PhpStorm 2026.2 Early Access Program Has Started

Hanna Yakush

The Early Access Program (EAP) for the next major PhpStorm 2026.2 release is now open!

PhpStorm’s EAP builds are a great opportunity to try upcoming features for free in your real workflows and share feedback with the PhpStorm team. Your input directly influences what makes it into the final release.

This release, our main areas of focus are:

• Native mode for remote development scenarios, as we aim to significantly improve interaction with the projects located on WSL 2 and in Dev Containers.
• Ongoing enhancements in PhpStorm’s understanding of PHPDoc-based generics.
• Overall performance and stability improvements, including reduced startup time, indexing time, and freezes.

Getting started with the EAP

If you’re not familiar with how our Early Access Program (EAP) works, here’s a quick overview:

1. We release new EAP builds weekly, giving you a sneak peek at upcoming features.
2. EAP builds are completely free to use and do not require a license.
3. You can install the EAP version alongside your stable PhpStorm installation, so there’s no need to uninstall your current version.
4. The most convenient way to access EAP builds and keep both your stable and EAP versions up-to-date is by using our Toolbox App.
5. Alternatively, you can download EAP builds from the EAP page or set up your IDE to automatically receive updates by selecting Check IDE Updates for the Early Access Program under Settings/Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings | Updates.