Is PHP Still Relevant?

Every few years, someone publishes another obituary for PHP. And every time, they’re wrong.

In 2025, we’re still asking: is PHP still relevant? The answer? Only if you care about speed, cost, and reach, which is to say, yes. Unmistakably yes.

This so-called dead language continues to power a significant portion of the internet, including giants like WordPress, WooCommerce, and thousands of SME and government platforms. That’s not a niche. That’s critical infrastructure.

Despite regular declarations to the contrary, PHP still relevant is more than a keyword, it’s a strategic reality. PHP remains the go to language for content-heavy platforms, rapid MVPs, and scalable backends across multiple industries.

Yes, it’s not always the darling of developer Twitter. But it still ranks among the most popular programming languagesglobally. And PHP continues to thrive precisely because it’s stable, affordable, and everywhere.

So when people ask if PHP is still relevant in 2024 and beyond, they’re often really asking: does legacy mean obsolete? And the answer is no. Legacy means battle-tested. It means optimised. And in PHP’s case, it means ready.

If you’ve only seen PHP through the lens of WordPress plugins or 2009 forums, you’ve missed the evolution.

Today, PHP isn’t just about templating pages, it’s powering modern web development. With tools like Laravel, Octane, Swoole and FrankenPHP, it competes with newer stacks on performance, developer experience, and scale.

Take Catch, our angling SaaS platform. We rebuilt its core product using Laravel and Octane. The result? 38% faster request handling, lower hosting costs, and a smoother user experience across mobile and desktop. That’s php developmentdone right, fast to build, easy to scale.

The appeal lies in the balance: a familiar programming language, but with an elegant syntax that doesn’t fight you as you grow. Unlike verbose enterprise stacks or over-complicated JS builds, PHP frameworks now provide everything needed to create dynamic web pages and build full SaaS platforms, clean routing, ORM, background jobs, queues, tests, and security out of the box.

This isn’t nostalgia. This is pragmatism.

The php language has matured. It supports strict typing, async operations (via Fibers), attributes, and now ships with a JIT compiler for serious performance gains in modern frameworks. This isn’t your dad’s PHP. It’s leaner, sharper, and better tooled than many other programming languages being hyped today.

In 2025, choosing PHP isn’t a compromise. It’s a considered, commercial decision, especially when time-to-value and total cost of ownership actually matter.

If you’re building something new, really building, under pressure, with a budget, PHP still makes sense.

The development process matters. You want to move fast, test ideas, and go live without assembling a 12-piece DevOps orchestra. That’s where PHP shines. From prototyping to production, you get velocity without the complexity tax.

At Ronins, we used WordPress to deliver Two Chics’ content platform, Gen-Z-led, video-heavy, mobile-first. We went from idea to launch in weeks. And that’s typical of PHP’s strength: rapid assembly with fewer moving parts. Everything from CMS integration to forms, user roles, and animations were handled cleanly with a single framework.

The ability to create dynamic web pages without unnecessary overhead gives PHP an edge in SaaS and service-led platforms. For founders, this isn’t about syntax, it’s about outcome. Lower hosting bills, fewer dependencies, quicker iterations.

Modern Laravel apps aren’t just for blogs or plugins. They can handle complex web applications: scheduling, subscriptions, analytics, user-generated content. And thanks to the ecosystem’s maturity, you’ll find pre-built packages for almost anything.

That’s why PHP remains a weapon of choice in early-stage full stack development. You can wire up real features, not wireframes, in a sprint. With first-party support for queues, caching, routing, tests, and more, Laravel makes serious builds feel light.

The ecosystem’s reach also means php benefits from thousands of hours of open-source effort. Every edge case, every UI flow, it’s probably been solved, documented, and packaged. You don’t waste time reinventing basics.

And when you hit scale, PHP doesn’t crumble. Its platforms enable businesses to grow sustainably, without shifting stack just because traffic doubled.

Laravel’s DX, blade templating, Eloquent ORM, and vibrant ecosystem all help you build faster with less friction. The result? Less cost, more output, faster feedback loops.

The biggest myth in modern dev circles? That moving away from PHP automatically upgrades your stack.

It doesn’t.

Every backend language has strengths, but PHP deserves more credit for holding its ground in critical web development scenarios. Especially when budgets are real, timelines are tight, and outcomes actually matter.

Let’s be blunt: if you’re building a live chat system or real-time multiplayer game, PHP isn’t your tool. But if you’re building a content-rich SaaS platform, e-commerce store, portal, or back-office system? PHP competes head-on, with less pain.

Node.js is praised for async speed—but it’s brittle at scale without careful orchestration. Go wins raw performance, but often takes twice as long to build features. Python excels at ML, but falls short in web serving speed and DX. Ruby is a joy to write, but hard to scale affordably.

