Python, as a programming language, has been trending in recent years (source). From our point of view at Studio theYANG, this popularity is deeply rooted in the nature of the language itself, and directly due to the rise of informatics needs of SMBs, especially in web industry. In this article, we will compare Python with other solutions in the industry, to reveal why we believe Python is the best tool of web development for SMBs.
Python vs .NET
To be honest, this comparison stands more of the choice between open-source and proprietary technologies. The answer varies with industries, but for the web industry that we discuss here at Studio theYANG, open-source technologies have been dominating the market for at least ten years.
Web system is a complicated creature that bundles with the underlying infrastructures. Using open-source technologies, we have Linux as the operating system, Apache/nginx as the HTTP reverse proxy, various SQL and NoSQL databases. If using proprietary technologies, we always need to concern the license of their closed-source counterparts. For SMBs, the extra IT overhead is usually not worth; instead, the open-source solution is more straightforward for accounting and project management.
Python vs Ruby
Back to the reign of open-source technologies, perhaps another commonly heard technology stack is Ruby on Rails, built upon Ruby programming language. Ruby shares a number of similarities and use cases with Python, but perhaps the major different lies in their “geekness”—Python is more explicit and verbose while Ruby is more succinct and ciphered.
Thus a Ruby system needs more of a dedicated Ruby developer to maintain, and is more difficult for a general system administrator to read and edit. Here at Studio theYANG, we don’t think this is a good balance for SMBs, although Ruby on Rails development can move forward faster than Python in the beginning of a project. We treat web system as an important intangible asset for businesses and its long-term health is crucial. Python gives SMBs the technological insurance from this aspect because it is far more maintainable.
Python vs Node.js
A second trending open-source technology for web development is Node.js with emphasis on these two reasons: 1) the backend uses the same programming language as the frontend; 2) the concurrency of Node.js is far better than most technologies.
They are very valid points, but for SMBs the major attention should be: is Node.js an overkill for your business? Node.js runs fast, but it overheads in development time, because the JavaScript programming language is entirely different against common languages at its core. Its functional and asynchronous nature can sometimes be error-prone to generic developers and system administrators, and its performance improvement should be reviewed case by case, especially when your SMB is not a web service provider. From the scope of SMBs, it is often more plausible to parallelize an easy-to-develop Python system than fine-tune a Node.js system.
Python vs PHP
The final comparison in this article is with PHP, the most traditional open-source programming language in web industry. Both technologies have been tested and improved throughout the years. PHP is generally faster than Python, but Python has the best connection with peripheral services (or libraries if put in technical term). If your SMB needs a web system that talks with, for example, bank system, accounting services, Microsoft Office, etc., we will strongly suggest Python over PHP for your future developments. Once again, when a web system needs to talk to peripheral services, it doesn’t matter which language runs faster, but which language is more welcome to external integration. From this aspect, Python is the strong choice and it never fails to deliver excellence to your business.
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