I've used both php and perl... and I'd have to say, each to their own preference... sure, perl is much more powerful than php in some ways, but it is also a massive memory whore... and if you're doing web applications, memory whore is no good... so that's where php kicks in... light, fast, and robust... You CAN also do OOP with php... its just slightly more annoying... but none the less, its not impossible.