Introduction
PHP 8.5 RC - it's Release Candidate version of PHP 8.5
Source: PHP
Please DO NOT use this version in production, it is an early test version.
The PHP development community has something to celebrate — PHP 8.5 RC is officially here, and it’s packed with meaningful improvements that go beyond minor syntax tweaks.
Building on the solid foundation of PHP 8.x, this release focuses on developer productivity, performance efficiency, and modern coding standards. With every iteration, PHP has been moving closer to a cleaner, faster, and more predictable language, and version 8.5 continues that trend with practical features designed to make daily coding smoother and debugging less painful.
Among the standout updates are enhanced JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation, improved type safety, and several quality-of-life enhancements such as more informative error messages, new attributes, and expanded support for asynchronous operations. These updates not only boost runtime performance but also reduce boilerplate code — a small but significant win for developers working on large-scale applications. The addition of refined collection methods and better handling of enums also reflects PHP’s ongoing evolution toward modern language design.
For developers maintaining legacy systems or building the next big web app, this release proves that PHP remains a reliable, evolving, and developer-friendly powerhouse in 2025.
This article covers the some of the new features — the ones that are worth knowing about but may not require a deep dive.
Features and Enhancements in PHP 8.5 RC
Here are about ten of the most valuable features and improvements being introduced in PHP 8.5
Deprecations in PHP 8.5
- All MHASH_* constants deprecated
- Non-canonical scalar type casts (boolean|double|integer|binary) deprecated
- Returning non-string values from a user output handler is deprecated
- Emitting output from custom output buffer handlers is deprecated
Summary
PHP 8.5 introduces practical upgrades focused on developer productivity and cleaner code. Highlights include the pipe operator, array helpers, better error traces, constant attributes, and improved tooling—making PHP faster, more modern, and easier to debug and maintain.