This coming December will see active support for PHP 8.2 come to an end. Security support for 8.2 will continue until December 26.
Active support for PHP 8.1 ceased last year, with security support due to end in December 25.
If you’re still on PHP 8.0, that has already reached its end of life, and is no longer supported at all. The same goes if you are on any version lower that 8.0.
If your website isn’t already on the version 8 branch, version 8.1 or higher, you will need to rectify this to ensure its ongoing security.
To stay on top of PHP version releases and their support deadlines, you can check the PHP website, where they regularly update the table shown below:
How To Check PHP Version In WordPress
You can find out what version of PHP your website server is using via the Site Health area in your WordPress backend.
On your main dashboard page, you may receive a warning that looks like this example I found from a site on PHP 7.2:
If not, you will want to go to the Tools section in your WordPress dashboard. Under Tools, you will see Site Health. Click to access this section.
Once there, click across to the Info tab, which will bring up a list of information sections.
You want to click on Server, and it will open up a table of information relating to your server set-up. Close to the top, you should see PHP Version.
If this is anything lower than 8.1, as in the example above, you need to action getting moved over to a server running a supported version of PHP. This is for security and performance reasons.
Moving To A Server Running The Latest PHP Version
We have previously shared a post ‘What is PHP? An Overview for WordPress Site Owners‘, which gives a good overview on the topic for those with WordPress and WooCommerce websites.
It also covers some of the obstacles that can be encountered when upgrading, why these can occur, and our process for upgrading our customers, which prevents compatibility issues from impacting their live websites.
How We Can Help You
PHP Audit
An audit can identify the amount of work required, and provide you with a quote of how many hours of work will be needed to bring your site up to scratch. So that it can then move to a server deployed with the most recent PHP version.
WordPress Audit
Our WordPress Health Check audits can take a deep dive into the build, performance, hosting environment and security of your website.
Our findings are presented back to you and included in a report, which will also contain a list of recommendations to improve your WordPress website. We can also provide a no-obligation quotation for improvement work.
Support, Maintenance & Hosting Plans
If you’re not satisfied with the level of support and communication you have with your current hosting provider, or need a more proactive and responsive support and maintenance partner, our Support & Maintenance plans for WordPress and WooCommerce websites could offer the perfect solution.
If you’d like to know more about how we can support you with your WordPress or WooCommerce website, drop the team a message or give us a call.
Jargon Translator
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a very widely used, open source scripting language, originally conceived way back in 1994. It’s the foundation of WordPress, and lots of the internet in general. It allows for the creation of dynamic and interactive websites. The likes of Facebook, Wikipedia, Slack, and Etsy use PHP. It’s even used for many offline applications and software.
If you’d like to learn more about our WordPress & WooCommerce Support & Maintenance plans, drop us an email or give James a call.
Our plans provide a holistic solution to your website’s performance, reliability and security, and are inclusive of premium tools and services.
