PHP Beautifier

The PHP Beautifier is a free online tool that reformats messy, minified, or inconsistently indented PHP into clean, readable code. Paste your script into the input panel, choose your indentation and print width, and it instantly rebuilds the file with consistent spacing, aligned braces, and predictable line breaks.

It is powered by Prettier together with the official @prettier/plugin-php, the same opinionated formatter many PHP teams rely on in their editors and build pipelines.

Both libraries are self-hosted and run locally in your browser, so your code, credentials, and proprietary logic never leave your machine. There are no uploads, no accounts, and no server-side processing.

What is a PHP beautifier?

A PHP beautifier is a tool that takes valid PHP source and rewrites its whitespace and layout to a single, consistent style without changing what the code does.

It normalizes indentation, puts one statement per line, adds spaces around operators, and applies the brace and spacing conventions you would expect from a PSR-12-style codebase.

The result is functionally identical PHP that is far easier to read, review, and diff.

How to beautify PHP

1. Paste or type your minified or messy PHP into the input panel on the left.
2. Choose your indentation: 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs.
3. Pick a print width of 80, 100, or 120 characters, or choose no-wrap to keep lines long.
4. Click Beautify PHP to reformat the code into the output panel.
5. Use Copy or Download to grab the result as a .php file.

What does the PHP Beautifier fix?

Prettier reflows your code around a target line length and applies PHP-aware rules that plain text editors cannot.

It puts opening braces in the expected position for classes, functions, and control structures, and it standardizes spacing inside if, foreach, and switch blocks.

It formats array syntax consistently, aligning short arrays on one line and breaking long ones across multiple lines with trailing commas.

It also wraps long chained method calls onto separate lines, so fluent interfaces and query builders read cleanly instead of running off the screen.

Why is minified or messy PHP hard to read?

When PHP is collapsed onto few lines, or when several developers have edited it with different tab and brace habits, the structure of the code stops matching its indentation.

That makes bugs easy to hide and code reviews slow. Beautifying the file first restores a clear visual hierarchy so nested logic, method boundaries, and array shapes are obvious at a glance.

Beautify vs. minify: what is the difference?

Beautifying adds whitespace and structure so a human can work with the code, while minifying strips whitespace to shrink a file.

PHP is a server-side language, so minifying it saves little and is rarely worth the loss in readability. In practice you almost always want PHP beautified, and you reserve minifying for the front-end assets your PHP renders.

If you also ship client-side code, the JS & CSS Beautifier tidies the scripts and stylesheets that sit alongside your templates.

Does it handle mixed HTML and PHP templates?

Yes. The official PHP plugin understands templates that interleave <?php ?> blocks with HTML markup, so view files and legacy templates are reformatted without breaking the surrounding HTML.

When a file is mostly markup with small PHP islands, you may prefer to clean the HTML side with the dedicated HTML Beautifier and reserve this tool for pure logic files.

PHP Beautifier features

• Prettier engine — formatting from Prettier and the official @prettier/plugin-php, self-hosted and loaded in the browser.
• Configurable indentation — 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or tabs, for diff-friendly, team-consistent output.
• Adjustable print width — target 80, 100, or 120 characters, or disable wrapping entirely.
• PHP-aware layout — consistent braces, operator spacing, array formatting, and wrapped method chains.
• Template support — handles mixed HTML and PHP files as well as plain scripts.
• Copy and Download the result instantly as a .php file.
• 100% client-side — nothing is uploaded, logged, or stored.

When should you use it?

Reach for the beautifier when you inherit a legacy file with inconsistent style, when a snippet copied from a forum or export lands as one dense block, or before you commit code so diffs stay small and focused.

It also pairs well with cleanup passes: strip dead annotations first with the Remove Comments tool, then beautify the result for a tidy final file. If your PHP also emits SQL, the SQL Formatter & Beautifier keeps those embedded queries readable too.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my PHP uploaded to a server?

No. All formatting happens locally in your browser using self-hosted JavaScript. Your PHP is never sent to, stored on, or seen by any server, which makes the tool safe for proprietary and confidential code.

What engine does the PHP Beautifier use?

It uses Prettier together with the official @prettier/plugin-php. Both are self-hosted and loaded directly in your browser, so you get the same opinionated, well-tested formatting many teams use in their editors and pipelines.

Does beautifying change how my code runs?

No. The beautifier only adjusts whitespace, indentation, and layout. It does not rename variables, remove logic, or alter behavior, so the reformatted script runs exactly the same as the original.

Can I use tabs or 4 spaces?

Yes. You can format with 2-space, 4-space, or tab indentation to match your project's coding standard, and you can set the print width to 80, 100, or 120 characters or disable wrapping entirely.

Does it work on a full file or just a snippet?

Both. You can paste a complete PHP file, including the opening tag, namespaces, and classes, or just a small snippet. The beautifier reformats whatever valid PHP you give it, including files that mix HTML and PHP.

Will it fix syntax errors in my PHP?

No. Prettier needs parseable PHP to reformat it, so it cannot repair broken syntax. If your code has a syntax error, the tool reports a clear message so you can fix the problem, then beautify the corrected code.

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