Server-side rendering is what php and these other backend frameworks do when responding to a request. If the output is html a browser will read and display tha

Server-side rendering is what php and these other backend frameworks do when responding to a request. If the output is html a browser will read and display that. Whether it comes from node or php that hello world h1 tag looks the same to your browser. The problem with swapping out php on the backend for node is now you have to maintain a node server, manage long running processes. If you make a change to a node file you have to restart the server. Where php is running under apache or nginx and files can be dropped in without taking down the site. That's why everyone is going serverless.. who wants to manage a node server.