PHP
Created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995
Server-side scripting language for web development
Key Statistics
Popularity Trend
Composite score over the last 12 weeks
Source Breakdown
Contribution by data source (Total: 28.7)
Scores are weighted by importance: GitHub (25%), Jobs (20%), Stack Overflow (15%), Google Trends (15%), Packages (10%), Reddit (10%), Tutorials (5%).
Recent History
| Period | Rank | Score |
|---|---|---|
| May 2026Current | #5 | 28.7 |
| May 2026 | #10 | 15.2 |
| May 2026 | #9 | 15.2 |
| May 2026 | #8 | 15.0 |
| May 2026 | #9 | 4.5 |
Analysis & Context
PHP powers approximately 77% of all websites with a known server-side language — a figure that has not materially declined in years despite frequent predictions that it would. The reason is WordPress. WordPress runs 43% of the entire web, and WordPress is PHP. That deployment reality gives PHP a structural floor unlike almost any other language. Modern PHP (8.x) is substantially different from PHP 5 — typed properties, named arguments, fibers for async, and a JIT compiler — but the reputation gap from that era has not fully closed.
Where PHP Is Used
WordPress development
Themes, plugins, and custom WordPress sites are PHP. The WordPress plugin repository has 60,000+ plugins. Agencies, freelancers, and enterprise teams building on WordPress write PHP.
Laravel web applications
Laravel is a modern, full-featured web framework with an expressive ORM, job queues, WebSocket support, and an ecosystem comparable to Rails or Django. Laravel projects run at significant scale.
E-commerce platforms
WooCommerce (WordPress), Magento, and OpenCart are all PHP. A substantial share of global online retail — particularly small to mid-market stores — runs on PHP-based e-commerce.
Content management systems
Drupal, Joomla, and Craft CMS are PHP. Enterprise and government websites disproportionately run Drupal, which is favored for its access control and multi-language support.
Legacy enterprise systems
PHP applications built in the 2000s and 2010s run critical business logic at thousands of companies. Those systems need maintenance, migration, and new features — most of which requires PHP knowledge.
The AI Era
PHP is integrating AI at the application layer rather than the infrastructure layer. Laravel has added first-class LLM integration via community packages that wrap OpenAI and Anthropic APIs. WordPress plugins for AI content generation and chatbots are proliferating rapidly — the WordPress plugin ecosystem moves fast when there is end-user demand. PHP is not building the AI models, but it is delivering AI features to a significant share of the world's websites.
Job Market
PHP job volume is high but compensation is bimodal. WordPress and generic PHP maintenance roles sit at the lower end of the market. Laravel engineers at product companies and senior Drupal engineers at enterprise accounts command mid-to-senior compensation that compares reasonably to other backend stacks. The clearest pattern: agencies hire PHP at volume and modest rates; product companies that chose PHP (often Laravel) hire more selectively and pay more competitively.
Compare with similar languages
Further reading
Related Languages
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