PHP stands for Hypertext processor, the developer of PHP language might not have imagined the hype at the time of inventing it, but Now PHP has become synonymous with the web development. Though there are plenty of web development languages like .net, coldfusion, cgi, java but PHP is slowly and gradually changing the history. Let me describe some very good PHP based software that can make your life easier.

PHPBB : This is a wonderful software for forums. Use this software on your website if you would like your users to discuss among them regarding your company or their problems. Amazing software that comes for free. Its easy to install and even more easy to use.

Oscommerce : This is revolutionary software for online ecommerce activities. If you have a shop and you want to make online selling, nothing better than this can be suggested. Fully free and comes with bunch of features like product list, shopping cart, checkout with any payment gateway, admin control with shipping and taxing and more. Most important thing about this software is, plenty of PHP developers have developed add on modules which they give away as contributions.

Joomla : Another revolutionary software for content rich sites. It’s like one size fits all. This software helps you build a site with content management software, this makes the website owner life easier as they will not require any designer or developer help to modify the content. Changing content with joomla is as easy as changing a ms word file. It comes with in build modules of articles, newsletters, forums, store and lot more free contributions from programmers all across the globe.

PHPmotion : Would you believe that you can make another Youtube almost for free? Yes its possible with this software. Though initial help of a php programmer might be needed to give it a custom look but otherwise its full fledge you tube clone software.

PHPList : Ming blowing open source PHP based software for newsletter management. This is must have software for websites, because this allows you to keep in touch with your customers on regular basis through emailing. Again easy to install and zero maintenance.

The list is even higher and one article would not be sufficient but if you need a brief list here are few like drupal for cms, zencart for ecommerce, dim dim for web conferencing, osdate for dating and many more.