This list is my personal top 10 list of PHP projects that have no financial backup or support which deserves credits. I've also included my motivation as reference.
- Composer: It revolutionised PHP world by allowing people to build awesome components supported by major frameworks and tools
- PHPUnit: Since it was ported to PHP it added quality and easy maintenance to a lot of projects
- XDebug: This tool has offered developers a chance to analyse their code step by step to find bugs or solve coding mysteries
- Slim Framework: A true PHP microframework
- Phing: The PHP build tool
- MantisBT: The PHP bug tracker
- PHPDocumentor: The code analysis tool that turns your code blocks into software documentation
- PHP_CodeSniffer: The coding standards tool
- PHPWomen: The all-inclusive, welcoming community for PHP developers
- PHPMentoring.org: A platform for developers to learn from other developers skills they miss
MantisBT was my favorite. It had extremely simple code. I don't know if it evolved over the years, but at one time I would pitch MantisBT as the FRACAS tool of choice.