Fenice
Risen from the ashes. As it was, where it was.
Fenice brings the real PHP-Nuke back to life — the CMS that defined an era of the web — faithfully rebuilt to run today on PHP 8.3 and MariaDB. Not a modern imitation: the PHP-Nuke you remember, with its modules, its themes and its arcade, finally secure and current.
A restoration, not a remake.
Thousands of sites once ran on PHP-Nuke. Then the web moved on and the code stayed frozen in the PHP 5 era. Fenice bridges that gap without betraying the original.
Fenice starts from PHP-Nuke's most mature lineage and brings it to run safely on PHP 8.3 and MariaDB: no dead constructs, no old holes, parameterized queries. The native architecture — the front controller, the modules, the blocks, the theme system — stays exactly the one you remember.
The goal isn't to turn PHP-Nuke into something else. It's to put it back on its feet as it was, where nostalgia and modern operation live in the same site.
A twenty-year lineage, all the way to the flame.
Each link kept the code alive and passed on the torch. Fenice is the latest: the same heritage, reignited.
All the classic PHP-Nuke, in order.
The classic modules
News, forums, downloads, links, search, statistics, FAQ. The module set that makes PHP-Nuke what it is.
The Flash arcade
SWF games run in the browser again, no plugins, thanks to Ruffle. Nostalgia you can actually play.
NukeSentinel
PHP-Nuke's long-standing protection system, built in and configured as the first layer of defense.
PHP 8.3 · MariaDB
Code cleaned up to run on today's servers: parameterized queries, no old holes, a current stack.
Native themes and blocks
PHP-Nuke's theme system and side blocks, intact. Your site stays as customizable as it ever was.
Free software
Released under the GNU GPL v2. Use it, study it, modify it, redistribute it — as PHP-Nuke always has.
Bring Fenice to your server.
- Versionv—
- RequiresPHP 8.3 · MariaDB 10/11
- Web serverApache
- LicenseGNU GPL v2
- Format.zip · full source
Current status: preview. This is a pre-release: hardening work is still underway. Once testing is complete it becomes Fenice 1.0.0 stable. For public use, keep it behind an application firewall (e.g. Cloudflare) and follow the install notes included in the package.
Free, as it always has been.
What you can do
- Use it freely, including commercially.
- Study and modify it however you like.
- Redistribute it, modified or not.
- Running Fenice on your own server is not "distribution": for use on a website alone, you're not required to publish your changes.
What you must do if you redistribute it
- Keep it under the GNU GPL v2 (copyleft).
- Provide the source code to anyone you give a copy to.
- Preserve the copyright notices and the license text.
- Keep the copyright notice in the footer (as permitted by GPLv2 §2c).
The heritage we credit
Bundled third-party components
Fenice bundles third-party software, each under its own license, which are preserved:
This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL.
PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details see the license.
This page summarizes the terms in plain language and is not legal advice. The authoritative text is the GNU General Public License v2 included in the package.