Switch between different PHP versions on Mac OSX using Homebrew

There are multiple fancy scripts out there for managing PHP versions, but here I will show you how you can get the same result with just Homebrew, which you probably already have installed.

Install different PHP versions:

brew install php@7.2
brew install php@7.3
brew install php@7.4
brew install php@8.0

Let’s say you want version 8.0, simply run:

brew unlink php && brew link php@8.0

Result:

PHP 8.0.2 (cli) (built: Feb  4 2021 17:58:53) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.0.2, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.0.2, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Simply repeat the unlink/link command every time you want to switch version.

These commands have been tested on OSX Catalina but should also work for earlier versions of OSX.