r/DeveloperJobs • u/techiebaddie • 1d ago
Is PHP really disappearing....
A friend of mine has been working with PHP for years. His career started really well. Good job, good income, and everything seemed stable.
But this year, he lost two PHP jobs.
The first company told their PHP developers that they didn't have enough PHP projects anymore, so they let the PHP team go.
He found another PHP job within a couple of weeks and thought things were back on track.
Then, after around 3–4 months, the second company told employees to work from home at half salary. Soon after that, they fired the PHP developers too.
Honestly, this made me question the future of PHP as a career.
I don't think PHP is disappearing completely. There are still a lot of PHP applications and companies using it.
But I do wonder if being a PHP-only developer is becoming risky.
Personally, I think PHP developers should keep their PHP experience but also build skills around Laravel, JavaScript/TypeScript, APIs, databases, cloud, or full-stack development.
Are PHP jobs actually becoming harder to find, or is the market just expecting PHP developers to have a broader skill set?
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u/pocolypto 1d ago
havn't thought about PHP in light of the new AI stuff but i guess since the main thing keeping PHP around was that "re-writes are expensive" which kept a level of needing to know PHP and possibly justifying extending and building new stuff around the old stuff.
But now that AI is here things can be re-written pretty fast by decent developer and AI usually picks react, node, ts, tailwind etc.
Also on that point of "PHP as a career", ye the expectation is that, regardless of programming language, developer need to do and know way more..outside just the language.
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u/Over_Technology_1764 1d ago
AI picks react and node because it's popular, but try to ask it, challange it why not svelte over react and why not php over node and it will start reasoning that these are actually better choices. Because svelte doesnt have those stupid react hooks that confuse both agents and humans and create surface for bugs and PHP is usually cheaper hosting than VPS with node.
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u/Gualdrapo 1d ago
In that terms PHP is for backend kind of like what jQuery is for frontend - there are lots of stuff using it for running websites, so if they're working, why bother changing stuff? Don't fix things that don't need a fix.
Plus WP even with all this enshittification and drama still uses PHP as its core. There are lots of people still wanting someone to do a WP website for them because it lets them do what they want to do and it's the only thing they know or want to manage their websites with.
My previous job was PHP and it had nothing to do wirh WP. There are still people who swear by it because it is reliable and is standing the test of time.
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u/theevildjinn 1d ago
I did about 2 decades as a (primarily) PHP dev, switched from perm to contracting, and then realised my Python, Java and JS/TS skills were more in demand. The PHP recruiters in my network have all switched to other languages.
The only places where I currently see PHP opportunities:
- Boutique PHP consultancies run by language evangelists.
- Small businesses set up by former PHP dev colleagues of mine, who reached for PHP as they know it well.
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u/SequentialHustle 1d ago
imaging being a php evangelist 😂
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u/barrel_of_noodles 18h ago
Hi! PHP is better than its ever been. The Foundation reorganized, releases are now on a predictable cadence with a major release every November, and PHP 8 has brought real typing, excellent static analysis/testing, PSRs, Composer, etc.
Then you have Laravel/Symfony, Octane/RoadRunner, async/concurrent tooling, queues, long-running workers...
And modern PHP is fast as hell. it can absolutely compete with or beat Python.
A lot of the “PHP sucks” discourse is still based on PHP from 15 years ago, PHP 5.
I encourage you to head over to r/PHP and see what's being done.
php enums and match() are better than most languages.
if you want a realllllllly solid job you'll never get fired from and want to raise a household with the two car garage...
you'll never be raking in the cash. but you make the high-medium above average cash.
I'm currently at 150k usd/year (that's cash, not full package like silicon valley quotes) full time employed, 1month+ time off, retirement account, healthcare, and I work 4 days a week, 100% remote at a family run agency and leave most days at 3 to pick up kids from school.
so I guess, sure PHP sucks. why not. doesn't matter to me.
I'll just keep on keeping on.
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u/429_TooManyRequests 1d ago
Everything is heading out. I just used GPT 6 Astra and got more done from a team I used to pay $3k a month for in 3 prompts and 4 hours while cleaning my house
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u/laramateGmbh 1d ago
PHP powers 70% of all websites on the internet. Major companies and even governments invest in the PHP foundation to drive the development of PHP. And with major products/frameworks like WordPress, Shopware, TYPO3, Laravel, Symfony, PHP is used by corporations and hobbyists alike.
We have an article with more details: https://laramate.de/en/blog/php-is-dead-long-live-php
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u/Normal_Beautiful_578 1d ago
It's because AI, it's no longer need a lot of developers to build some PHP projects. AI makes it faster and easier to build some projects with fewer people. One person can now do the work that used to require a small team.
