We always recommend using the latest software for your website, including server software like PHP. Your hosting company manages this software, and they may notify you when they are updating it.
WordPress runs on PHP, which operates directly on your web hosting server to create and serve dynamic content for your WordPress pages. It can feel confusing at first, but understanding what this means for your website is essential.
In this guide, we will explain how PHP updates by your web host can impact your WordPress sites and share steps you can take to avoid potential conflicts or downtime.
WordPress and PHP Updates
WordPress is developed using PHP, an open-source programming language. At the time of writing this article, WordPress requires at least PHP version 7.4 or greater. The current stable version available for PHP is 8.3.
We have noticed that most shared hosting providers currently offer PHP version 7.4 or greater, and you can update or downgrade it from your hosting control panel.
You can see which PHP version your website is using by going to the Tools » Site Health page and switching to the ‘Info’ tab.
Next, you need to scroll down a little and click to expand the ‘Server’ tab.
This section shows server information, including the PHP version your server uses.
Note: If this section shows anything below PHP 7.4, then you need to update your PHP version.
Why Don’t Hosting Providers Use the Latest Version of PHP by Default?
We have seen many web hosting companies dealing with compatibility when a cutting-edge PHP version is used. This could cause apps that run on PHP, like WordPress, to misbehave or stop working.
However, they also don’t want to stay far behind. PHP 7.4.+ is the minimum required version, and PHP 8.0+ is generally recommended.
A PHP update initiated by your web host is supposed to go smoothly, but it can also go wrong. It all depends on your web host and how they configure their servers.
This is why we recommend choosing top-tier WordPress hosting, as it ensures that highly skilled engineers maintain those servers.
Bluehost, Hostinger, and SiteGround are the most popular, reliable web hosting services. They support PHP version 7.4 or higher to meet the minimum WordPress requirements.
Choosing an unreliable web host for your WordPress site can cause unexpected downtime during or after the update, and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it except switch to a better host.
Things You Need to Do When Your Host Updates PHP
Your web host is probably already hosting thousands of WordPress sites. They will take every precaution to ensure that everything goes smoothly and customers don’t experience glitches in the service.
The notice you have received allows you to be informed about the update and keep a lookout to see if anything goes wrong.
Although it is unlikely that this update will break things, it is always good to be prepared.
The following are a few things you can do to prepare for the update.
1. Make a Complete WordPress Backup
First, we always recommend our users regularly back up WordPress sites. If you do not have an automatic backup solution already, see our list of the best WordPress backup plugins to choose one.
We recommend Duplicator. It allows you to easily create scheduled backups and safely store them on popular cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and more.
You can also use the free version of Duplicator to get started. It lets you create on-demand WordPress backups easily.
See our complete Duplicator review for more details.
Alternatively, You can manually back up the WordPress database and download all your website files using FTP.
2. Install WordPress Updates
After backups, you need to ensure that you are running the latest version of WordPress and updating your plugins and themes.
To do so, simply go to the Updates screen and install any available updates.
PHP updates will not affect WordPress core software and the most popular WordPress plugins. However, some plugins may stop working.
If a plugin on your site has stopped working due to a PHP update, you need to contact the plugin author for support or find an alternative.
What to Do if a PHP Update Breaks Your WordPress Site
There is very little chance that a PHP update will break your WordPress site. However, with the abundance of free and paid plugins, a single line of poor code can result in any of the common WordPress errors.
The first thing you need to do is ensure that this error is not caused by a plugin or theme. To do that, you can deactivate all your WordPress plugins and switch to a default WordPress theme.
If this doesn’t resolve your issue, we suggest contacting your web host’s support team. They are likely aware of the problem and can provide the necessary assistance.
If your web host is unable to help you out, try installing a fresh copy of WordPress and then restore your WordPress site from backup.
If none helps, it may be time to change your WordPress hosting.
Need Help with PHP Updates or a Broken Website?
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We hope this guide helped you understand how PHP updates by your web host impact your WordPress site. You may also want to see our WordPress site health guide or our tutorial on boosting WordPress performance.
