What are some easy alternatives to using php/mySql?

I am an old php programmer and want to know some alternatives to php/mySQL in Construct to record scores, gather, store and display data - basic “dynamic” functions. Something that will extend Construct beyond a closed static experience. I emphasize “easy” because I have to teach high schoolers, so avoid terminal-driven solutions if possible. I see from the comments that php is not popular in this community, but nearly all hosts support php and mySQL and I have had good luck teaching first timers basic GET and POSTs with php and MySQL. Thoughts welcome.

It's likely that PHP is not so popular around here because most people that use Construct are interested in developing games without traditional coding. If you do see any talk about coding it will likely be Javascript and still in the context of the frontend.

Having said that, if you already are familiar with PHP and MySQL, there shouldn't be any problem in using that for your backend stack, it's a reasonable choice.

Despite being an absolute meme, PHP is a perfectly serviceable language!

I don't have the precise numbers on this, but I think it is safe to assume most C3 users use it to make "closed" games, with any persistence a game might have handled by the browser's local storage, in a similar fashion older games used to work where the game has some save space but it can't really be shared.

Currently C3 doesn't have any built in system to simplify working with databases, so anyone that wants to do that has to implement their own server.

Most people I know use Playfab as back end for statistics, authorization, data/inventory etc. You can use the JavaScript api

playfab.com/analytics