I’m in the planning phase for developing a web application and am trying to figure out my best bet as far database options goes. I’m already familiar with php and mysql database. Initially, the website won’t be handling any transactions, but my hope is that the website will expand to a large degree and I’ll incorporate transactions and sales on the website. My concern is, will php be secure enough for the future transactions? If not, will it be possible to switch from mysql to maybe.. Oracle or another “more secure database” while the is expanding? Thanks for your time and responses.
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Plan for the foreseeable future and not beyond. If utilized correctly MySQL can scale incredibly well (just check out some of the names that use it http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/case-studies/ ).
As for the security aspect, that’s totally up to your coding ability. Security is not inherently better in one language or DB over another, but certain languages have a very low barrier to entry (PHP being one of them) so they tend to invite many hobby programmers who develop applications that scale badly and are security nightmares.
Stick to what you know and let your technology develop as required. Most web apps that end up seriously scaling have a few rewrites in their history (often changing DB engines, frameworks, platforms, languages…). You can’t predict the future, so stick to what you’re good at now.
tl;dr: PHP and MySQL will be fine.