In short: The history of PHP begins in 1994 with Rasmus Lerdorf, who called the CGI programs he had written in C for his private website "Personal Home Page Tools". PHP 3 appeared in 1998, PHP 4 with the Zend Engine in 2000, PHP 5 in 2004, PHP 7 in 2015 and PHP 8 in 2020. Today a new version is released every November and maintained for four years.
How PHP came about: Personal Home Page Tools (1994 to 1997)
According to the PHP manual, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote a series of CGI programs in C in 1994. Originally they were only meant to track visits to his online résumé. He called the collection "Personal Home Page Tools" and released the source code in June 1995. This allowed others to use and improve the tools as well.
In September 1995 Lerdorf extended the tools and temporarily called them "FI" (Forms Interpreter). In October 1995 a complete rewrite followed, again under the name PHP. In April 1996 he combined both names into PHP/FI. This version received the status of version 2.0 in June 1996 and left beta in November 1997.
Even this early phase still shapes PHP today: a language that arose from a practical need, delivers results quickly and is developed further by an open community.
PHP 3 and the Zend Engine (1997 to 2004)
In 1997, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski from Tel Aviv began rewriting the parser, that is, the part that reads in and breaks down the source code. Together with Lerdorf this produced a new language that was now called simply "PHP". The name became the recursive acronym "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". PHP 3.0 appeared in June 1998 as the successor to PHP/FI 2.0. Above all, its good extensibility and first support for object-oriented programming were important.
Gutmans and Suraski then rewrote the core again. The result was the Zend Engine, named after their first names Zeev and Andi. It was presented in mid-1999. PHP 4.0 appeared in May 2000 and brought better performance, HTTP sessions and output buffering.
In July 2004 PHP 5 followed, with Zend Engine 2.0 and a new object model. The 5.x series stayed in use for a long time and grew with every minor version. With PHP 5.3.3 the FastCGI Process Manager (FPM) was added as its own operating mode, and with PHP 5.5.0 the bytecode cache OPcache became part of the distribution.
The cancelled PHP 6 and the leap to PHP 7 (2005 to 2019)
PHP 6 was meant to bring far-reaching Unicode support, that is, uniform handling of all characters. According to the manual, this work was abandoned. Some planned features moved into PHP 5.3 (namespaces) and PHP 5.4 (traits and the short array syntax []). The next major version therefore received the number 7.
PHP 7.0 appeared on 3 December 2015 with Zend Engine 3.0. It was based on the PHPNG project, a rework of the core led by Dmitry Stogov. The associated RFC, a formal change proposal, cited performance gains of 20 to 110 percent in real-world applications such as WordPress and Drupal. New features included the null coalescing operator ?? and anonymous classes.
<?php
// Since PHP 7.0: default value without an isset() chain
$sprache = $_GET['lang'] ?? 'de';
The 7.x series ended with PHP 7.4. Its last release, 7.4.33, appeared on 3 November 2022; according to php.net, support ended on 28 November 2022.
PHP 8 and the annual rhythm (2020 to today)
PHP 8.0 appeared on 26 November 2020 with named arguments, union types, attributes, the nullsafe operator ?->, match expressions and a JIT compiler. Since then a new minor version has followed every year. What each version brought is described in the overview PHP 8.0 to 8.5.
| Version | First release | Key points |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 3.0 | June 1998 | new parser, name "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" |
| PHP 4.0 | May 2000 | Zend Engine, sessions, output buffering |
| PHP 5.0 | July 2004 | Zend Engine 2.0, new object model |
| PHP 7.0 | 3 December 2015 | Zend Engine 3.0, significantly faster |
| PHP 8.0 | 26 November 2020 | JIT, attributes, union types |
| PHP 8.1 | 25 November 2021 | enums, fibers, readonly properties |
| PHP 8.2 | 8 December 2022 | readonly classes, DNF types |
| PHP 8.3 | 23 November 2023 | typed class constants |
| PHP 8.4 | 21 November 2024 | property hooks, asymmetric visibility |
| PHP 8.5 | 20 November 2025 | pipe operator, URI extension |
In 2024 the PHP project voted on a new release cycle. Since then each version branch receives two years of active support and two years of security fixes, in each case until 31 December. The rules in detail are on PHP versions and release cycle.
What the history means for security today
The long history is a strength because PHP is stable and well documented. But it is also a burden: many servers run versions that were set up years ago and never replaced. PHP 5.6 has been without official support since 31 December 2018, PHP 8.0 since 26 November 2023, and PHP 8.1 since 31 December 2025.
PHP2Shell has made this visible. According to the trade press, almost all versions going back to PHP 5.4 are affected. Since 21 October 2026, official fixes exist only for the 8.2 to 8.5 branches; for 7.4, 8.0 and 8.1 there are only minimal source backports. Anyone running older versions will find the consequences in the guide PHP end of life: risks of outdated versions.
For each server, note the PHP version and the date on which its support ends. That turns a surprise into a plannable deadline.
How does PHP SOS help?
- Find legacy systems: We record which PHP generations are still running on your servers, including forgotten systems.
- Assess the risk: We show which versions receive official updates and where only interim solutions remain.
- Plan the migration: With the migration from PHP 8.1 and older we bring applications to a supported version, tested before the switch.
- Document: You receive an overview of versions and support end dates for your planning.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented PHP?
PHP goes back to Rasmus Lerdorf. In 1994 he wrote a collection of CGI programs in C, which he called Personal Home Page Tools. From 1997, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski rewrote the parser, which led to PHP 3.
What does the abbreviation PHP stand for?
Originally for Personal Home Page. Since PHP 3 the name has been a recursive acronym: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. The abbreviation therefore contains itself.
Why was there no PHP 6?
PHP 6 was meant to bring far-reaching Unicode support. According to the PHP manual, this work was abandoned. Some of the planned features arrived in PHP 5.3 and 5.4, and the next major version was then called PHP 7.
Since when have PHP-FPM and OPcache existed?
PHP-FPM was included as its own SAPI with PHP 5.3.3. According to the manual, OPcache has been part of the distribution since PHP 5.5.0 and was previously available through PECL for versions 5.2 to 5.4.