PHP

PHP (originally named "Personal Home Page" and now defined as the recursive acronym "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor") is a widely used server-side scripting language for building dynamic web applications.

It features dynamic typing, flexible string interpolation, garbage collection, a large standard library, built-in handling of sessions, cookies, forms, and file uploads, native integration with numerous databases, and, since PHP 8, additional improvements such as just-in-time compilation, union types, attributes, and enums.

PHP powers many open-source projects such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, along with well-known platforms including Wikipedia, Etsy, Tumblr, Flickr, and Mailchimp. Facebook was originally built with PHP as well, and later transitioned to Hack, an optimized PHP dialect.

According to our data, PHP is the second most popular programming language on the web.
It has 65.7% of the programming language market share and is detected on 55.3% of all websites.

It appears on 72.7% of all websites in Spain, 69.1% in Italy, and 68.1% in France.

Statistics based on 4M+ analyzed websites. About this data

📊 Rankings and Market Share

🏆 PHP Awards

⚡ Sites Built With PHP

We have data on 2,215,464 websites that use the PHP programming language. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.

The highest rated site using PHP is wikipedia.org.

#WebsiteRankCountryLanguage
1 wikipedia.org #12 United States English
2 p**nhub.com #34 United States English
3 bitly.com #37 United States American English
4 instructure.com #43 United States English
5 tumblr.com #65 United States American English
6 youradchoices.com #105 United States English
7 erome.com #109 United States English
8 washingtonpost.com #129 United States English
9 etsy.com #130 United States American English
10 irs.gov #131 United States English
11 ep**ner.com #157 Netherlands English
12 nih.gov #163 United States American English
13 en.wikipedia.org United States English
14 kemkes.go.id #195 Indonesia Indonesian
15 faphouse2.com #200 Cyprus English
16 epfindia.gov.in #205 India English
17 editmysite.com #212 United States English
18 dcinside.com #220 Korea Korean
19 inven.co.kr #225 Korea Korean
20 librus.pl #230 Poland Polish

📈 Usage Statistics

Most of the sites that use PHP:

Most of the sites using PHP are from the United States, Germany, and Japan.

  • United States 16.9%
  • Germany 7.7%
  • Japan 6.1%
  • United Kingdom 5.5%
  • France 4.5%
  • Spain 3.9%
  • Russia 3.8%
  • Italy 3.7%
  • Netherlands 3.2%
  • Other 44.7%

Most PHP users speak English, German, or Spanish.

  • English 46.5%
  • German 7.5%
  • Spanish 5.6%
  • Japanese 5.4%
  • French 4.7%
  • Russian 4.1%
  • Italian 3%
  • Portuguese 2.6%
  • Dutch 2.5%
  • Other 18.1%

The PHP programming language is especially popular on .com, .org, and .de top-level domains.

  • .com 40.4%
  • .org 6.5%
  • .de 5%
  • .net 2.9%
  • .ru 2.7%
  • .it 2.1%
  • .co.uk 2%
  • .nl 1.9%
  • .fr 1.8%
  • Other 34.7%

The primary market segments for websites utilizing PHP include business, marketing and merchandising, and blogs and wiki.

  • Business 17.6%
  • Marketing/Merchandising 10.9%
  • Blogs/Wiki 7.4%
  • Online Shopping 7.4%
  • Education/Reference 6.8%
  • Internet Services 5.1%
  • Entertainment 4.2%
  • Health 3.6%
  • Non-Profit/Advocacy/NGO 2.9%
  • Other 34.1%

🔢 PHP Versions

The most widespread version of PHP is 7.4, used by 26.2% of sites where versions were detected. In addition, 14.6% of sites use PHP 8.2, and 14.3% use PHP 8.3.

  • 7.4 26.2%
  • 8.2 14.6%
  • 8.3 14.3%
  • 8.1 11.2%
  • 5.6 6%
  • 8.4 5.2%
  • 8.0 4.8%
  • 7.3 3.9%
  • 7.2 3.3%
  • Other 10.5%

🕵️ Similar Technologies

These are some of the best PHP alternatives.

RankName
1
JavaScript
Geneva, Switzerland

An interpreted programming language and a core technology of the web, alongside HTML and CSS, used to add interactivity and logic to websites and web applications.
5
Ruby
Matsue, Japan

An interpreted, object-oriented, open-source programming language designed for simplicity and productivity, commonly used for web development.
6
Python
Wilmington, Delaware, United States

A high-level, general-purpose programming language that is dynamically typed and widely used for scripting, automation, data analysis, and machine learning.
13
Perl

A high-level, scripting, dynamically typed programming language.
21
Hack
Menlo Park, California, United States

A PHP-based programming language designed for the HHVM virtual machine and developed by Meta to build large-scale web applications with improved type safety.

🆚 Compare Alternatives

Compare PHP to…

💬 Frequently Asked Questions

Which country uses PHP the most?

The majority of PHP users are from the United States.

Who uses PHP?

According to our data, PHP is used on millions of sites, including such established ones as wikipedia.org, bitly.com, and instructure.com.

Is PHP used on government websites?

Yes, for example, it is used by irs.gov, nih.gov, and epfindia.gov.in. In total, we found PHP on 1,568 government sites in the United States.

Do academic institutions use PHP?

Yes, quite a few! Overall, we know of 3,603 academic websites in the United States that use PHP.

How does PHP stack up against its competitors?

PHP is one of the most popular programming languages, second only to JavaScript.

What are the alternatives to PHP?

Alternatives and possible competitors to PHP may include Python, Hack, and JavaScript.

👉 See Also

🗃️ About This Data