blog.jetbrains.com
The State of PHP 2025 – Expert review - The JetBrains Blog
Excerpt
The clear winner in 2025 is PHPStan, which jumped to 36% usage, up nine percentage points from last year. Tools like PHP CS Fixer (30%) and PHP_CodeSniffer (22%) remain widely used, while Rector (10%) continues its steady rise. Still, 42% of respondents don’t use any code quality tools regularly, leaving room for further improvement. … ## Ecosystem highlights 2025
Related Pain Points
PHP Debugging is Slow and Difficult
7Debugging in PHP is significantly slower than other languages because PHP is interpreted rather than compiled, requiring re-interpretation of code with each change. This ranks as the 2nd biggest challenge (30%) for teams.
Low Adoption of Code Quality Tools
542% of PHP developers don't use any code quality tools regularly. While PHPStan adoption is growing (36%), the majority lack automated quality enforcement, leading to inconsistent code standards and maintenance debt.