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Introduction: Relevance of PHP in 2025
Many beginner developers ask themselves: "Isn't PHP dead?" The answer is unequivocally no. In 2025, PHP remains one of the most popular languages for web development. According to W3Techs, more than 77% of all websites use PHP on the server side. WordPress, Laravel, Symfony — all these giants are built on PHP.
PHP 8.x, the latest major version, brought significant performance improvements, strict typing, attributes, and many other modern features. If you want to create dynamic websites, online stores, or APIs, PHP is an excellent choice to start with. In this article, we will break down where to begin learning PHP in 2025.
1. Installation and Environment Setup
Local Server: XAMPP, MAMP, or OpenServer
To work with PHP, you don't need to install it separately. The easiest way is to use a ready-made local server package. It includes PHP, the Apache web server, and the MySQL database.
- XAMPP — cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux), the most popular option.
- MAMP — an excellent choice for macOS.
- OpenServer — a powerful tool for Windows with a portable version.
After installation, create a project folder in the htdocs directory (for XAMPP) or similar. Create a file index.php and write:
<?phpecho "Hello, PHP 2025 world!";?>Launch your browser and navigate to http://localhost/your_folder/index.php. If you see the greeting — everything is working!
Code Editor: VS Code + Plugins
For comfortable work, I recommend Visual Studio Code with plugins:
- PHP Intelephense — autocomplete and syntax highlighting.
- PHP Debug — code debugging.
- PHP Namespace Resolver — convenient work with namespaces.
2. PHP Syntax Basics for Beginners
Variables and Data Types
In PHP, variables start with the $ sign. In 2025, it is recommended to immediately use strict typing (declare(strict_types=1)). This will help avoid errors.
<?phpdeclare(strict_types=1);
$name = "Anna"; // string$age = 25; // integer$price = 199.99; // floating point number$is_active = true; // boolean value (true/false)
echo "User: $name, age: $age years";?>Conditional Statements and Loops
Conditional statements work standardly:
<?php$score = 85;
if ($score >= 90) { echo "Excellent!";} elseif ($score >= 75) { echo "Good";} else { echo "Need to improve knowledge";}?>The foreach loop is the most commonly used for iterating over arrays:
<?php$fruits = ["Apple", "Banana", "Orange"];
foreach ($fruits as $fruit) { echo "Fruit: $fruit<br>";}?>Functions and Scope
Functions allow you to reuse code. In PHP 8+, you can specify types for arguments and return values:
<?phpfunction calculateSum(int $a, int $b): int { return $a + $b;}
$result = calculateSum(10, 25);echo "Sum: $result"; // Outputs: Sum: 35?>3. Working with Forms and Databases
Handling GET and POST Requests
The most common scenario is receiving data from an HTML form. Create a file form.php:
<!DOCTYPE html><html><body><form method="POST" action="handler.php"> Name: <input type="text" name="username"> Email: <input type="email" name="email"> <input type="submit" value="Submit"></form></body>