Is PHP Dead? PHP and WordPress Now, and What Is Set for 2027

You run a business on a PHP app or a WordPress site. Someone at a meetup, or in a comment thread, told you PHP is dead and you should rebuild everything in JavaScript before it is too late. Is that true, and is it still safe to keep building on PHP?

Short answer: no, PHP is not dead. The usage numbers below are large, and the release calendar says it is still moving. The more useful question is whether your own app is on a version that still gets fixes.

What do the numbers say?

All W3Techs figures here are from 27 Oct 2026. PHP is on 69.2% of websites with a known server-side language. Of those PHP sites, 65.6% run version 8, 26.6% run version 7, and 7.7% run version 5. WordPress runs 39.6% of all websites, and 58.3% of sites with a known CMS.

Developers still use it, too. The Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025 asked about extensive development work in the past year, and PHP got 18.9% of all respondents. That is a lot of people for a dead language.

For WordPress sites, the wordpress.org stats API gives the PHP version split. You can read the raw data yourself:

curl -s https://api.wordpress.org/stats/php/1.0/

On 27 Oct 2026 it returned these shares:

PHP version	Share of WordPress sites
8.3	27.355%
8.2	23.161%
7.4	15.076%
8.4	10.179%
8.1	9.588%
8.5	5.647%
8.0	3.508%

Add up 8.1, 8.0, 7.4 and the older lines, and you get about 34% of WordPress sites on PHP versions with no project support. That figure is the total of the API values for those versions. So PHP is alive, and a large share of it runs old.

What changed in PHP, and what is next?

The current release is PHP 8.5.12. PHP 8.5.0 came out on 20 Nov 2025. PHP 8.6 is next: RC4 came out on 21 Oct 2026, the PHP project plans RC5 for 5 Nov, and it targets general availability on 19 Nov 2026. That plan can change, as release plans do.

Each version gets active support, then security fixes only. This is the php.net table on 27 Oct 2026:

Version	Active support until	Security fixes until
8.2	ended	31 Dec 2026
8.3	ended	31 Dec 2027
8.4	31 Dec 2026	31 Dec 2028
8.5	31 Dec 2027	31 Dec 2029

PHP 8.2 loses security fixes at the end of 2026. On the API numbers above, that is the second largest group of WordPress sites, so a lot of upgrades are due in the next two months.

Support windows matter in practice. On 21 Oct 2026, the PHP project fixed two remote code execution flaws in PHP itself. The fixes shipped for 8.5, 8.4, 8.3 and 8.2. PHP 8.1 and older got no project updates, except minimal source backports for 7.4, 8.0 and 8.1.

To see where your own app stands, this is the check I would run first:

php -v

What has WordPress published so far?

WordPress shipped 7.0 on 20 May 2026 and 7.1 on 19 Aug 2026. The latest release is 7.1.3, from 6 Oct. WordPress 7.2 Beta 1 came out on 20 Oct, and the planned release date for 7.2 is 8 Dec 2026.

The roadmap set a goal of three major releases in 2026. Phase 3 of Gutenberg is underway, and it is about collaborative editing.

WordPress has published no release dates for 2027. A roadmap survey is open until 16 Nov 2026. So anyone who gives you a WordPress 2027 calendar today is guessing, including me below.

WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or later. On the API numbers above, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 together cover about 43% of WordPress sites, as a total of the API values.

Where do PHP and WordPress fall short?

A PHP monolith and a classic WordPress theme tie content and front end together. That is fine until the front end needs to do something the theme was never built for. A JavaScript front end such as Next.js can split the two, with WordPress kept as the place editors write. For that trade, read WordPress vs Next.js: when it is worth it. For the platform limits, read kekurangan WordPress (Indonesian).

What do I think happens next?

This part is my prediction, not a fact. I think a chatbot will make WordPress easy to use in 2027. I also think design will be easier with editors and drag-and-drop tools. Custom code will replace many plugins, in my view. AI tools will help people write that code for their own site. Time will show if I am right.

Should I keep, modernize or move?

If your PHP app runs on 8.3 or later and works, keep it, and update it on schedule.

If it runs on 8.2, plan the upgrade before 31 Dec 2026.

If it runs on 8.1 or older and breaks on upgrade, that is a modernization job.

If WordPress works for your editors but the front end is slow or limited, consider headless WordPress.

If you have already decided to leave WordPress, read migrasi WordPress ke Next.js (Indonesian). For background, read tentang Next.js dan PHP (Indonesian).

Verdict

PHP and WordPress are both alive. The real deadline is version support, and php.net publishes those dates in advance. Check your version, plan around the support table, and move only when the stack blocks the product you need. If your app is the kind that breaks on every upgrade, this is how I approach PHP modernization.