Node vs PHP

You should really make your question clear as to the scope of the expected answer.

You can mention fpm, sure, but fpm is simply the interpreting engine.

As to how to let the server handle requests, it's more about what features you want and whether you have external constraints from other systems in your stack.

Theoretically both node and fpm benefit from a reverse proxy or lb in front of them. The downside of fpm is that it needs a compatible web server as opposed to node.

Fpm only interprets php code, so the proxy in front needs to route those requests for php files and be able to serve non+php directly, unless you want to write a generic we server in PHP (not efficient). Therefore php works with nginx or lighttpd unless you go modphp and use apache with the embedded module (where prefork raises questions on performance VS the multithreaded nature of nginx)

Node has no such constraints. It can work with plain proxies like haproxy or even serve requests straight up (but you would need to pay attention to stuff like security).

In a containerized environment, php shows some limitations in that nginx +fpm is a bit of a pain to setup efficiently (think kubernetes) and you end up using roughly 3 lb's in front of fpm, nevermind the inherent networking overhead (usually I go with apache there)

Node is easier from this perspective, but switching ecosystems coming from php is not that easy.

Myself I ended up going with Roadrunner for php, as it is wrapped in a very efficient golang server + enforces psr compliant requestd/responses

You can take a look at Example Node (Express + Mongoose) codebase containing real world examples.

What I meant specifically by syntax is, e.g.,

• no $ for variables,
• object literals { key: value } vs [ 'key' => value ],
• anonymous functions (args) => retVal vs function (args) use (vars) { return retVal; }

What abstractions and organization of code do you mean?

Vanilla MVC.

I do something like that from firebase using AWS-SES with a nodejs cloud function (like lamda in AWS). I don't use the cloud scheduler for it, but that certainly could be done.

Similar logic lives in other functions that use pubsub for transactional emails and alerts.

The farther I can get away from email tasks and servers, the better. 1,000 emails is $0.10.

I have been in this business long enough to know that having a "favorite language" is foolish. There is only the problem and then the solution. Languages are simple a vehicle to solve a problem. The real mark of excellence is understanding the domain of interest in such a way as to plan an effective solution. PHP is good in some situations and Node in others. Whereas there spheres of appropriateness overlap somewhat, by and large they were created for different problem spaces.

Depends on what you are trying to do... I use refund patterns.