--- title: Why PHP in 2026? | daily.dev description: Modern PHP has evolved significantly with features like JIT compilation, readonly immutability, enums, attributes, and a robust type system comparable to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/5ae4dsg12 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why PHP in 2026? | daily.dev og:description: Modern PHP has evolved significantly with features like JIT compilation, readonly immutability, enums, attributes, and a robust type system comparable to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/5ae4dsg12 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5aE4dsG12.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why PHP in 2026? **[PHP Dev](https://daily.dev/sources/phpdev)** · [@damienseguy](https://daily.dev/damienseguy) · 235 upvotes · 39 comments ## Summary Modern PHP has evolved significantly with features like JIT compilation, readonly immutability, enums, attributes, and a robust type system comparable to TypeScript. Unlike JavaScript frameworks, PHP requires no build steps, transpilation, or bundling—developers can write code and deploy directly. The ecosystem includes tools like Laravel for rapid development, with production-ready setup achievable through simple commands. PHP 8+ offers type safety, expressiveness, and modern language features that challenge outdated perceptions of the language. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@princekumar95** · 24 upvotes > Totally agree with this. I started working with PHP 5.6, and coming back to PHP 8.2 feels like working with a completely different language. Strong typing, enums, readonly properties, and better tooling have made day-to-day development much cleaner and safer. Modern PHP is fast, expressive, and honestly underrated — it just works. **@jamiecarl** · 23 upvotes > Why PHP? Because it pays the bills. **@mgcodeur** · 13 upvotes > PHP is alive. **@brianmatthews** · 12 upvotes > I don't need 300k of javascript to render a table and an image. **@ravavyr** · 4 upvotes > because WordPress still dominates the market lol. The end. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#laravel](https://daily.dev/tags/laravel) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/5ae4dsg12) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/5ae4dsg12","headline":"Why PHP in 2026?","text":"Shared: Why PHP in 2026?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5ae4dsg12","datePublished":"2025-12-22T21:54:01.588Z","dateModified":"2025-12-22T21:54:35.842Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Damien seguy","url":"https://daily.dev/damienseguy","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--nPbjKqol--/f_auto,q_auto/v1698422671/avatars/avatar_G85JhYcDxAg024Omc8Rlp","description":"PHP developer passionate about deep language knowledge, testing, static analysis, and sustainable it","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Exakat","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ibtl6fze--/f_auto/v1749051132/companies/exakat"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":35220}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VDukGCjf--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2002","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":235},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":39}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/eeKNgPU6K"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Totally agree with this. I started working with PHP 5.6, and coming back to PHP 8.2 feels like working with a completely different language. Strong typing, enums, readonly properties, and better tooling have made day-to-day development much cleaner and safer. Modern PHP is fast, expressive, and honestly underrated — it just works.","datePublished":"2025-12-23T05:42:21.656Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5aE4dsG12#c-K77wuozKx","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Prince Kumar","url":"https://daily.dev/princekumar95","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--NZi1hywl--/f_auto/v1767872503/avatars/avatar_ubQa4zL8noGlmLPVdNR79?_a=BAMAMiZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":24}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Why PHP? Because it pays the bills.","datePublished":"2025-12-23T06:36:59.910Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5aE4dsG12#c-gAFCLl8sF","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Carl","url":"https://daily.dev/jamiecarl","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--6HKK4uxD--/f_auto/v1774926661/avatars/avatar_k36Xl74b9YwkVH3UdpWWH?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":23}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"PHP is alive.","datePublished":"2025-12-23T08:10:42.930Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5aE4dsG12#c-YbiKzHcnR","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Mg Codeur","url":"https://daily.dev/mgcodeur","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JAytYeKM--/f_auto/v1743122431/avatars/avatar_Nw83gNwqha8vzyDG6Z63r"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":13}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I don’t need 300k of javascript to render a table and an image.","datePublished":"2025-12-23T14:07:22.952Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5aE4dsG12#c-25qXMlW0F","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Matthews","url":"https://daily.dev/brianmatthews","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJNZ6I1EE-h3i6W-iKwP8DbrXrW4YwWoiOfD8PEc2mopvzbPA=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"because WordPress still dominates the market lol. The end.","datePublished":"2025-12-23T16:42:50.059Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/5aE4dsG12#c-mdFBYmTaQ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ramsez Stamper","url":"https://daily.dev/ravavyr","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AGNmyxYvk0A28pTmE32gmh59XDuOpMsFjjhwtMm6TiszOQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/phpdev","name":"PHP Dev"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PHP Dev","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/phpdev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why PHP in 2026?"}]} ```