Have a WordPress Site? You Need to Know End-Of-Life for PHP 7.4

  • Saturday, 8th October, 2022
  • 16:24pm

We are making this notice because you need to know. Even if you have no idea what PHP is or does.

PHP is a computer language created to help HTML sites become dynamic (aka interactive). WordPress which is a website Content Management System (CMS) is built out of PHP computer language.  PHP allows so many things, too many to list here, but more notably, blogging, contact forms, calendars, forums, learning management systems, and shopping cart systems like WooCommerce and SureCart. Just to name a small few.

So needless to say PHP is critical to your WordPress-powered website. PHP must be on the server your WordPress site is located. Otherwise, it wouldn't work at all. 

When "authors" of plugins, themes, etc. update, they want to use the close to the latest technology as possible This allows them to build cool things you can use on your website. But if you never update PHP, you will not be able to take advantage of these cool things.

Not only that when PHP comes to "End-Of-Life" that doesn't mean your website will die. It will keep working. But PHP will not continue to get Security Updates meaning, your guards have left the property, and you have much less protection. Meaning another layer of protection has been removed.

That is why all owners of websites built on WordPress need to stay on top of making sure they are running on the latest possible secure PHP version.

PHP 7.4 End-of-Life Chart

The good news is at KartHost, and with our partnership with Convesio we will ensure your WordPress powered site is on a safe version of PHP come November 28, 2020.

The current mass majority of our Clients are using PHP 7.4. And we will be upgrading your site to PHP 8.1. If you are using our EZWP Complete package, everything we offer in that package will work with PHP 8.1. For our WordPress Hosting clients, it will be a good idea to confirm your plugins and themes will work with at least PHP 8.0 (the next version of PHP above 7.4). Although we recommend at this time PHP 8.1 which will see a 30 to 40% speed increase of your site over PHP 7.4 (not as much for PHP 8.0)

To our clients that have any special coding to WordPress as long as you are using the standard coding practice for your website, you shouldn't have any issues with PHP 8.1. However, if you are unsure, open a Customer Service ticket and ask our team to Clone your WordPress website on another Container Platform away from your LIVE site so you can test using PHP 8.1.

 

Any questions do not hesitate to ask!

 

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