My issue with your approach is your first time programer still needs to: - install/update PHP or go with the outdated version that shipped with their system.

My issue with your approach is your first time programer still needs to: - install/update PHP or go with the outdated version that shipped with their system. - have a hosting service that will accept random PHP files - know what their hosting's PHP version/configuration is to match it locally. For instance their hosting will keep the most secure config possible, thus no out of the box fetching of URLs. - endlessly fight to find syntax errors as they are too new to have a linter. Depending on the PHP version they settled on they won't have error logs in one place but two. - fight the endless stream of out of date tips and tricks left by 2 decades of PHP programers of various pedigree. All of these have different variations for different languages, they all have their barriers and dead bodies in the closet. My take is that PHP isn't specially beginner friendly at this point, at least not as friendly as it was when it began. Making a public website from scratch will be complex anyway, so they might as well go with a saner setup that uses a templating language and not write code right into the HTML. It won't be much harder and they'll have a fighting chance to find up to date tutorial to host their project easily (hosting a rails project on Heroku for instance could be miles easier in that respect)