If i make web app and want my application to be "portable" i will go with PHP and Laravel framework.
Depending on your application. If you want to offer to users an installable copy, PHP is the most easy way to do it if you care about "portability" on existing user machines.
However if you make SAAS and not care about "portability", then you are free choose other languages and frameworks
Front end would depend on the project. JQuery for simple things, Vue for website components or single page apps and react for games.