PHP has served me well, and still does.
I was just reading this:

http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/

I'm not sure who wrote it, but I got there by reading an article by Jeff Atwood (for whom I have a good amount of respect), and which seems to support the same opinion.

Here is a great snippet from the linked article:
Consider this code, taken from the PHP docs somewhere.
@fopen('http://example.com/not-existing-file', 'r');
What will it do?

If PHP was compiled with --disable-url-fopen-wrapper, it won’t work. (Docs don’t say what “won’t work” means; returns null, throws exception?) Note that this flag was removed in PHP 5.2.5.
If allow_url_fopen is disabled in php.ini, this still won’t work. (How? No idea.)
Because of the @, the warning about the non-existent file won’t be printed.
But it will be printed if scream.enabled is set in php.ini.
Or if scream.enabled is set manually with ini_set.
But not if the right error_reporting level isn’t set.
If it is printed, exactly where it goes depends on display_errors, again in php.ini. Or ini_set.

I can’t tell how this innocuous function call will behave without consulting compile-time flags, server-wide configuration, and configuration done in my program. And this is all built in behavior.
Now I was kind of reluctant to agree with the author, up to there, but I have to concede that this is one of the major problems with PHP, and the "scream" thing is what already tipped me over the edge and now I realize that I need to start looking for something else. But what?

I'm not looking for a finished, miracle drop-in solution or answer, but I'm up for receiving feedback. I know about Perl (not very excited about the syntax and the fact that Perl originally was - and still is a great text processing langage), python (how do I set it up?), ruby (I don't want to have to deal with rails...), C# (Proprietary? Visual Studio?? Microsoft!? Having to learn everything from scratch?). What I'm looking for is something that can be used as a template language in a straight-forward way (like PHP), but would be a more consistent, elegant and modern system all-round. It also would ideally share some common ground with PHP, or be simple enough, so that I can get up to speed rather quickly.

Anyone here has ideas or something to add?
I start learning Python/Django, a little while ago and its painful to start learning it and its MVC. However, I was shocked to find out that Django can create the backend automatically, and it does it really well! I really like the interface. I couldn't connect to a Mysql Db tho, i tried the SqlLite only.

C#, best language! After trying Php,Java, C# and VB.NET. I have to say, C# rocks! However, the license is an ass :P

So if you are looking into an all free language, Php Python/Django is the one if you know MVC. Another alternative that I never tried is Rails. I guess that is your only choice. Django or Rails :P

p.s: i doubt you will find any alternative to php
Python is a great alternative to PHP and here is why:

- The language is very well designed and thought of.

- It has the best package manager out there: pip which kicks PHP's Composer ass any day.

- You can organize your project packages into virtual environments with virtualenv.

- The language enforces clean and expressive syntax and there is a well defined style guide to follow:pep8.

- There is a plethora of well written modules for almost anything and they are one pip install away, this can make your development insanely productive.

- It is a general purpose language, which makes it useful not just for web but also writing scripts to run anywhere that has Python installed.

- For the web, there exists a huge amount of awesome frameworks to use depending on your taste and requirements.

- And lastly, programming in Python is fun again.
rolf wrotepython (how do I set it up?)
If you are on a popular Linux distribution it should be available already out of the box. For Windows there is a .msi for downlad and install wizard. But I highly suggest you use Python in a Unix like environment such as Mac OS or Linux for a much nicer experience.
rolf wroteI'm looking for is something that can be used as a template language in a straight-forward way (like PHP),
Python is not a template language, you will have to use a template engine such as Jinja, its syntax is clean and awesome.

Actually you shouldn't be using PHP as a template language anymore, PHP started as a web template language but it evolved since then to become a full featured programming language. Plus the syntax is not that suitable for templating. Check out Twig or Smarty.
Thanks, Ayman, for your help on Python.
Ayman wrote Actually you shouldn't be using PHP as a template language anymore, PHP started as a web template language but it evolved since then to become a full featured programming language. Plus the syntax is not that suitable for templating. Check out Twig or Smarty.
This is something I feel a bit strongly about. It started as a template language, and of course it progressed, but it kept (most of) it's original abilities. So you won't see me using Smarty anytime soon! Maybe I don't like layers...
rtp wrote p.s: i doubt you will find any alternative to php
That's what I was starting to think - when looking at it from a productivity standpoint.

Anyway, I was also thinking that Python might be the best choice. There also seems to be python hosting providers out there, and I think that's an important point.
a month later
What do you mean by hosting? VPS or shared hosting? On the shared hosting side, very few support python django because few support mod_wsgi, webfaction.com does support django, but very few do, if you're going for a vps, you are free to host anything. One last thing, if you want to build CMS, consider Mezzanine
Fischer wroteWhat do you mean by hosting? VPS or shared hosting? On the shared hosting side, very few support python django because few support mod_wsgi, webfaction.com does support django, but very few do, if you're going for a vps, you are free to host anything. One last thing, if you want to build CMS, consider Mezzanine
Thanks. I already have a Windows VPS. Yes I know, it easier to find packages for Linux, but, overall a Windows system is less painful to maintain and manage.
Thanks for the tips.
I agree with rahmu, that's why I became a Linux user. If you want to stick with Windows go for C# or rails. Rails is supported by the majority of shared hosting companies.

http://railsinstaller.org/

This page may make your life easier when installing python packages on windows, but believe me, it still sucks, don't waste your time with python on windows.
C# looks like the most interesting. It can even run PHP code... (although I have yet to see proof of how well it works for production code)