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phpcs installs statistics

By Ioannis Kappas (2 listings) · VS Code Marketplace · Programming Languages

PHP CodeSniffer for Visual Studio Code

View on VS Code Marketplace Fresh · Oct 18, 2026

phpcs has 1,481,494 recorded installs on VS Code Marketplace.

It ranks #424 of 2,500 tracked VS Code Marketplace listings by installs.

It is rated 3.0 out of 5 from 49 ratings.

PluginStats has 3 daily observations since Oct 16, 2026; the latest is from Oct 18, 2026.

Installs
1,481,494
Official API · Oct 18, 2026
7-day growth
—
Insufficient history
30-day growth
—
Insufficient history
90-day growth
—
Insufficient history
Rank
#424
Among tracked VS Code Marketplace listings

Rating: 3.02 / 5 from 49 ratings

About phpcs

vscode-phpcs

This linter plugin for Visual Studio Code provides an interface to phpcs. It will be used with files that have the “PHP” language mode.

Installation

Visual Studio Code must be installed in order to use this plugin. If Visual Studio Code is not installed, please follow the instructions here.

Linter Installation

Before using this plugin, you must ensure that phpcs is installed on your system. The preferred method is using composer for both system-wide and project-wide installations.

Once phpcs is installed, you can proceed to install the vscode-phpcs plugin if it is not yet installed.

NOTE: This plugin can detect whether your project has been set up to use phpcs via composer and use the project specific phpcs over the system-wide installation of phpcs automatically. This feature requires that both composer.json and composer.lock file exist in your workspace root or the phpcs.composerJsonPath in order to check for the composer dependency. If you wish to bypass this feature you can set the phpcs.executablePath configuration setting.

NOTE: You can also install phpcs on your system using pear or even manually but is beyond the scope of this plugin.

System-wide Installation

The phpcs linter can be installed globally using the Composer Dependency Manager for PHP.

1. Install composer. 1. Require phpcs package by typing the following in a terminal:

Project-wide Installation

The phpcs linter can be installed in your project using the Composer Dependency Manager for PHP.

1. Install composer. 1. Require phpcs package by typing the following at the root of your project in a terminal:

Plugin Installation

1. Open Visual Studio Code. 1. Press Ctrl+P on Windows or Cmd+P on Mac to open the Quick Open dialog. 1. Type ext install phpcs to find the extension. 1. Press Enter or click the cloud icon to install it. 1. Restart Visual Studio Code when prompted.

Basic Configuration

There are various options that can be configured to control how the plugin operates which can be set in your user, workspace or folder preferences.

phpcs.enable

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* boolean | *Default:* true ]

This setting controls whether phpcs linting is enabled.

phpcs.executablePath

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* string | *Default:* null ]

This setting controls the executable path for the phpcs. You may specify the absolute path or workspace relative path to the phpcs executable. If omitted, the plugin will try to locate the path parsing your composer configuration or the global path.

phpcs.standard

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* string | *Default:* null ]

This setting controls the coding standard used by phpcs. You may specify the name, absolute path or workspace relative path of the coding standard to use.

NOTE: While using composer dependency manager over global installation make sure you use the phpcs commands under your project scope !

The following values are applicable:

1. This setting can be set to null, which is the default behavior and uses the default_standard when set in the phpcs configuration or fallback to the Pear coding standard.

You may set the default_standard used by phpcs using the following command:

or when using composer dependency manager from the root of your project issue the following command:

1. The setting can be set to the name of a built-in coding standard ( ie. MySource, PEAR, PHPCS, PSR1, PSR2, Squiz, Zend ) and you are good to go.

1. The setting can me set to the name of a custom coding standard ( ie. WordPress, Drupal, etc. ). In this case you must ensure that the specified coding standard is installed and accessible by phpcs.

After you install the custom coding standard, you can make it available to phpcs by issuing the following command:

or when using composer dependency manager from the root of your project issue the following command:

1. The setting can be set to the absolute path to a custom coding standard:

or you can use the path to a custom ruleset:

1. The setting can be set to your workspace relative path to a custom coding standard:

or you can use the path to your project's custom ruleset:

phpcs.autoConfigSearch

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* boolean | *Default:* true ]

Automatically search for any phpcs.xml, phpcs.xml.dist, phpcs.ruleset.xml or ruleset.xml file to use as configuration. Overrides phpcs.standard configuration when a ruleset is found.

