As mentioned before if you want a quick way to some minor things with you site like displaying a simple visitor counter, PHP was made for it. But quick also often means dirty. There are frameworks now that will counter the dirtiness though.<p>As for what is actually &quot;cool&quot; about PHP, I would say nothing, however, I have to admit it is easy to find people willing to work with PHP. So PHP is maybe &quot;cool&quot; like &#x27;Friday&#x27; was cool with so many people, I don&#x27;t know, never been part of the &quot;cool&quot; crowd.