What Version of PHP is running your WordPress Website and Why Should You Care?

If you’re like most people, you don’t know what version of PHP your WordPress site is running on, and probably don’t care.  Here’s why you should.

PHP is the programming language that your WordPress website was built on.  Without it, your site wouldn’t exist.  Like most things in our digital world, PHP has a life cycle.  And for PHP 5.X (versions 5.0 – 5.6), that life cycle runs out on December 31st, 2018.   Support for PHP 7.0 also expires this December.  (View all supported versions of PHP and their life cycle.)

WordPress estimates that 63.5% of WordPress sites are still running PHP 5.0 – 5.6.   Another 19.8% of WordPress sites are running PHP 7.0.   This means that 83.3% of WordPress sites are running PHP versions that won’t be supported after 12/31/18!  (View the WordPress statistics firsthand.)

83.3% of WordPress sites are running PHP versions that won’t be supported after 12/31/18!

Let’s be clear.  You’ve got time and there’s no need to panic.  But you definitely want to put this on your “To Do” list.  Your website should still function properly after December 31st without upgrading your version of PHP, but it will become more vulnerable to security issues as time goes along.  And eventually, your site will break.

So what steps should you take? 

1. Contact your web developer or hosting company and ask them  “What version of PHP is my WordPress site running on?” 
2. Back up your website.  We like to use backupbuddy, but there are other good options as well.  (We don’t recommend relying solely on your hosting company to back up your site.  Most of them won’t assume responsibility if something goes wrong during a restore.)
3. Upgrade to PHP 7.1 or 7.2.  (If you’re already running 7.1 or 7.2, you can stop here; you’re good to go.)
4. After the upgrade, refresh your browser and test your site to make sure it’s still working properly.

If  you have been updating WordPress and your plugins on a regular basis, odds are the upgrade to PHP 7.1 or 7.2 will go smoothly.  For more information on this topic, view this great article by Wordfence.