What makes PHP durable isn’t hype. It’s that it handles web tasks cleanly, without forcing your team through unnecessary complexity.

When it comes to stability, PHP has improved dramatically. With the rise of Laravel, Symfony, and Octane, PHP now offers more secure coding practices out of the box: CSRF protection, input sanitisation, rate-limiting, password hashing, and strict type support.

That security edge has also helped PHP close perception gaps with modern languages. Laravel’s ecosystem, combined with PHP 8.x’s new features (like Fibers and Attributes), gives engineers the tooling they’d expect from newer runtimes, just with less churn.

And don’t overlook the elephant in the room: your hosting bill. PHP runs on nearly every major stack, with built-in support from web hosting providers, shared hosting, PaaS like Heroku, and even serverless via Bref. Simpler deployment = lower ops cost.

Of course, other technologies have their place. But the idea that PHP is inherently less secure or scalable is no longer true. Especially when you’re building something that doesn’t need microservices and AI pipelines on day one.

And if you’re shipping product, rather than just talking about it, you’ll value the speed of a well-scaffolded Laravel app over the blank-slate pain of some “modern” tools.

You won’t hear about it on tech Twitter. But PHP is still running the show in a staggering number of business-critical systems. And no, this isn’t just legacy.

Today’s php based websites range from global e-commerce giants to regional housing developers, logistics platforms, and government services. These aren’t experimental side projects, they’re workhorses. Systems built to endure.

One of our own clients, Montreaux Homes, needed a new digital estate to support multiple property businesses and generate high-value leads. We chose PHP. Why? Because WordPress (backed by custom modules) gave them speed, flexibility, and a stable way to scale content while integrating custom property search tools.

That’s the trick: PHP plays especially well with content management systems and scalable custom features. We didn’t need React hydration, a headless GraphQL layer, or five microservices. We needed performance, simplicity, and speed to impact.

The same logic applies across tens of thousands of businesses. PHP’s integration into CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Magento, and Joomla means the php based systems that support over 70% of the web are far from being phased out.

In fact, PHP powers dynamic web pages across 43% of all websites (via WordPress alone), and handles everything from blog content to appointment bookings, gated resources, donations, product inventories and more.

It’s not just about scale, it’s about relevance. For website development, PHP is still the go-to in agencies, SMEs, non-profits and local governments. Not because it’s the cheapest, but because it’s fast to deploy, well-supported, and proven.

PHP also wins when teams need stability. Web development teams often have varying skill levels. You’re far more likely to find someone with practical PHP exposure than expertise in SvelteKit or serverless Java.

And unlike some frameworks, PHP doesn’t force you into an architecture you don’t need. It gives you just enough to build robust, scalable php applications, without being opinionated to a fault.

So yes, the hype may live elsewhere, but the actual work? The live platforms? The bookings, subscriptions, purchases and referrals?

They’re still running on PHP.

The best technology doesn’t win on features alone, it wins when people can actually build with it.

PHP’s staying power has a lot to do with the people who use it. The global pool of php developers is vast, experienced, and well-distributed. That means shorter hiring cycles, lower payroll costs, and a higher chance of finding someone who can jump into your codebase tomorrow, not six weeks from now.

And these aren’t just script kiddies. Today’s skilled php developers are pushing Laravel, Symfony and headless WordPress into territory once reserved for complex JS or Java stacks. At Ronins, we saw this first-hand on our Orbus Software project: a large enterprise platform re-architected with a lean, scalable component system, delivered in PHP with zero compromise.

That project relied on deep php expertise. Atomic design systems, enterprise-grade CMS integration, and a flexible front-end layer built in Sitefinity. The outcome? A marketing team that could launch pages without developer support, and a business now saving thousands on agency updates.

In terms of talent economics, the job market reflects a healthy, global demand for PHP skills. Especially in markets like India, Eastern Europe and LATAM, PHP remains a bread-and-butter backend choice. Companies there rely on it not out of habit, but because it works and scales affordably.

This is why so many dev teams still invest in php skills. Learning Laravel today teaches principles you’ll use across any stack: routing, validation, queues, APIs, background jobs. For juniors and mid-level devs, it’s a smart on-ramp into modern architecture.

And the php community? Still one of the most active and practical in the open-source world. Composer and Packagist host hundreds of thousands of packages. Tutorials, forums, meetups, and Laracasts all contribute to a healthy learning ecosystem.

That community support extends well beyond Laravel too. WordPress, Drupal, Magento, each comes with its own vibrant network of developers, freelancers, trainers, and plugin authors. And because of that, PHP doesn’t just survive. It compounds.

