If you want to build a website, one of the great things about using a service such as Network Solutions is you can get as hands-on as you’d like. However, there is such a wide variety of programming languages out there, it can be difficult to know which one to learn and use. The following is a rundown on three of the most popular: Ruby, Python and PHP.

Ruby

Ruby is a dynamic, imperative object-oriented programming (OOP) language that runs on Rails, an open source, full-stack web application framework. Ruby can be difficult to learn and it lacks informational resources. However, Ruby runs on multiple platforms and the language makes it easy to maintain scalable and big programs. Other advantages include the fact that Ruby has a flexible syntax and can be easily connected to MySQL, DB2, Sybase and Oracle.

Python

Designed to express concepts of fewer lines of code, Python has been around since the 1980s. It’s an elegant, easily readable language that supports both functional and object-oriented programming. Python is quick and easy to learn; which is one of the many reasons why it is widely used. Whether you want to create crawlers, desktop applications or web applications, Python is an ideal general purpose language to use.

PHP

Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a server scripting language that can be, and is, used for just about everything on the web. WordPress, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and even NASA use PHP. It’s easy to learn, provides extensive database support and offers a great number of source codes. Additionally, PHP works on pretty much any platform and operating system. If you want to create HTML pages, this is the language to do it in.

Because you can accomplish all basic programming tasks with each language, it’s a good idea to choose which one to learn according to what you plan on using the language for.