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Continuing to Move PHP Open Source Forward
JetBrains announces five open-source PHP projects selected for a year of PhpStorm sponsorship: PHPUnit, Lerd, static-php-cli, Composer, and Larabelles. The post explains how the program was chosen and urges companies to contribute to open-source funding, including the PHP Foundation.
PhpStorm Blog24 Sept 2026 · 2 min read · summary
Read on blog.jetbrains.com ↗A year ago, we introduced the first wave of PhpStorm’s open-source sponsorships. We truly believe in the power of open source and the importance of it to the PHP community, and so we want to do our bit, too.
Each year, we pick five open-source projects to sponsor for a whole year. Our goal is not only to financially support these projects but also to raise awareness of the crucial role open source plays in PHP development and to encourage others to pitch in as well.
Before announcing the new projects, I want to thank everyone for sending in their suggestions. We know there are many more projects to sponsor, and we had to make some tough decisions. Eventually, we decided on projects we thought would have the biggest impact and the greatest need for financing.
So here goes, the new projects on our sponsor list:
Sebastian Bergmann, the creator and maintainer of PHPUnit, the most impactful test suite for PHP.
George Dumitrescu, who’s creating Lerd, an open source tool for managing local PHP installations and servers.
Jerry Ma, who’s creating static-php-cli; a tool used for example by FrankenPHP and Native PHP.
Composer, which is basically the backbone of modern PHP.
Larabelles, because open source is about more than code; inclusivity is crucial.
If you or your company are in a position to pitch in as well, we would highly recommend doing so. Every bit and piece becomes a substantial difference when added together. Apart from sponsoring individual projects, we also stay committed to sponsoring the PHP Foundation, and encourage as many organizations to do so as well.
Sponsor the PHP Foundation
Let’s work together to continue to make PHP the best it can be!
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This is a summary of an article first published by PhpStorm Blog. The full piece is on their site.