Which programming language should I choose for Telegram bot development: PHP or Python?

Content

• Introduction

• Key terms (short dictionary)

• The short answer is: when is PHP, and when is Python

• Architectural differences and the impact on development speed

• Ecosystems and libraries for Telegram

• Integrations and payments: UKassa, CloudPayments, CRM, 1C

• Scaling, performance, and sustainability

• Hosting, DevOps, and Cost of ownership

• Testing, code quality, and maintainability

• Security and compliance with business requirements

• Typical scenarios: what to choose for your task

• Selection checklist (practical cheat sheet)

• Final recommendations

Introduction

Choosing a language for a Telegram bot is not a technology dispute, but a management decision with financial and operational consequences. The language determines the speed of market launch, the availability of specialists, the ease of integration, the cost of infrastructure and the quality of support. Below is a concise "map of the area" without fanaticism: where PHP is appropriate, where Python is, and why.

Key terms (short dictionary)

Bot API

Webhook

Long polling

MTProto

Async I/O

TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

The short answer is: when is PHP, and when is Python

Choose PHP

• Laravel / Symfony

• integration with payments

• predictable hosting

Choose Python

• asynchrony and high parallelism

• ML/AI, analytics, data processing

• Telegram frameworks on asyncio

Architectural differences and the impact on development speed

PHP has historically "felt at home" in the web backend: a strict project structure, clear boundaries of layers (Controllers/Services/Repositories), mature mechanisms for migrations, queues, and events. If a bot is part of a large web service, PHP gives the feeling of "one project operating system": common models, validations, authorization, ACLs, single source of truth.

gateway to computing

Ecosystems and libraries for Telegram

Python:

• aiogram (v3)

• pyTelegramBotAPI (telebot)

• Telethon

PHP:

• Telegram Bot SDK (irazasyed/telegram-bot-sdk)

• BotMan

• MadelineProto

In both worlds, there are tools for FSM (state machines), inline buttons, keyboards, contexts, paginations, media groups, menus, etc. The difference is not in "can/can't", but in the convenience of specific templates and syntax.

Integrations and payments: UKassa, CloudPayments, CRM, 1C

online payments

• PHP

• Python

CRM, 1C, Bitrix24, amoCRM

Scaling, performance, and sustainability

• Asynchrony:

• Synchronous reliability:RoadRunner/Swoole

• Queues and retreats:

• Horizontal scaling:

Hosting, DevOps, and Cost of ownership

• PHP

• Python

• TCO:

Testing, code quality, and maintainability

• PHP / Laravel:

• Python:

• Code conventions

Security and compliance with business requirements

• Secrets and tokens

• Signature of webhook notifications

• Security Logs

• Dependency Updates

Typical scenarios: what to choose for your task

1. A payment bot for an online store
   
   PHP

2. Bot assistant with analytics/ML
   
   Python

3. An enterprise service with a single SSO and roles, where the bot is another "front" to the core
   
   PHP

4. Highly loaded client to external APIs
   
   Python

5. The MVP prototype of "yesterday for yesterday"
   
   That language

Selection checklist (practical cheat sheet)

• the current web core

• ML/analytics/generation

• billing lives on

• team

• DevOps

• update mode

• response time requirements

• reuse of admin panels, models, queues

• TCO

Final recommendations

• Laravel/Symfonychoose PHP

• asynchronous operation and close communication with ML/datachoose Python

• team and infrastructure

matching tasks, people, and environment