PHP: hypertext preprocessor (or PHP for short) is a server-side scripting language designed for web development, but also used as a general programming language. It was originally created by rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, and the PHP reference implementation is produced by the PHP group. PHP originally stands for a personal home page, but now stands for the recursive abbreviation PHP: hypertext preprocessor.

PHP code can be embedded in HTML code, or can be used in combination with various web template systems, web content management systems and web frameworks. PHP code is usually handled by a PHP interpreter, which is implemented as a module in a web server or as a CGI executable. The web server combines the result of the PHP code interpreted and executed with the generated web page, which can be any type of data (including images). PHP code can also be executed through the command line interface (CLI) and can be used to implement stand-alone graphical applications.

The standard PHP interpreter supported by Zend engine is free software licensed under PHP. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on almost all operating systems and platforms for free.

PHP developed into 2014 without formal written specifications or standards, and the original implementation became the de facto standard that other implementations intended to follow. Since 2014, efforts have been made to create a formal PHP specification.

In 2010, through projects such as php-fig in the form of PSR plan, composer dependency manager and related packagist repository, people increased their efforts to standardize and code share in PHP applications. PHP hosts a variety of Web frameworks that require framework specific knowledge. Recently, laravel has become a popular choice by integrating popular ideas from other competitive non PHP Web frameworks, such as Ruby on rails.