Update PHP version on MacOS Mojave and Catalina

Hello folks,

Since this is my first post in a long time, I’ve decided to share some tips regarding the upgrade process of the default PHP version that comes bundled with MacOS Mojave.

By default on Mojave we are running:

php -v PHP 7.1.23 (cli) (built: Feb 22 2019 22:19:32) ( NTS ) Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies

Some web apps like Laravel require a more update version of PHP. Here’s how you can update it via the command line:

After the installation is done, you should add the binary to your path in ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH=/usr/local/php5/bin:$PATH

Next up, reload your terminal and type php -v and you should see the latest and greatest php version in action:

php -v PHP 7.3.8 (cli) (built: Aug 11 2019 20:50:16) ( NTS ) Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.3.8, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v7.3.8, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies with Xdebug v2.7.2, Copyright (c) 2002-2019, by Derick Rethans

PHP 7.3 (Next stable) - 10.10 and later#

PHP 7.2 (Current stable) - 10.10 and later#

PHP 7.1 (Old stable) - 10.10 and later#

PHP 7.0 (Old stable) - 10.10 and later#

PHP 5.6 (Old stable) - 10.8 and later#

PHP 5.5 (End of life) - All OS X versions#

PHP 5.4 (End of life) - All OS X versions#

PHP 5.3 (End of life) - All OS X versions#

PHP 7.3 (Next stable) - 10.10 and later

PHP 7.2 (Current stable) - 10.10 and later

PHP 7.1 (Old stable) - 10.10 and later

PHP 7.0 (Old stable) - 10.10 and later

PHP 5.6 (Old stable) - 10.8 and later

PHP 5.5 (End of life) - All OS X versions

PHP 5.4 (End of life) - All OS X versions

PHP 5.3 (End of life) - All OS X versions