The SitePoint Web blog has posted a "smackdown" comparing two popular languages, PHP and Node.js, based on several different points.

The web is ever-changing technology landscape. Server-side developers have a bewildering choice of long-standing heavy-weights such as Java, C, and Perl to newer, web-focused languages such as Ruby, Clojure and Go. It rarely matters what you choose, presuming your application works.

But how do those new to web development make an informed choice? I hope not to start a holy war, but I’m pitting two development disciplines against each other: PHP and Node.js.

He goes through ten "rounds" of evaluations on various points including how easy it is to get started, help & support options, development tools available and hosting & deployment options. In the end, it's his opinion that the winner overall (it was close) is Node.js. However, he does end with one word of advice:

My advice: assess the options and and pick a language based on your requirements. That’s far more practical than relying on ‘vs’ articles like this!