PHP
C / scripting · 1995Actively developedServer-side web programming with extensive framework, CMS and hosting support.
Procedural
Links
- Homepage
- https://www.php.net/
- Reference / standard
- https://www.php.net/manual/en/
- Wikipedia (English)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP
Tracked release
- Version
- 8.5.12
- Artifact
- Runtime release
- Published
- 2026-10-21
- Source checked
- 2026-10-22
Use & ecosystem
- Suited for
- Web backends, CLI tools / automation
- Family / tradition
- C-style, Dynamic scripting
- Maturity
- Established
- Ecosystem breadth
- Focused
Large-scale independent web adoption and maintained runtimes clearly support Established. Its ecosystem is exceptionally deep in web applications, so it is still Focused here.
Industry & practical use
Web backends, content management and commerce dominate its practical use. Deployment options range from shared hosting to managed application infrastructure.
Compilers, libraries & tooling
Composer, framework ecosystems and database integrations provide mature web tooling. Optional type declarations are checked at runtime; external static analyzers add another layer.
Platforms & deployment
- General toolchains
- Linux, Windows, macOS
- Specialized tooling
- None catalogued
- Native cross-compilation
- Not the usual deployment model
PHP runtimes are available on Linux, Windows and macOS; Linux hosting is especially common.
Deploy PHP source and dependencies with an appropriate target runtime. Native extension binaries remain platform-specific.
Project health & support
The PHP project and PHP Foundation support ongoing development. Supported branches have defined maintenance lifetimes, and applications still need prompt security updates.
Use, ecosystem & platform assessment reviewed 2026-10-22 · Sources below
History & origin
Rasmus Lerdorf released the initial PHP tools in 1995. Subsequent redesigns turned them into a general scripting language with an object model, namespaces and progressively richer type declarations.
- Creators
- Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP contributors
- Origin
- 1995 — First public release.
Influences & descendants
Influenced by
- Not yet documented in this catalogue.
Influenced in this catalogue
- No linked entries yet.
Language features
- Typing
- Dynamic
- Execution
- Bytecode VM, JIT
- Block structure
- Explicit delimiters
- Semicolons
- Required
- Lexical closures
- Yes
- Namespaced modules
- Yes
- Pattern matching
- No
- Macro system
- No built-in macro system
Implementation notes
- The match expression compares values and is not general structural pattern matching. OPcache JIT does not make every web workload faster.
Sources & references
- Project overview
- https://www.php.net/
- Language / implementation reference
- https://www.php.net/manual/en/
Use, ecosystem & platform sources
- Project overview
- https://www.php.net/
- Language / implementation reference
- https://www.php.net/manual/en/
See the classification definitions for implementation-dependent features. Influence links cover the entries documented here.