Sure, PHP deployment could run into some issues back in the day - remember magic quote configuration issues in rando hosts? But even that was something you coul

Sure, PHP deployment could run into some issues back in the day - remember magic quote configuration issues in rando hosts? But even that was something you could get around relatively easily (mostly thanks to the stupidly beginner friendly docs). These days, hosts can easily drop in a PHP hosting pre-packaged solution, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a PHP host without a reasonable configuration. As for pure beginners, if your goal is to get pretty things on screen, HTML + CSS is fine. But if you asked me to pick between PHP and Node.js (or any other language, for that matter) for teaching a kid about server-side web programming, I'd pick PHP in a heartbeat. You can't even get past posting a form in Node.js without having to reach for NPM :) In fact, PHP is how my brother (who went to business school) converted to a programming career.