Why is it recommended to avoid using MD5 for hashing passwords in PHP applications?

Using MD5 for hashing passwords is not recommended because it is considered a weak hashing algorithm that is vulnerable to various attacks such as collision attacks and rainbow table attacks. It is better to use stronger hashing algorithms like bcrypt or Argon2 for securely hashing passwords in PHP applications.

// Using bcrypt for hashing passwords
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);