Recommended PHP version for WordPress

WordPress recommends keeping your PHP version up to date. Managed Hosting for WordPress supports versions 7.4 and higher. Before changing your PHP version, we recommend ensuring your plugins and theme are up to date.

Note: PHP is the programming language that is used to build and maintain WordPress. Programming languages like PHP are constantly evolving to be faster and more secure than their older versions. Updating to a newer version will have a positive effect on your site's performance and safety.

Updating your PHP version shouldn't be a problem, however we can't guarantee that it's not. To protect your site, perform all of the following as part of changing your PHP version:

1. Create a backup of your WordPress site.
2. Update WordPress (Managed Hosting for WordPress users can skip this step since WordPress version is automatically updated whenever there is a new release).
3. Update your WordPress theme.
4. Update your WordPress plugins.
5. Change the PHP version by selecting the steps that correspond to the hosting platform your WordPress site is hosted on (What type of hosting account do I have?):
   • Managed Hosting for WordPress
   • Web Hosting (cPanel)
   • Windows Hosting (Plesk)
   • VPS/Dedicated
6. Verify that your site is running on the correct version of PHP by using a phpinfo file.

More info

• WordPress.org has additional info about their PHP version recommendation.
• Extended support for PHP version 7.4 and 8.0 with Zend PHP
• Supported Managed Hosting for WordPress PHP Versions