PHP: The History of an Essential Language, from Its Beginnings to 2025

Imagine a programming language that is the subject of constant jokes in the developer community, that is regularly announced as “dying” or “outdated”, but that nevertheless continues to silently power a gigantic part of the global web. This fascinating paradox is PHP’s story.

In 2025, while debates rage over “modern” languages like JavaScript, Python, or Go, PHP continues to silently power a gigantic part of the global web. WordPress, which powers 40% of all internet sites, major e-commerce platforms like PrestaShop and WooCommerce, and countless critical web applications still depend on this language. How can such a maligned language remain so central in our digital ecosystem?

In my web development practice since 2006, starting from my studies in computer science, I’ve witnessed this paradoxical evolution. Today, let’s dive together into PHP’s remarkable history, from its humble origins to current challenges in 2025.

PHP’s Historical Evolution: From Humble Origins to a Discreet Giant

What is PHP Really?

To understand PHP’s history, let’s start by clearly defining what we’re talking about. PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, a recursive acronym typical of developer humor) is a general-purpose scripting language that has specialized in server-side web development.

Think of PHP as a car’s discreet engine. You don’t see it directly when browsing a website, but it’s what processes your requests, communicates with the database, and generates the pages you view. Unlike JavaScript which runs in your browser, PHP works behind the scenes on the web server.

<?php
// This is what PHP looks like in action
echo "Hello from the server!";

// PHP can easily interact with a database
$users = $database->query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE active = 1");

// And generate dynamic content
foreach ($users as $user) {
    echo "<p>Welcome, " . $user['name'] . "!</p>";
}
?>

The Genesis: From Personal Home Page to PHP

PHP’s story begins in 1995 with Rasmus Lerdorf, a Danish-Canadian programmer who was simply trying to create dynamic web pages for his personal site. He then develops “Personal Home Page” (PHP), a set of CGI scripts written in C language.

This humble origin explains a lot about PHP’s philosophy. Unlike languages designed in university laboratories or by large companies, PHP was born from a pragmatic need: quickly create dynamic websites without worrying about pure computer theory.

In 1997, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans completely rewrote PHP’s engine, giving birth to PHP 3. This is when the acronym becomes “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor”, marking the language’s ambition to surpass its modest origins.

Key Stages of PHP Evolution

PHP’s journey to 2025 resembles that of an entrepreneur who transformed their garage into a technological empire, while remaining faithful to their original values.

PHP 4 (2000): The Turbulent Adolescence This version introduces the Zend Engine, bringing better performance and a more object-oriented approach. This is the era when PHP begins to be taken seriously by businesses, despite its youthful flaws.

PHP 5 (2004): Professional Maturity With a completely redesigned object model, PHP 5 marks the language’s entry into the modern era. It’s this version that will allow Facebook to develop rapidly, and that will give birth to frameworks like Symfony and Laravel.

<?php
// PHP 5 introduces true object-oriented programming
class UserService
{
    private $database;

    public function __construct(Database $db)
    {
        $this->database = $db;
    }

    public function createUser(string $name, string $email): bool
    {
        // Clean and maintainable business logic
        return $this->database->insert('users', [
            'name' => $name,
            'email' => $email,
            'created_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s')
        ]);
    }
}
?>

PHP 7 (2015): The Renaissance PHP 7 represents a major turning point with doubled performance compared to PHP 5.6, thanks to the new Zend Engine 3. This version finally addresses performance criticisms of the language.

PHP 8 (2020-2025): The Modern Era PHP 8 and its minor versions up to 2025 bring modern features like union types, attributes, and the JIT compiler. The language now competes with its competitors on all fronts.

PHP in 2025: The Paradox of the Invisible Giant

The Paradoxical Reputation

In 2025, PHP still suffers from a fascinating paradox. In language popularity surveys, it seems to lose ground against JavaScript and Python. Junior developers learn React or Django more willingly. On social media, PHP is regularly the subject of mocking memes.

Yet this perception doesn’t reflect industry reality. It’s a bit like those film actors who never win an Oscar but make the biggest box office successes. PHP may not be the “coolest” language, but it remains essential.