NOTE: This option does not apply for unsaved documents (in-memory).

phpcs.ignorePatterns

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* array | *Default:* [] ]

An array of glob patterns to skip files and folders that match when linting your documents.

phpcs.errorSeverity

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* number | *Default:* 5 ]

The minimum severity an error must have to be displayed. You may specify an integer value.

phpcs.warningSeverity

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* number | *Default:* 5 ]

The minimum severity a warning must have to be displayed. You may specify an integer value.

phpcs.showWarnings

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* boolean | *Default:* true ]

Control whether warnings are displayed.

phpcs.showSources

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* boolean | *Default:* false ]

Show sniff source codes in diagnostic messages.

phpcs.trace.server

[ *Scope:* User | Optional | *Type:* string | *Default:* off ]

This setting controls whether the trace server is activated. Possible values you can use is off, messages or verbose.

Advanced Configuration

phpcs.composerJsonPath

[ *Scope:* All | Optional | *Type:* string | *Default:* composer.json ]

This setting allows you to override the path to your composer.json file when it does not reside at the workspace root. You may specify the absolute path or workspace relative path to the composer.json file.

Diagnosing common errors

The phpcs report contains invalid json…

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.

  • php

Where phpcs sits in the listing

Each band is one page of 20. Installs on a log scale. Placement is projected from installs, so it can differ from the marketplace's own sort order. Hover a dot to see the listing.

All VS Code Marketplace2,500 listings · 125 pages · page 22, #4 (overall #424)
All VS Code Marketplace: every listing in installs order
PNG SVG
Programming Languages792 listings · 40 pages · page 9, #12 (overall #172)
Programming Languages: every listing in installs order
PNG SVG
Linters252 listings · 13 pages · page 4, #3 (overall #63)
Linters: every listing in installs order
PNG SVG

Charts

Images: 30d · 1y · all time · 1600×900 dark

Adoption over time

phpcs installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 1,481,494 installs as of Oct 18, 2026.phpcsInstalls on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days1,481,494installs1.5M1.5M1.5M1.5M1.5M1.5MJul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18installsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
phpcs installs on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 1,481,494 installs as of Oct 18, 2026.
PNG SVG

7/30/90-day growth

phpcs installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.phpcsInstalls growth on VS Code Marketplace1,481,494installs now7-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history30-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient history90-day growthinsufficient historyInsufficient historyGrowth vs. nearest observation to each baseline date · Updated Oct 18, 2026pluginstats.com
phpcs installs growth on VS Code Marketplace: 7-day growth unavailable, 30-day growth unavailable, 90-day growth unavailable.
PNG SVG

Ranking history

phpcs VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #424 (by installs).phpcsVS Code Marketplace ranking · by installs · Last 90 days#424current rank#422#423#424#425#426Jul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18rankOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct 18, 2026pluginstats.com
phpcs VS Code Marketplace ranking history: currently #424 (by installs).
PNG SVG

Ratings over time

phpcs ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 49 ratings as of Oct 18, 2026.phpcsRatings on VS Code Marketplace · Last 90 days49ratings444648505254Jul 20Aug 4Aug 19Sep 3Sep 18Oct 3Oct 18ratingsobservedarchived (Internet Archive)no observationsOct 16, 2026 – Oct 18, 2026 · 3 observations · Updated Oct…pluginstats.com
phpcs ratings on VS Code Marketplace, last 90 days: 49 ratings as of Oct 18, 2026.
PNG SVG

Filled points are observed values; hollow points come from Internet Archive snapshots of the listing page. Dashed segments span periods with no observations — values between points are not interpolated.

Recent observations

Full history (3)
Recent installs observations for phpcs
Date (UTC)InstallsChange vs. previous
1,481,494+9
1,481,485+14
1,481,471—

Similar VS Code Marketplace Programming Languages plugins

Data source

Install counts, average rating, and rating counts come from the public Visual Studio Marketplace gallery API. Installs are cumulative and exclude updates.

Listing: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ikappas.phpcs. First seen Oct 16, 2026; last successful collection Oct 18, 2026. See the methodology.