Sometimes I get asked by friends or colleagues,

“Should I build my app in PHP? What’s this Rails thing?”.

A programming language is a means to an end, I tell them. It is a tool.

A talented PHP developer can write cleaner, faster software than a lesser Rails developer – and vice versa.

If you have access to awesome Rails talent, build it in Rails. If you have access to awesome PHP talent, build it in PHP. If you know a guy who can build you a world-class web-based SaaS app using Fortran punch cards, build it in Fortran.

Apps, websites, and web applications – whatever you want to call them – are built by people, not programming languages.