This dichotomy is explained by several factors. First, PHP has a relatively gentle learning curve, making it often the first backend language that developers discover. This creates an association with “beginner code”, even though the language now allows creating very sophisticated architectures.

2025 Figures: A Tenacious Reality

2025 statistics reveal a surprising truth. According to the latest W3Techs data, PHP still powers over 75% of websites whose backend language can be determined. This figure has remained remarkably stable in recent years, despite the emergence of new technologies.

Even more impressive, among the world’s most visited websites, a significant proportion still uses PHP in their technology stack. This persistence is not the result of chance or technological laziness, but rather the result of thoughtful technical choices.

<?php
// PHP 8+ offers very modern features
class ApiResponse
{
    public function __construct(
        public readonly string $status,
        public readonly array $data,
        public readonly ?string $message = null
    ) {}

    public function toJson(): string
    {
        return json_encode([
            'status' => $this->status,
            'data' => $this->data,
            'message' => $this->message,
            'timestamp' => time()
        ], JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
    }
}

// Usage with new features
$response = new ApiResponse(
    status: 'success',
    data: ['users' => $users],
    message: 'Data retrieved successfully'
);
?>

Why Does PHP Resist So Well?

PHP’s persistence is explained by several pragmatic factors that businesses understand well, even if the developer community sometimes neglects them.

The Hosting Ecosystem PHP benefits from a mature and affordable hosting ecosystem. Most web hosts offer PHP by default, often at no additional cost. This accessibility contrasts with other languages that require more complex server configurations.

Backward Compatibility Unlike Python with its break between versions 2 and 3, or certain JavaScript frameworks that radically change from one major version to another, PHP maintains excellent backward compatibility. PHP code written ten years ago has good chances of still working today.

Development Cycle Efficiency PHP allows a very rapid development cycle, particularly suited to web projects. No need for compilation, ability to directly test modifications, syntax close to natural language for common web operations.

PHP, Pillar of Web Giants

Facebook: The Love Story That Continues

The story between Facebook and PHP perfectly illustrates the language’s ability to evolve with needs. When Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dorm in 2004, he chooses PHP for its simplicity and development speed. This choice, which might seem anecdotal, will prove decisive for the social network’s future.

Facebook, now Meta, has never abandoned PHP. On the contrary, the company has massively invested in improving the language. It developed HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine), an alternative execution environment for PHP that considerably improves performance. More recently, Meta created Hack, a language derived from PHP with a static type system.

<?php
// Example of modern architecture inspired by Facebook patterns
class PostService
{
    public function __construct(
        private DatabaseInterface $db,
        private CacheInterface $cache,
        private LoggerInterface $logger
    ) {}

    public function publishPost(int $userId, string $content): Post
    {
        try {
            $post = new Post($userId, $content);

            // Validation and processing
            $this->validateContent($content);

            // Database save
            $postId = $this->db->insert('posts', $post->toArray());

            // Cache invalidation
            $this->cache->delete("user_posts_{$userId}");

            // Logging for monitoring
            $this->logger->info("Post published", ['user_id' => $userId, 'post_id' => $postId]);

            return $post->withId($postId);

        } catch (Exception $e) {
            $this->logger->error("Post publication error", ['error' => $e->getMessage()]);
            throw new PublicationException("Unable to publish post");
        }
    }
}
?>

This Facebook approach demonstrates an important truth: it’s not about choosing the most “fashionable” language, but the one that best meets the project’s specific needs. For Facebook, PHP offered the development speed necessary to iterate quickly in a startup environment, then the flexibility to evolve toward a global platform.

WordPress: The Partnership That Shapes the Web

WordPress perhaps represents the most striking example of the symbiosis between PHP and web success. Powering over 40% of all websites in 2025, WordPress has made PHP the world’s most used backend language, almost by default.

This symbiotic relationship goes beyond simple statistics. WordPress has pushed PHP to evolve to meet the needs of a platform used by millions of developers with very varied expertise levels. In return, PHP improvements have allowed WordPress to remain performant despite its growing complexity.

In 2025, WordPress recommends PHP 8.1 minimum, but encourages the use of PHP 8.3 for optimal performance. This progressive migration illustrates how a mature ecosystem can evolve without leaving its users behind.

