PHP is a server-side embedded scripting language, allowing the creation of database-driven or dynamic web sites.

MySQL is a high-performance relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL uses industry standard SQL (Structured Query Language) database commands.

PHP and MySQL technologies are often used together to create dynamic web sites based on new or existing databases; these can be e-commerce sites or other database-driven applications, such as directories and catalogues.

Another popular application for PHP/MySQL is as a portal system, where the PHP "engine" serves web pages by combining a MySQL database of content with HTML templates. The advantage of this system is that the layout and style of the web pages can be changed independently of the content - thus a whole site can be given a new look by changing just a few files.

PHP/MySQL is generally used over Perl where the size or complexity of the data to be integrated increases. See the projects area for an example of a PHP/MySQL database system we created.