Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trialTimothy McMahan
8,481 PointsWhere to go next?
I am interested in developing database driven web applications. I just completed the Front End Web Development Track. What is the most useful back end langue for this purpose (PHP, Ruby, Python, or something else)?
1 Answer
Steven Parker
231,261 PointsI'll assume we can exclude SQL. Since you are asking in this topic area, I expect you already appreciate the need for that.
All back-end languages are useful for developing servers — that's what they were created for. There a several factors that might influence a decision, like popularity, demand, salary potential, trending, etc.
If you want to learn the skills currently most in demand by employers, JavaScript/Node would probably be first, then C#, Python, PHP, and Ruby/Rails.
But demand doesn't mean popularity, that order would be more like Ruby/Rails, PHP, Python, JavaScript/Node, and C# (almost the exact reverse of the demand!).
And then it might be worth looking at trends, as JavaScript and Python are both increasing and PHP is declining.
I would probably pick Ruby/Rails as a first choice myself. It's what Treehouse runs on.