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Moinuddin Waheed
updating to the latest version of php may cause to break the website and cause several other problems.
I have faced this issue and asked my hosting provider to update it for me. This solved the issue .
Thanks wpbeginner for bringing this to our attention. This is really a very serious cause of concern for many who gets in trouble by updating php version without taking backup or other considerations.
Rosemary Lafferty
Excellent explanation, thank you
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome, glad our guide was helpful!
Admin
Rafal
I don’t understand. I have notice on dashboard “PHP Update required”. You wrote above “This is why we recommend our users to choose the best WordPress hosting, so they know that there are top-notch engineers who are looking after those servers.”. I have bluehost, top one recommended by you. And what next?
WPBeginner Support
If you reach out to their support they can update your PHP for you. Hosts will set you up with the up to date versions of PHP but they don’t always update the PHP without you reaching out to ensure nothing is broken on your site should you still need to use an older version of PHP.
Admin
Miley Cyrus
Interesting article….
WPBeginner Support
Thank you
Admin
Rozina
Thanks for such useful articles by your excellent editorial staff.
I would really appreciate if you could let us know as to which PHP handler is being used on this website – Really impressive that WPB loads fast even with such high traffic.
As per info available on this topic DSO is supposed to be faster than suPHP, but it is really unclear as to how fast DSO is in comparison to suPHP (secure, stable and works well with wordpress).
Wolfgang
This is an important criterion for a beginner with a limited budget who has so many starting expenses. But it should not be the main guiding force. In the long run, cheap may not necessarily be the most economical. If the level of services is good then a little investment will pay for itself through better performance. Look for web hosting plans offered by affordable companies which provide quality with reasonable rates for web hosting.
Roger
Perfect timing; I just got that same email a couple weeks ago. BTW, I’ve started referring my clients to your website for tutorials. Fantastic content .
Thank you.
Helen
Do you have a current article on good hosting? Your archived article from 2009 is outdated and recommends host gator!
WPBeginner Support
Yes we still recommend HostGator.
Admin
Carole Rains
The PHP update by Bluehost broke the checkout page on my Wordpress site. Items added to the cart did show up in the cart page at checkout, but the cart icon in my header said the cart was empty. In addition, when the button for “enter credit card info” is clicked, it triggers an error message that says invalid shipping method. Bluehost agreed to switch me back to PHP 5.2 temporarily, but said at some (undetermined) point in the near future they will switch to the new version regardless.
Any suggestions on how I can fix this?
Marilyn Lesniak
When I updated my pho to the newest versuon, I only got 1 problem. When I open posts and click on tags I receive this message.:
How do I fix this? Thx!
Jan Reilink
(as sent via Twitter)
It’s not PHP updates that break WordPress websites or plugins. It’s not updating WordPress (or plugins) that breaks when PHP is updated… BTW, the WordPress core and most plugins I use run perfect with PHP 5.5.
Most hosting providers will keep an older PHP version available for customers to temporarily switch back to when something goes wrong. Where I work, 5.4.* is the default and both 5.5* and 5.3* are available. Version 5.3 until PHP drops the support for security updates.
So, always check with your hosting provider first if that is possible before getting angry with your hosting provider…
For as far as I know, a lot of hosting companies configured PHP in a way that lets you set up custom configuration settings through .user.ini files: http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.per-user.php. When all error reporting and/or displaying is disabled, you can easily enable the logging and/or displaying of errors:
log_errors = On
error_log = “/path/to/your/logfile.txt”
display_errors = On
This will ease the fixing of older, poorly maintained plugins.
Conrad
Another item to watch out of is that plugins and other applications that have been protected with older versions of Ioncube might stop working when the PHP version is changed. The developer of the plugin or application needs to update their Ioncube protection first.
Once you make the change, you need to make a list of all the plugins & applications you are using and go through then one by one to check for functionality with the new php.
That said, I am running bleeding edge PHP with the latest WP and apart from applications that were protected with old Ioncube versions, everything is running smoothly.
Zimbrul
I’ve noticed my host allow me to choose what version of PHP I want to use for each site hosted on a shared account. After reading this I will use that option with caution.