[Sam]

Is it worth learning NodeJS now? i.e. is that where web development is heading soon? Or will PHP still be very relevant for years to come?

[skysnap]

PHP will remain relevant for many years. Why? open cpanel and find an option to work with NodeJS or say rails. Tell me if deploying nodejs, rails, python is any easy on shared host without any SSH skills?

Most of the intermediate level freelancers, business, bloggers and hobbyist people are using PHP for this reason. Deployment is extremely hard for python, rails, and nodejs. Programming and doing stuff is easy with those languages but not cheap to deploy.

[Fergal]

I don't feel qualified to answer your question. However, something interesting I came across the other day is Electron, which allows you to build cross platform (including desktop) apps using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Electron uses Node.JS, so it might be worth considering it when deciding how relevant Node.js is.

[FuZyOn]

I think now it's definitely the best time to pounce of the opportunity to learn NodeJS, a lot of people have been using it and the npm service has blown everything out of the water.