What are the potential drawbacks of using PHP to handle real-time updates on a webpage compared to JavaScript?

One potential drawback of using PHP to handle real-time updates on a webpage compared to JavaScript is that PHP is a server-side language, meaning it requires a page refresh to see updates. To solve this issue, you can use AJAX in combination with PHP to achieve real-time updates without needing to refresh the entire page.

```php
<?php
// PHP code to handle real-time updates using AJAX

// Check if AJAX request is being made
if(isset($_GET['update'])) {
    // Perform necessary updates here
    echo "Update successful!";
    exit;
}
?>
```

In the above PHP code snippet, we check if an AJAX request is being made and handle the necessary updates without requiring a page refresh.