For now, think of Node.js as Javascript.As you can see, Node.js and Javascript rank at the top while PHP is significantly less popular.In the five years Stackoverflow has been collecting data in the Developer Survey, they have seen languages such as Javascript and Node.js grow in popularity, while the usage of languages like PHP has been shrinking:React is the most loved among developers, however, Node.js is the most wanted and second most loved:Salaries and Opportunities:Developers using languages listed below the blue line in the chart below, such as Go, Rust, and Clojure are being paid more given how much experience they have..Developers using languages below the blue line like PHP, however, are paid less even given years of experience..The size of the circles in this chart represents how many developers are using that language compared to the others..PHP significantly seems to be rewarding developers less and less with the number of years experience that they have.On LinkedIn Jobs, you can see the job posting worldwide for Node.js developers far outweighs PHP developers by almost 10,000..This is despite the fact that Node.js is a much younger technology compared to PHP, and the fact that PHP is used heavily with WordPress which powers 30% of all websites on the internet.Finally, you can see the average salary for technologies by Region (I didn’t include the Worldwide tab below because PHP didn’t even make it on there):Again, we are not bashing PHP here..We are just looking at the numbers to decide what to chose to learn..It is clearly ranking consistently below other technologies like Javascript and Node.js.UPDATE: Since releasing the post, stackoverflow came up with the result of the 2018 survey..The decline in PHP is growing.Verdict:PHP popularity is decreasing while the job market and popularity of Node.js is growing..Overall, PHP developers are paid significantly less than other developers and the trend seems to keep widening.Node.js vs PHP — Technical AnalysisLet’s take a look at pros and cons of each technology.Node.js Pros:Especially suitable for applications that require real time communication between client and server..Tools like socket.io make building things like chat applications really easy..This same features makes Node.js suitable for applications that process data from IoT devices (Internet of Things) and Single Page Applications (SPAs) which are very common now.Native serialization and deserialization with JSON which works great with AJAX requests on the web.Great for event driven applications that have non blocking Input/Output (I/O is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing systems like Databases)You learn Javascript, you learn Node.js..You don’t need to learn another language like PHP.. More details