Even if it’s not the sexiest line on a CV, PHP remains one of the most accessible ways for people to get into tech, and one of the smartest for companies who need to stay in it.

There’s a reason PHP isn’t going anywhere, and it’s not just market share. It’s inertia. It’s integration. It’s architecture decisions that made sense in 2010 and still hold up in 2025.

For many enterprises, PHP sits at the heart of legacy systems too critical to tear down. Whether it’s a membership portal, patient data layer, or content engine, rewriting from scratch is rarely justifiable. Instead, modernisation is the smarter play.

We’ve supported this approach in the healthcare sector, working on digital infrastructure that combines SharePoint with a mission-critical PHP codebase powering public-facing services, class bookings, and CMS platforms. The result wasn’t a shiny rebuild, it was a strategic evolution. Respect what works. Improve what doesn’t.

In these setups, integration capabilities matter more than novelty. PHP’s maturity means it connects cleanly with CRMs, ERPs, modern APIs, and enterprise tools, without needing elaborate adapters or custom bridges.

Even outside the browser, PHP holds its own. It supports command line scripting for background tasks, migrations, and batch processes, still used in millions of cron jobs across finance, education, publishing, and ecommerce.

Crucially, PHP runs on all major operating systems, Linux, Windows, macOS, without friction. Whether deployed via Docker, AWS Lambda (via Bref), or a classic LAMP stack, the ops side is predictable, repeatable, and well-supported.

When you’re navigating a long-term product, the ability to evolve existing systems matters. Rewriting introduces risk. Managing and refactoring allows you to incrementally modernise, with less business disruption.

In our work across enterprise and healthcare clients, this reality shows up again and again: PHP is still the most efficient way to extend, adapt, or expose functionality in existing platforms.

And the software development world is starting to accept it, because even teams chasing microservices and event-driven backends often rely on a monolithic PHP core they’re not ready to kill.

Modernising a web development project doesn’t mean abandoning PHP. It means sharpening it, replatforming where needed, and integrating smartly.

In 2025, any discussion about relevance must pass through one lens: performance and AI compatibility. And PHP? It’s more ready than people think.

Let’s start with raw speed. The introduction of the JIT compiler in PHP 8 unlocked serious gains for CPU-bound tasks, making it viable for more than just page rendering. We’ve seen real performance jumps in Laravel workloads, with throughput increases of 30–40% in production environments.

But what about machine learning? This is where critics often dismiss PHP. And yes, you won’t be training neural networks in it anytime soon. But that’s the wrong framing.

In real-world use cases, most businesses aren’t building AI, they’re using it. And PHP integrates beautifully with OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and custom LLM services via APIs. PHP handles token requests, webhooks, and stream responses just as well as any data science stack, because in production, it’s not about what language your AI was built in. It’s about how cleanly you can deploy and deliver it.

We’ve worked on php based systems that consume AI APIs to generate copy, optimise user flows, and recommend content dynamically. And the best part? These enhancements required zero infrastructure overhaul. PHP handled the integration effortlessly.

This is how PHP’s strengths show up in 2025: not as an ML tool, but as the layer that makes AI useful for modern web applications.

Security and performance improvements continue too. PHP 8.x offers safer types, async with Fibers, and tools like Laravel Octane and Swoole for high-concurrency loads. That means significant improvements in memory handling and event-based workloads, two areas where PHP used to lag.

And because so many platforms run on PHP, adding AI capabilities helps future, proof what’s already live. This means php’s future isn’t about fighting for cool points, it’s about staying commercially strategic.

If you’re building AI-enhanced features into a content engine, a booking system, or a marketing tool, PHP still lets you ship fast, test small, and iterate often.

It’s not flashy. It’s functional. And in this market, that’s a competitive edge.

PHP has survived a thousand obituaries because it delivers where it counts.

It’s not the trendiest. It’s not the loudest. But it is one of the few stacks that balances speed, cost, scalability, and clarity, especially when building real platforms for real users.

So is PHP still relevant?

Yes. If you care about outcomes over optics. If you value predictable costs, global talent pools, and frameworks that ship fast. If your north star is traction, not technical theatre.

We’ve built on PHP for global brands, funded startups, and purpose-driven platforms. And when it’s the right fit, we’ll keep recommending it, without apology.

If you’re sitting on a PHP stack that feels outdated, under-leveraged, or just unloved, we’ll help you figure out whether to rebuild or reinvest.

Let’s make the next version of your platform faster, leaner, and more resilient than the last.

If you’re unsure what to do with your PHP stack, let’s have a conversation.
Not a pitch. Just a second opinion. Get in touch