The latest articles on DEV Community by xdev (@hal_9e9f2c235f5f0b94). https://dev.to/hal_9e9f2c235f5f0b94 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3293397%2Febcda399-5062-40bf-9e20-3cd5b8c7f849.jpg https://dev.to/hal_9e9f2c235f5f0b94 en xdev Wed, 25 Jun 2025 10:34:12 +0000 https://dev.to/hal_9e9f2c235f5f0b94/why-php-still-powers-the-internet-in-2025-46fj https://dev.to/hal_9e9f2c235f5f0b94/why-php-still-powers-the-internet-in-2025-46fj <p><strong>“PHP is dead.”</strong></p> <p>You’ve probably heard that before. But here’s the thing — PHP never died. It just kept doing its job quietly while everyone else moved on to the Next Big Thing™.</p> <p>In 2025, PHP still powers over 75% of the web. That includes WordPress (which alone runs ~40% of all websites), Wikipedia, and even parts of Facebook. So yeah… it’s kind of a big deal.</p> <h2> Modern PHP is legit </h2> <p>If the last time you used PHP was during the 5.x days, it’s changed. A lot. PHP 8.x introduced:</p> <ul> <li>Strong typing and union types </li> <li>Match expressions and arrow functions </li> <li>Attributes (a cleaner way to do annotations) </li> <li>JIT compilation for faster performance</li> </ul> <p>It’s cleaner, more consistent, and way more enjoyable to write.</p> <h2> Laravel is a game changer </h2> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fsl9rru0gy55967r4a0qo.jpg" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fsl9rru0gy55967r4a0qo.jpg" alt="laravel meme" width="225" height="224"></a></p> <p>PHP’s bad rep? Laravel erased a lot of that.</p> <p>Laravel is a modern, batteries-included web framework with elegant syntax, a vibrant ecosystem, and built-in features like:</p> <ul> <li>Auth, queues, caching, file storage </li> <li>Blade templates, Livewire, Inertia.js </li> <li>Artisan CLI and Laravel Forge/Vapor for deployment</li> </ul> <p>It’s honestly one of the most polished developer experiences around.</p> <h2> PHP is practical (and everywhere) </h2> <ul> <li>Easy to deploy </li> <li>Cheap hosting </li> <li>Tons of jobs and tutorials </li> <li>Massive community support </li> <li>Integrates with everything: MySQL, Redis, Stripe, S3, you name it</li> </ul> <p>Whether you’re building a side project, a SaaS, or an enterprise platform — PHP still gets the job done.</p> <h2> Final thoughts </h2> <p><strong>Tech doesn’t die. It just stops solving the problems we have *right now.</strong>*</p> <p>PHP still solves a lot of them — quickly, affordably, and at scale. It’s not the loudest language in the room, but it’s one of the most dependable.</p> <p>So no, PHP isn’t dead. It’s just quietly powering most of the internet — like it always has.</p> <p>Still building with PHP? Coming back to it after years away? Drop a comment — would love to hear your thoughts.</p> php fullstack backend laravel