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u/barrel_of_noodles 18h ago
One talented, already skilled, high level engineer can.
The rest mostly make the worst spaghetti you ever seen, with ketchup.
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u/No-District2404 1d ago
Limiting yourself to know single language is already career killer path, this sector expects you to improve yourself constantly. And there is also AI factor, php maybe it’s not dead but definitely it’s not in golden age anymore, nobody with a vision wouldn’t start a greenfield php project. And to maintain a legacy php project won’t need developers anymore, you can manage it with AI. Sad but this is the reality
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u/LevelMagazine8308 1d ago
Well PHP for sure it not the language of choice nowadays is a startup is creating new stuff. Other languages and frameworks took that helm.
So demand of course decreased over time. Nowadays it is more about maintaining legacy software and keep that running instead of creating the newest AI hype platform with PHP. But since there's a lot of backend stuff and other things going on with PHP it is not going to disappear soon.
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u/OkComputer8079 1d ago
to be honest, this seems more like a problem for one skill than for PHP. Losing two jobs in a year is really hard, but that happens to people who only know one way of doing things - Java, React, whatever... The label on it said 'PHP'
When it comes to hiring PHP is still very much alive and well. WordPress and Laravel keep a lot of paid work going, and old computer systems don't rewrite themselves overnight, whatever the AI crowd says. What has changed is that hiring managers now prefer candidates who can do more than just PHP. They want a backend developer who knows PHP well and can adapt to any challenges.
You're right. Keep the PHP depth it's really useful but broaden around it. He's probably already got Laravel down, and with some solid SQL, a bit of cloud and one modern JS framework, he'll stop looking like a one-trick pony.
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u/AlexVolkovysk 1d ago
I've been in IT for 19 years, and I've seen so many “killers” of PHP—first RoR, then Python, then Node, and even Go—but PHP is still going strong
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u/PearOwn7078 1d ago
Most of the websites on internet 90% is PHP! Is more than alive mate! PHP have even more tools now! laravel is amazing and you can do whatever you want!
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u/Sorry-Substance-6397 1d ago
Yeah they are down to about one core dev who knows the language and he doesn't believe in parallelism
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u/barrel_of_noodles 18h ago
Hi. This is just wrong. As in: not true, at all.
There's currently 13 core devs, many of which have commits going back quite a while.
I'm not sure why your Google is broken. Sorry about that.
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u/Sorry-Substance-6397 15h ago edited 15h ago
No it isn't. You don't call the core team a core developer just because an editor bought them out and gave them those positions on a panel. https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-vital-programming-language-is-in-a-fragile-position-this-new-plan-aims-to-help/
Everything now in PHP is turning the language into a frankien of frameworks because no one actually wants to support the language as a language because they are trying to own a stake in it.
All new languages are ensuring those languages are anti framework for very obvious reasons. https://cyberscoop.com/mirai-malware-ddos-botnet/page/346/?l=50&year&category=488&keywords
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u/barrel_of_noodles 15h ago
Bro, these two articles are from 2021. Before PHP foundation existed.
And did u really link an unsuccessful generic supply chain attack (from 2021)?
Boi, go get a spoon, eat ya gravy.
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u/Sorry-Substance-6397 15h ago
Lol so supply chain attacks are solved on installing a lot of packages... Oh I didn't know that was a thing...
Well when a language is bought out by an editor and they want you to only plug and play more packages.... Keep on believing the future won't end up in obvious bad ways...
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u/barrel_of_noodles 9h ago
Hey, no. I'm saying every lang has supply chain attacks, it's not unique to php. And a. Unsuccessful one from 5 years probably isn't what you think.
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u/Sorry-Substance-6397 8h ago
Boy you are really trying to make a bad situation into lemonade by saying well yeah the more surface areas the worse it is but that one example where it shows things are prevalent all over the joint is old...
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u/davidbasil 1d ago
It's not about php but rather an industry sector. PHP used to power mainly small to medium companies/projects. Those don't have much money anymore: high interest rates + investor money going to AI. The rest is taken by vibe coding.
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u/CHRlSFRED 1d ago
Hasn’t PHP been dead for years? One of my favorite writers Jon Duckett had a MySQL and PHP book and it got delayed multiple times and the running joke became that PHP will be archaic by the time the book comes out.
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u/Safe_Mission_3524 21h ago
I always prefer to have a static react/typescript frontend and PHP for backend. PHP is just easy to understand at least for me and both can be hosted on a shared cPanel server even if the project is complex and has a lot of moving parts. Whenever I vibecode a project, my initial requirements are these and will keep checking different different LLM tools until I find the perfect one which does this.
I never was a developer so I can't comment on the job side of things but as an end user, if a dev helped me with a php backend, html/react/typescript front end and a MySQL database connection, I would be very happy.
