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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T04:38:59+00:00

I’m looking at creating a site for a start-up and I’m trying to decide

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I’m looking at creating a site for a start-up and I’m trying to decide if I want to build it with GWT. I’ve done alot of PHP before and would like to continue that but a colleague of mine suggested using GWT instead. I read the information that Google has published about it and I see that all of the scripting is Python. I’ve never used Python before but it doesn’t seem that challenging.

Anyway, question is, to all of you that have used GWT, what do you think of it as opposed to sticking with a PHP approach? Is there anything you can do with GWT that you can’t with PHP and vis versa.

Thanks!

EDIT: Sorry, confused the Python in GAE with GWT.

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  1. Editorial Team

    GWT and PHP are not mutually exclusive.

    GWT, or Google Web Toolkit, started as a Framework that will let you write Java code which produces an AJAX Application interface. You write Java, HTML/CSS/Javascript comes out. The UI layer of GWT has nothing to do with the backend server. GWT produces a UI that calls AJAX URLs. There’s no reason those URLs couldn’t be implemented in PHP. GWT doesn’t care what technology is on the other end of a URL, so long as it returns data in the correct format. You can read more in the Communicating with a Server section.

    GWT is a decent approach if the you’re happy with the general look/feel/behavior of the widgets it produces, and if you know Java.

    If you need/want fine grained control over the HTML output of your application (common for a lot of PHP developers), GWT is going to introduce more headaches than it solves (unless you like spending a lot of time in Java land)

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