PrestaShop and WooCommerce: E-commerce Powered by PHP

In the e-commerce domain, PHP reigns supreme thanks to platforms like PrestaShop and WooCommerce. PrestaShop 9, the latest major version, introduces significant architectural changes while maintaining its PHP base.

WooCommerce, which transforms WordPress into an online shop, perfectly illustrates the evolution of PHP requirements. Starting with version 7.7, WooCommerce requires PHP 7.3 minimum, thus encouraging the community to adopt more recent and performant versions.

<?php
// Example of modern architecture for e-commerce
class ProductService
{
    public function calculatePrice(Product $product, Customer $customer): CalculatedPrice
    {
        $basePrice = $product->getBasePrice();

        // Apply complex business rules
        $priceWithTaxes = $this->applyTaxes($basePrice, $customer->getCountry());
        $priceWithDiscounts = $this->applyDiscounts($priceWithTaxes, $customer);
        $finalPrice = $this->applyPromotion($priceWithDiscounts, $product);

        return new CalculatedPrice(
            base: $basePrice,
            taxes: $priceWithTaxes - $basePrice,
            discounts: $priceWithDiscounts - $priceWithTaxes,
            final: $finalPrice
        );
    }
}
?>

This modern approach to e-commerce development in PHP shows how the language adapts to complex system requirements, managing millions of transactions while maintaining the simplicity that makes its success.

PHP’s Challenges and Opportunities in 2025

Competition and Innovations

In 2025, PHP faces increased competition from languages like Node.js for full-stack JavaScript development, or Python with Django for robust web applications. This competitive pressure, far from being negative, pushes PHP to constantly innovate.

The JIT compiler introduced in PHP 8.0 and optimized in following versions allows the language to compete in terms of performance with compiled languages. New data types, syntactic improvements, and the modern package ecosystem via Composer make PHP 8.3+ a resolutely contemporary language.

Ecosystem Evolution

PHP’s 2025 ecosystem has nothing in common with that of the 2000s. Modern frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, or even micro-frameworks like Slim offer sophisticated architectures. Development tools like PHPStan for static analysis or Rector for automatic code migration place PHP at the level of the most modern languages.

<?php
// Modern PHP with strict types and static analysis
declare(strict_types=1);

class OrderProcessor
{
    /**
     * @param array<string, mixed> $data
     * @return Result<Order, ValidationError>
     */
    public function processOrder(array $data): Result
    {
        $validation = $this->validateData($data);

        if ($validation->hasErrors()) {
            return Result::error(new ValidationError($validation->getErrors()));
        }

        $order = $this->createOrder($data);
        $this->persist($order);

        return Result::success($order);
    }
}
?>

Conclusion: PHP, a Solid Future Despite Prejudices

PHP’s story from its beginnings to 2025 resembles that of a marathon runner who may not win sprints, but who continues their race with remarkable endurance. While other languages shine through their novelty or theoretical sophistication, PHP thrives through its pragmatism and adaptation capacity.

In my web development practice since 2006, starting from my computer science studies, I’ve seen PHP evolve from a sometimes maligned language to a mature and performant platform. The projects I develop today with PHP 8.3 have nothing to envy in terms of architecture and performance to solutions developed in other languages.

PHP’s history lesson is clear: in web development, relevance is not measured by survey popularity or social media trends, but by the ability to effectively solve real problems. And on this criterion, PHP continues to prove its value year after year.

In 2025, choosing PHP for a new project is no longer a default choice or ease, but a thoughtful technical decision. The language offers a mature ecosystem, solid performance, and an active community that continues to innovate. PHP’s story is not that of a language surviving despite its flaws, but that of a tool that intelligently evolves with the modern web’s needs.

Finally, PHP reminds us that in technology as elsewhere, longevity is not the fruit of chance, but of the capacity to remain useful while evolving. And this story is far from over.

Article published on August 21, 2025 by Nicolas Dabène - PHP & PrestaShop Expert with 15+ years of experience

Related Resources

• Skills
• Fullstack Expertise
• Services
• Training