PHP isn’t bad. Programmers tend to “hate” on languages for some specific reasons or to make themselves feel better over their choice of language. Some of the biggest projects that are running to this day are or were made in PHP. WordPress, for example.

To me, the right tool is the one that accomplishes the job. I even still write VB.NET programs, even though I CAN use other languages just fine. Why do I do that? Because it’s my choice.