PHP Alive And Kicking – Episode 10 – Jasper Willems

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Jasper hasn’t written a line of code since his Commodore 64 days—and he’s perfectly fine with that. While most guests talk about their first “Hello World,” Jasper’s entry into PHP came from the business side. Twelve years of organizing Laracon EU taught him something crucial: the PHP community is different. The way people support each other, lift each other up, and genuinely care? He hasn’t seen that in any other tech community.

Salvaging a Sinking Ship

Two years ago, Jasper was approached to help save the commercial Laravel certification program. What he found was alarming—the quality was terrible, the community was frustrated, and Taylor Otwell had already pulled official support. Most people would have walked away. Instead, Jasper saw an opportunity: what if certification could be open source? For the community, by the community?

Deleting Everything and Starting Fresh

In August 2024, Jasper took control and essentially deleted the old program. Starting from scratch meant building an entire ecosystem: a board of advisors (senior Laravel folks, agency owners, product leads), an exam committee to ensure quality, a contributor platform for the community to submit questions, and exam reviewers to validate everything. Oh, and he built all of this while not being a developer himself.

From One Exam to an Entire Pathway

The old program had one exam. One level. That was it. Now there’s student, junior, and senior certifications, plus practice exams and test exams. The goal? Make it accessible for beginners while challenging enough that senior developers can actually benchmark their knowledge. And with a 75% passing grade—significantly higher than most certifications—good luck guessing your way through.

The Daily Battle Against Bad Memories

Almost every day, someone tells Jasper: “Isn’t this that program that got discontinued?” The previous owners left such a bad taste that fighting perception has become part of the job. It’s not the old certification—it’s a completely new, community-driven, open-source program. Getting that message across? That’s the real challenge.

Why Open Source Needs Commercial Viability

Jasper shares wisdom from someone at Spatie: open source cannot exist without commercial use. If there’s no way to make money sustainably, people won’t invest time and effort. Looking at PHP today—Laravel’s recent investment, the PHP Foundation’s increased activity, the general enthusiasm—proves that commercial viability and open source can coexist beautifully.

The PHP Community’s Golden Age

After 12 years in the community, Jasper says he’s never seen this much enthusiasm about PHP. Not even close. Between the PHP Foundation stepping up, major investments in the ecosystem, and the energy rippling through conferences and communities, PHP is more alive than ever.

Listen to hear why a non-developer is the perfect person to run a developer certification program, and what it takes to rebuild trust from the ground up

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