Why PHP

• It’s a free and open source technology, runs on Apache web server which in turn runs seamlessly on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various other UNIX platforms. So whatever server investments have been made, can be utilized on all platforms
• Vast community support available if you get stuck with any problem
• PHP supports OOP concepts, so you can define scalable & robust architecture for your application
• Well proven & tested application frameworks like CakePHP, Zend Framework and Symphony etc. are available for rapid application devel
• Huge development resources are available like blogs, forums and freeware scripts
• Lots of open source applications are freely available like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, osCommerce, Zen Cart, Magentoand many more which reduces your development cost up to 50% to 60%

Web Server for PHP

• XAMPP is a free and open source cross-platform web server consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages

• MySQL "My S-Q-L",[1] also commonly /ma? 'si?kw?l/ "My Sequel") is a relational database management system (RDBMS)[2] that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My. The SQL phrase stands for Structured Query Language
• The MySQL development project has made its source code available under the terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as under a variety of proprietary agreements. MySQL was owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now owned by Oracle Corporation
• Free-software-open source projects that require a full-featured database management system often use MySQL. For commercial use, several paid editions are available, and offer additional functionality. Applications which use MySQL databases include: Joomla, WordPress, MyBB, phpBB, Drupal and other software built on the LAMP software stack. MySQL is also used in many high-profile, large-scale World Wide Web products, including Wikipedia, Google[5] (though not for searches) and Facebook

• PHP is one of the most popular server side scripting languages running today
• It is used for creating dynamic webpages that interact with the user offering customized information
• PHP offers many advantages; it is fast, stable, secure, easy to use and open source (free)