COBOL is probably better compared to PHP or Ruby. COBOL was never as popular as Java, and its popularity was relatively short lived; by the time it was 20 it was quickly falling out of favour. In 2023, Java is the #1 most popular language for serious server side applications, and is in the top 3 overall on pretty much any language ranking you can find. In terms of longevity and super-popularity, its only counterparts are C, JS, and Python. Comparing Java, or Python or JS for that matter, to COBOL completely misses both COBOL's history and the current state of the ecosystem.