What began in 1995 with Rasmus Lerdorf's "Personal Home Page Tools" and continued in 2000 with my first commit to PHPUnit has evolved into one of the most influential ecosystems in modern software development. These three decades have not only revolutionised the way we experience the web, but also demonstrated what Open Source communities are capable of through collaboration.
Humble Beginnings
PHP began as a collection of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs in the C programming language, developed by Rasmus Lerdorf to manage his personal homepage. These early "Personal Home Page Tools" were not nearly as elegant, object-oriented, or type-safe as the language we know today. The first official release was 30 years ago, on June 8, 1995 .
The syntax of these early versions was very different from today's. Developers had to use HTML comments to embed code. However, this primitive but working implementation laid the foundation for what would become one of the most important languages in web development.
The second major version of PHP was not PHP 2.0, but PHP/FI. It was released on November 1, 1997 and marked a decisive turning point. This version could be characterised as a standalone programming language for the first time and contained many features that still exist today.
Breakthrough with PHP 3 and PHP 4
A transformative moment came in 1997 when Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans rewrote the parser, laying the foundation for a modern PHP architecture. On June 6, 1998, PHP 3 was released, providing a more solid foundation for web development. This was also when I first came into contact with PHP. I wrote about how this came about ten years ago .
The next milestone was PHP 4, which was released on May 22, 2000 with the revolutionary Zend Engine. This version introduced advanced features such as session handling and offered significantly improved performance.
Object-Orientation with PHP 5
PHP 5, released on July 1, 2004, marked a true revolution in PHP development. Powered by the new Zend Engine 2, this version offered drastically improved support for object-oriented programming, the PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension for unified database access, and numerous performance improvements. From 2008 onwards, this version became the only stable development version and shaped the world of PHP for more than a decade.
Wanna bet that PHP code can be tested?
My journey with PHPUnit began in 2000 when I first encountered software testing and unit testing while working with JUnit at university. The idea for PHPUnit arose from a discussion with a professor who doubted that a tool like JUnit could be implemented for PHP. This challenge was the catalyst for what would become one of the most important tools in the PHP ecosystem.
In November 2001 , I finally dared to share the result of over a year's work with the world on cvs.php.net as part of the PEAR project. This first version was modest, but it laid the foundation for automated testing of PHP code. From the beginning, PHPUnit was based on the xUnit architecture, which started with SUnit and became popular through JUnit.
Later, PHPUnit broke away from PEAR and has since been available as a standalone project under a BSD licence. This independence allowed me to develop PHPUnit faster and better respond to the needs of the PHP community.
PHPUnit quickly established itself as the standard testing framework for PHP. It was quickly adopted and used by large projects such as CakePHP, Symfony, WordPress and the Zend Framework. This broad acceptance confirms the necessity and value of automated testing in PHP development.
Performance Boost with PHP 7
The decision to skip PHP 6 and jump directly from PHP 5 to PHP 7 was a conscious one. PHP 6 was originally planned as a Unicode project, but was never released.
PHP 7, released on December 3, 2015, represented the most significant version jump in the history of PHP .
This version introduced a new Zend Engine that could execute PHP code up to 250% faster while using less memory. PHP 7 improved support for type-safe programming , introduced new operators, and optimised error handling.
In our e-book PHP 7 Explained , Stefan, Arne and I wrote down everything there is to know about PHP 7.
Type Safety and JIT Compilation with PHP 8
PHP 8, which was first released in November 2020, brought further improvements to the type system, including union types and intersection types. Improvements to the bytecode optimiser and support for JIT compilation optimised performance.
This continuous development demonstrates PHP's commitment to modern programming practices and performance optimisation. Today, PHP is used by over 75% of all websites worldwide, including platforms such as Wikipedia, WordPress and Drupal.
Together with Stefan, I wrote a detailed article about the significance of PHP 8 at the time.
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PHPUnit stays on the ball
PHPUnit has evolved in parallel with PHP and is now available in version 12 . Each version of PHPUnit is carefully tailored to specific PHP versions. For example, PHPUnit 12 supports PHP 8.3 or higher, while older versions support earlier PHP versions accordingly.
Version 10 , released on February 3, 2023, was the most significant release in the history of the project. It brought massive clean-up, refactoring and modernisation, laying the foundation for future developments.
The PHP Foundation
Founded in 2021, the PHP Foundation aims to ensure the long-term development and stability of PHP. Currently, 10 part-time and full-time developers are employed by the PHP Foundation, working on maintenance and new features for PHP. This institutional support ensures that PHP will remain relevant and innovative for decades to come.
Celebrations and Outlook
The 30th anniversary of PHP will be marked by events such as PHPverse 2025 . This free virtual event, organised by JetBrains, will take place on 17 June 2025 and bring together leading figures from the PHP community.
The future of PHP looks promising with innovations such as FrankenPHP, which is reinventing PHP for the modern web. AI technologies are also changing the way we develop and test PHP code, opening up new possibilities in terms of productivity and quality.
This journey isn't over yet
30 years of PHP and 25 years of PHPUnit are more than just technological milestones: they symbolise the power of community, innovative spirit, and the relentless drive to improve web development. PHP has evolved from Rasmus Lerdorf's initially simple CGI scripts into a modern, powerful language that forms the backbone of the modern internet. In parallel, PHPUnit has promoted a culture of testing in the PHP community and made countless projects more robust and reliable.
As we look to the future, I see endless possibilities for both projects. With the support of the PHP Foundation, a vibrant ecosystem of frameworks and tools, and a passionate global community, both PHP and PHPUnit are well positioned to continue shaping web development for decades to come.
This journey has been and continues to be a privilege. As part of this extraordinary community, I have been able to earn a living doing what I love most: sharing knowledge , developing tools, and helping developers write better software .
Here's to another 30 years of innovation, collaboration, and the ongoing evolution of the PHP ecosystem!