHP file can be directly rendered on the browser after executing the PHP file on the server.

CompoundInterestExample.html

<html>
	<head>
		<title>Find Compound Interest</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<form method="post">
			<table border="0">
				<tr>
					<td><input type="text" name="number1" value="" placeholder="Enter principal:"></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td><input type="text" name="number2" value="" placeholder="Enter Time Period:"></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td><input type="text" name="number3" value="" placeholder="Enter Rate of Interest:"></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit"></td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</form>
		<?php
			if(isset($_POST['submit']))
			{
				// fetch input from fields
				$principal = $_POST['num1'];
				$time = $_POST['num2'];
				$rate = $_POST['num3'];
				//calculate simple interest
				$simpleInterest = $principal * $time * $rate/100;
				echo "Simple interest = ".$simpleInterest;
				//calculate compound interest
				$amount = $principal * pow((1 + $rate/100),$time);
				$cmpInterest = $amount - $principal;
				echo "Compound interest = ".$cmpInterest;
				return 0;
			}
		?>
	</body>
</html>

Output:

Similarities Between Java and PHP

These are the following similarities between Java and PHP:

Open-source
Java and PHP are both freely available in the market to use. There is no need to pay an amount to use them. Both Java and PHP can be modified and redistributed by users.
Follows OOPs Concepts
Java and PHP both follow the concepts of OOPs such as Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Encapsulation, etc. The languages that follows OOPs are easy to understand. We can reuse the code in other programs to utilize time and memory.
Syntax
The process of defining data members, member function, classes, and looping structures is the same in both programming languages. It helps the developer to work on a cross-platform.
Easy to learn
Both the languages are very simple and easy to learn even for the fresher also. Learning PHP and Java is simple if we have knowledge of the syntax of both.

Differences Between Java and PHP

The following table describes thekeydifferences between Java and PHP:

Java	PHP
Java is an object-oriented, general-purpose programming language.	PHP is an object-oriented server-side scripting language.
Java is compiled and strongly-typed language.	PHP is a dynamic and weak typed language.
Java provides a rich set of APIs in comparison to PHP.	PHP provides less API in comparison to JAVA. In PHP, It is very easy to rebuild and customize APIs.
Method overloading and method overriding are supported in Java.	PHP doesn't support method overloading and method overriding.
Java provides several packages and deployment utilities.	PHP has no packaging concept.
For creating complex and large applications, Java is very fast.	For creating web pages, it is very fast.
It is a compiled type programming language.	PHP is an interpreted language.
In Java, OOP is available by default.	PHP offers OOP as an option.
For complex and large applications, Java is good to use.	PHP is not good for large and complex projects.
Java is a very secure programming language in comparison to PHP.	PHP provides less security as compared to Java.

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