What do the badges show for PHP?

ReleaseRun badges display real-time version freshness, end-of-life status, CVE vulnerability counts, and an overall health score for PHP releases.

How do I embed a PHP badge in my README?

Use the embed builder above to select your version and badge type, then copy the generated Markdown or HTML snippet into your README.

How often is PHP badge data updated?

Badge data refreshes every 6 hours from endoflife.date and NIST NVD. Badges are cached for 5 minutes at the CDN edge.

Can I customize the badge style?

Yes, append ?style=flat-square or ?style=for-the-badge to the badge URL. The embed builder lets you preview all available styles.

Release Badges

ReleaseRun Badges for PHP

Live version freshness, EOL status, CVE counts, and health badges for PHP. Embed in your README, docs, or dashboard.

Live Badges

Loading latest version badges...

Why Use PHP Health Badges?

PHP powers over 75% of websites with a known server-side language, and many of them run outdated versions. A health badge in your project README or documentation gives instant visibility into whether your PHP version is actively supported or silently accumulating vulnerabilities.

ReleaseRun badges go beyond Shields.io. While Shields.io shows a version number, our badges show security posture: CVE counts, EOL countdowns, and a composite health grade that factors in freshness (35%), security (35%), and support status (30%).

PHP Release History & EOL Timeline

PHP follows a predictable annual release cycle. A new minor version ships every November, receives two years of active bug fixes, then gets one additional year of security-only patches for a total of three years of support.

PHP 8.4 – released November 2024. Current stable release. Active support until December 2026, security fixes until December 2027.
PHP 8.3 – released November 2023. Active support until December 2025, security fixes until December 2026.
PHP 8.2 – released December 2022. Transitions to security-only in December 2024. EOL December 2025. If you are running 8.2, start planning your upgrade path now.
PHP 8.1 – released November 2021. Reached end-of-life in December 2024. No more security patches. The ReleaseRun EOL badge turns red automatically.
PHP 8.0 – released November 2020. End-of-life since November 2023. Still widely found on shared hosting environments.
PHP 7.4 – the last 7.x release. End-of-life since November 2022. Despite this, usage statistics show it remains one of the most deployed PHP versions globally, representing a significant security risk.

The gap between PHP 7.4 and 8.0 introduced major breaking changes (named arguments, union types, match expressions), which is why so many projects remain stuck on 7.4. Health badges help surface this risk visually.

Badge Customization Examples

ReleaseRun offers four badge types for PHP. Each serves a different monitoring purpose:

Health badge – composite A-F grade reflecting overall risk. Embed: ![PHP Health](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/health/php.svg)
EOL badge – end-of-life countdown or status. Embed: ![PHP EOL](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/eol/php.svg)
Version badge – latest stable version number. Embed: ![PHP Version](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/v/php.svg)
CVE badge – known vulnerability count. Embed: ![PHP CVE](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/cve/php.svg)

Add ?style=flat-square or ?style=for-the-badge to any URL for alternative rendering. The embed builder above lets you preview all styles before copying.

Common Use Cases

WordPress plugin developers: Show which PHP versions your plugin supports alongside their health status. WordPress itself has been gradually raising its minimum PHP requirement, and your badge helps users understand whether their hosting environment is current.
Laravel and Symfony teams: Embed badges in your project documentation to track PHP versions across microservices. Framework version requirements often drive PHP upgrades, and a badge makes the dependency clear.
Hosting providers: Display PHP version health badges on customer dashboards so clients can see when their PHP version is approaching EOL and request an upgrade.
Agency teams: Track PHP versions across dozens of client sites. A single badge per project cuts through the spreadsheet chaos and highlights which sites need attention first.

Related ReleaseRun Tools

PHP badges are part of a broader toolkit for managing your PHP dependency lifecycle:

Dependency EOL Scanner – scan your composer.json or composer.lock and flag any dependency approaching end-of-life.
Tech Stack Health Scorecard – get a holistic health grade across your entire stack, not just PHP.
Upgrade Path Planner – plan your migration from PHP 7.4 to 8.4 with step-by-step guidance and compatibility checks.
EOL Timeline Visualizer – see all your PHP version EOL dates on an interactive timeline alongside WordPress, Laravel, and other dependencies.
Badge Generator – create custom health badges for any product in the ReleaseRun database.

What Makes These Different

Every badge pulls live data from the endoflife.date API and the NIST National Vulnerability Database. Data refreshes every 6 hours. Badges are edge-cached for 5 minutes, fast enough for CI pipelines, documentation builds, and hosting dashboards.

PHP Versions

Loading version data...

Security Overview

CVE vulnerability data is sourced from the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and refreshed every 6 hours.

Check specific version CVEs using the badge builder above or visit our PHP hub page for detailed security analysis.

Upgrade Guidance

Running an older version of PHP? Here's what to consider when planning your upgrade:

Check breaking changes in release notes
Review EOL dates for your current version
Test in staging before production rollout
Consider LTS versions for stability

See the official PHP documentation for detailed upgrade instructions.

Version Comparison

Not sure which PHP version to use? Compare versions side by side.

Loading comparison data...

Embed Builder

Usage Guide

Copy any snippet below to embed a PHP health badge in your project.

Markdown

[![PHP Health](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/health/php.svg)](https://releaserun.com/php/)

HTML

<a href="https://releaserun.com/php/"><img src="https://img.releaserun.com/badge/health/php.svg" alt="PHP Health"></a>

reStructuredText

.. image:: https://img.releaserun.com/badge/health/php.svg
   :target: https://releaserun.com/php/
   :alt: PHP Health

Data updated daily 00:00 UTC

Data sources: endoflife.date (version lifecycle), NIST NVD (CVE data)

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the badges show for PHP?: ReleaseRun badges display real-time version freshness, end-of-life status, CVE vulnerability counts, and an overall health score for PHP releases.
How do I embed a PHP badge in my README?: Use the embed builder above to select your version and badge type, then copy the generated Markdown or HTML snippet into your README.
How often is PHP badge data updated?: Badge data refreshes every 6 hours from endoflife.date and NIST NVD. Badges are cached for 5 minutes at the CDN edge.
Can I customize the badge style?: Yes, append ?style=flat-square or ?style=for-the-badge to the badge URL. The embed builder lets you preview all available styles.