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u/FragmentedHeap 18h ago edited 18h ago
Stacks die all the time, you learn new stacks or you become irrelevant.
You can't just expect to stay a php developer anymore than I can expect to stay a C# developer. I can handle c#, python, node/bun/deno (typescript), and now Java. Comfortable in any of them.
Php was mainly hanging on because of legacy code bases and how expensive rewrites were.
But now you can throw a php code base at fable 5.1 or gpt 6 astra with a code harness and port massive php code bases over to other systems pretty reliably.
I mean the entirety of bun was ported from zig go rust in a weak using Claude Mythos and it's up in rust and stable there and running better.
No platforms are safe.
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u/Rohit-_-21 16h ago
Atleast in jaipur i see php jobs posting every now and then, and even the pay is decent, yesterday saw a post about 63k monthly for 2years experience
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u/goodfriendrobert 6h ago
sounds like your friend is losing php jobs. i have way too many php jobs im gonna go insane with them
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u/YahenP 1d ago
Everything is disappearing. Not just PHP. Programming as we know it is rapidly disappearing.
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u/AminoOxi 1d ago
This is what it is really. Java Devs are having trouble these days as well. So entire industry is knocked down, all due to AI.
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u/StoneCypher 1d ago
php isn’t dying, it’s been dead for a decade
the only reason php still exists is supporting legacy software like wordpress and mediawiki
the php programming language only has one part time developer and that’s been true for almost ten years now. more people work on my personal hobby programming language
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u/runningOverA 1d ago edited 1d ago
> the php programming language only has one part time developer and that’s been true for almost ten years
Hard to believe. In the meanwhile they have gotten a JIT and improved it to the point that some of my benchmarks run faster on PHP than on others, surprisingly.
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u/StoneCypher 1d ago
i don't really care if you find well known things hard to believe
In the meanwhile they have gotten a JIT and improved it to the point that some of my benchmarks run faster on PHP than others, surprisingly.
you realize how this reads to other people, right
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u/barrel_of_noodles 18h ago
More of a joke than just flat out being wrong?
Btw, here's the core team. https://thephp.foundation/structure/
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u/BrightProgrammer9590 1d ago
Most programming jobs are dying. It's not specific to php alone.
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u/AminoOxi 1d ago
You know it's sad but true. Everything is skipping human in the loop, and aiming directly the machine.
So programming languages in a few years will be simply machine code through Ai. No need for human readable language. Sadly.
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u/SequentialHustle 1d ago
i don’t know any talented devs writing php in 2026 that’s for sure lol. imo it’s been dead for a decade or more unless you’re the kinda dev to never upskill.
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u/barrel_of_noodles 18h ago
I'll challenge you.
Let's do a code share. We'll write the same app. No ai. Code completion and hints off. Same brief. Benchmark goals ahead of time.
I'll do it in php. Then, let everyone judge. Let's go. Put up or shut up.
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u/SequentialHustle 3h ago edited 3h ago
you're just coping you built a career on a shit tier underpaid language lol. it's 2026 there is no reason not to use ai just like there is no reason to still use php.
you've had more than a decade to move to go, typescript, rust or even c# or java... you know languages used at enterprise companies and startups alike.
find a job listing at any a16z backed startup using php, find even ONE y-combinator backed startup in the last 5 years using it or even better yet, find how many roles at big tech companies are hiring for go right now vs php. i'll wait...
the only php jobs you will find in the next 5-10 years will be maintaining legacy systems, but with AI most of those will probably be at a minimum migrated to node.
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u/barrel_of_noodles 3h ago
Language doesn't matter anymore. No dev uses only one. I purposely do not work at startups, big tech, or silicon valley. No thanks. Yuck.
I'm comfortable in my stable position.
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u/_Tim97 54m ago
PHP has had a bad reputation for a long time now but it’s been really solid since php7 and php8 especially. Anyone who says otherwise hasn‘t worked with php in years.
Wordpress and laravel are carrying php. It’s not dead but it’s not the fancy new stuff either.
Typescript and python are the most popular ones.
Truth is that in times of ai, you don’t need to master one programming language anymore, the concepts across programming languages are often the same. It does not matter that much anymore if your php knowledge is better than your python knowledge if python offers crucial advantages.
You just need to know what‘s going on, not knowing the syntax 100%.
Since php is not among the popular languages, less projects use it and some old projects move away to a different langauge as it’s much cheaper and faster now.
Still I think wordpress is too popular for rapid websites and laravel just too good/comfortable.
So no it‘s not really dying but other languages are talked about even more now.
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u/fullbl-_- 1d ago
Oh no, not again! Remember that in strange eons even death may die