PHP (a recursive acronym for 'PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor') is a widely-used, open-source, server-side scripting language created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. It is especially suited to web development because PHP code runs on the server and outputs plain HTML to the browser, meaning the visitor never sees the underlying PHP source.
PHP powers a huge share of the web — it is the language behind WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and frameworks like Laravel and Symfony. Major platforms including Facebook (originally) and Wikipedia were built on PHP.
Why PHP is still popular in 2026:
- Easy to learn, with a huge amount of documentation and community support
- Runs on virtually every web host, often pre-installed
- Tight, native integration with MySQL/MariaDB and other databases
- A mature ecosystem: Composer for dependency management, PHPUnit/Pest for testing, and frameworks like Laravel and Symfony for structured applications
- Genuinely fast — modern PHP (8.x) with the JIT compiler and OPcache performs very competitively
The current stable release as of 2026 is PHP 8.5 (released November 2025), with PHP 8.6 already in alpha testing. PHP 8.3 and 8.4 remain in active support, so most hosting environments run PHP 8.2 or newer today.