We are happy to announce availability of PHP 7.4 on all our servers. With that, we are also giving six month notice of the end of availability of PHP 7.2.
PHP 7.4 general availability
November 2019 saw the release of PHP 7.4.0, the next incarnation of the most used server-side programming language in the world. For a summary of new functionality and deprecations, please see php.net.
Our implementation of PHP 7.4 includes all the same plugins that you are used to with PHP 7.3, except for one exception: IonCube. The IonCube loader for PHP 7.3 is still in beta phase; we will offer it as soon as it reaches a stable version.
Update 28 August: PHP 7.4 now includes IonCube support.
PHP 7.2 end of life
Active support for PHP 7.2 ended at the same time as the release of PHP 7.4 in November. Security updates for PHP 7.2 will continue for six more months until 30 November, at which time we will stop offering it as an option on our servers.
For more information on PHP supported versions, please see php.net.
Wil your website work with PHP 7.4?
The latest versions of popular content management systems like WordPress and Joomla are compatible with PHP 7.4. Plugins and themes for those systems may or may not be.
As of 19 June, the IonCube extension for PHP 7.4 is still in beta and not generally available. If your website requires IonCube, then stick with PHP 7.3 for the time being.
To prevent disappointment, please check that your website is compatible with PHP 7.4 and make any necessary adjustments well ahead of the events outlined in the “important dates” table below. We suggest the following steps:
- Update your web application and all its plugins and themes to the latest versions.
- For each plugin or theme, check the developer’s website for PHP 7.4 compatibility.
- If your website us custom PHP code, then definitely check with your web developer.
- When you think it is safe, switch your website to PHP 7.4 (see below for instructions) and then test that everything works as it should. If you experience problems, switch back to the previous PHP version and do the necessary troubleshooting.
To switch the PHP version of your website:
- Log in to your cPanel.
- Scroll down to the Software section, and open the MultiPHP Manager page.
- Select the PHP version of your choice for your website. The “inherit” option makes your website inherit the server default version. See the “important dates” table below for details on the default PHP version.
We recommend using the “inherit” setting wherever possible, so that your website will use the server default PHP version. However, for testing purposes, you would want to override this by selecting a specify PHP version. Also, if you are awaiting updates to make your site compatible with PHP 7.4 and do not want the automatic version upgrade on 29 June (see below), then you will also want to set an explicit version.
Troubleshooting steps if PHP 7.4 does not work well:
- Enable detailed error message in your application. WordPress has a debugging option, for example.
- Check the PHP error logs. Errors are written to error_log files in the relevant sub-directory under public_html.
Important dates
| Date | Change | Default version | Comment | Status |
| 18 May | PHP 7.4 available | PHP 7.3 | To use PHP 7.4, use the MultiPHP Manager function in cPanel; all new websites will use PHP 7.3 by default | Completed |
| 19 June | Change server default version to PHP 7.4 | PHP 7.4 | Automatic upgrade for all websites that use the “inherit” (server default) to PHP 7.4; all new websites will use PHP 7.4 by default | Completed |
| 4 September | Remove option to select PHP 7.2 in cPanel | PHP 7.4 | PHP 7.2 will no longer be available for selection with the MultiPHP Manager function in cPanel; websites still set to use PHP 7.2 will continue to do so | Completed |
| 2 October | Forced switch PHP 7.2 websites to PHP 7.4 | PHP 7.4 | Switch websites still using PHP 7.2 to PHP 7.4 | Completed |
| 1 December | PHP 7.2 no longer available | PHP 7.4 | Remove PHP 7.2 from all servers | Completed |