PHP vs Ruby on Rails

Depends on what you're wanting to do. From what I've read, Ruby on Rails was designed to make database web apps quicker to develop. Not necessarily a better web app though. The programmer makes the biggest difference in any language.

 

Ruby on Rails is a framework, not a language like php. So it would be better to compare Ruby on Rails to something like the Zend Framework or other php frameworks.

With that being said. I find ROR a much faster development environment. I was asking the same question as you about a year ago and discovered the best thing to do is try different PHP frameworks and ROR. If you are coming from a PHP background, you'll find ROR a bit frustrating at times due to its concept of convention over configuration.

I will say that I have switched to ROR as my primary development target. And now things that used to take several days with php take a couple hours at most with ROR. I will definitely say that just by learning ROR, I became a better programmer.

An important thing to remember is PHP is supported by almost every host at a cheap rate, and ROR will require a VPS or dedicated host.

To sum it all up. I think ROR is better than any php framework.

 

PHP is just a programming language whereas Ruby on rails is a framework.

 

If I were to develop an application and I had to pick Ruby on Rails, or PHP with any PHP framework, I would pick Rails without a doubt.

However, my opinion is a little biased as I'm not a PHP fan.