PHP has actually matured pretty well. Since the introduction of Composer and frameworks like Symfony 2, Zend Framework 2 and Doctrine 2, you can actually build very sophisticated software in PHP. However, for green field projects I personally wouldn't use it.

However, having said that, there are still plenty of guns lingers out there copying and pasting crap from PHPClasses.

Why to avoid PHP ? I am earning working on freelance project all due to PHP.