Ahmed Mahmoud – Software Engineer

Real Migration Problems When Moving from PHP to Node.js

Most PHP-to-Node.js migration guides are either too abstract or too obvious. Here's what actually bites you — and how to avoid it.

1. Legacy Hashes Won’t Validate

PHP’s password_hash() produces bcrypt hashes prefixed with $2y$ . Most Node.js bcrypt libraries expect $2a$ or $2b$ . If you don’t normalize it, valid logins will fail silently.


// Fix prefix mismatch
storedHash = storedHash.replace('$2y$', '$2b$');
const isValid = await bcrypt.compare(password, storedHash);

2. $_SESSION Doesn’t Exist Anymore

PHP's session system is built-in and works out of the box. In Node.js, you must explicitly choose and configure a session or token strategy (cookies, JWTs, etc.).

Cookie-based JWT login example:


res.cookie('token', jwt.sign(user, JWT_SECRET), {
  httpOnly: true,
  secure: true,
  sameSite: 'Lax',
  maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24
});
res.status(200).json({ message: 'Logged in' });

In frontend fetch requests, don’t forget:


fetch('/api/user', {
  credentials: 'include'
});

3. PHP’s Automatic $_POST and $_GET Parsing = Manual Parsing in Node

PHP automatically populates $_POST and $_GET. In Node.js, you need middleware like express.json() and express.urlencoded() — or your routes won’t work.


app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

app.post('/form', (req, res) => {
  console.log(req.body); // not available without middleware
});

4. No Native Email or File Upload

PHP makes email sending and file uploads simple. In Node.js, you have to choose the right libraries (like nodemailer, multer) and configure them.

Emails: use nodemailer and SMTP or transactional APIs
Uploads: use multer or upload to S3/cloud storage

5. Routing Isn’t Global

In PHP, every file is basically a route. Node.js needs explicit routing (e.g. Express or Hapi). Forgetting to define routes or middleware is a common cause of 404s.

6. Database Layers Are Different

In PHP, you might be used to raw SQL or ORMs like Eloquent. Node.js has no standard ORM. Choices include:

Prisma: good for devs new to SQL
Sequelize: more traditional ORM
Knex: query builder with control

Whichever you pick, don't blindly reuse SQL — test all assumptions around NULL handling, casing, joins, and timezones.

Final Tip

PHP hides a lot of complexity. Node.js gives you power but expects you to wire everything yourself. If something "just worked" in PHP, assume you’ll need to explicitly implement it in Node.

What Actually Breaks When Migrating from PHP to Node.js