The language itself is solid. The ecosystem is incredibly rich. Tooling has seen significant growth in the past decade. The Foundation ensures sustainable development. AI adoption is high compared to other languages (possibly to the vast amounts of online PHP code that models are trained on). Design by committee isn't ideal, but still the language continues to evolve — so even that is not the issue.

PHP's biggest problem is none of the above. It's marketing. It's such a boring thing to say as someone who's passionate about programming; but it is the truth. We can continue to do all the previously mentioned things, but nothing will have as big an impact as properly marketing the language.

Marketing is crucial. Here's an example: Laravel. You may like, dislike, love, or hate it; but no one can deny it's the single most successful PHP project (maybe second if we count WordPress). Laravel has nailed the marketing machine. It has done so from the very beginning and has proven to be effective.

Working at JetBrains now for more than four years, I've learned a lot about marketing myself. It's not my primary area of interest — which is why I'm a developer advocate, not a marketing manager — but effective marketing works. It's crucial for any kind of project; that includes open source programming languages.

Personally, I think this is a task the Foundation should take upon themselves if their mission truly is:

to ensure the long-term prosperity of the PHP language.

Here are my concrete suggestions:

• If you want PHP to be perceived as a modern language, make sure its website reflects that. Don't waste your time waiting for backend developers to redesign your website for free. Pay a proper design agency who knows what they are doing.
• Pay someone to work full-time on the docs so that people can actually learn PHP effectively.
• Pay conference speakers to go to conferences outside the PHP bubble to talk about PHP. Spread the word.
• Invest in social media. I get it: some internals don't like X. The fact is: a big chunk of your target audience is there. Leave politics at home and be where the people are. If anything, PHP can be a positive change on otherwise negative platforms. PHP should be everywhere: X, Reddit, Newsletters, Blog, Insta, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn. This is a full-time job, no doubt.
• Make internals accessible (read: no more mailing list), and have someone blog and vlog about what's happening behind the scenes. Show people how much the language is being worked on. Draw them into the story.
• Invest in high-impact features that can be marketed. And actually market them once they are added in the language.

What I'm listing here is probably three to four full-time jobs. At least within my frame of reference at JetBrains, it is. If we really want PHP to thrive in the coming decades, I say we invest in what matters most.