Please don't think this is a bad question. This is a serious question and I'm sharing a serious answer.
I am using Drupal, but I need to use NodeJS to build chat features. I read from the internet that "NodeJS is faster than PHP", but no explanation can make me convinced.
I thought and found the answer to explain myself. Let me start to share:
"1 + 1" working in PHP or NodeJS is basically the same (because both of them is built from c++), so 1 billion "1 + 1" in PHP or NodeJS are still the same, with the same server strength, it's still the same.
However, the different comes from another parts:
In Theory, this is the reason why "NodeJS is normally faster than PHP" please note that "Normally but not All".
And back to the question "Why is NodeJS named NodeJS?'' I think because NodeJS looks at each CPU as a Node in a Cloud, in a Network, each task can be solved by pushing to a Node, and JS is just JavaScript.
Each language has its advantages and disadvantages, I do not have enough knowledge and experience to discuss it, I just only try to explain to convince myself about "NodeJS is normally faster than PHP" and share what I thought.
However, there are still many cases that PHP is much better.