Who will maintain the web when PHP’s veterans retire?

Perforce’s 2026 PHP report warns that the PHP workforce is aging, while too few junior developers are entering the field.

Most surveyed PHP users have 15+ years of experience, creating a widening skills gap and making hiring harder for teams that depend on PHP.

Since PHP still powers a large share of the web, fewer new developers could make mission-critical maintenance and expert replacement more difficult.

Companies running PHP-based platforms such as WordPress and WooCommerce may face growing pressure from legacy code and technical debt.