PHP powers a large part of the web, including WordPress, WooCommerce and many custom business applications. Each PHP release gets two years of active support followed by two years of security fixes only. After that, it receives nothing.
The calendar
- PHP 8.1: security support ended on 31 December 2025.
- PHP 8.2: security fixes only, until 31 December 2026.
- PHP 8.3: security fixes until 31 December 2027.
- PHP 8.4 (released November 2024) and newer: the versions to target for new work.
Anything older than 8.1, including the still-common 7.4, has been unsupported for years.
Why an old PHP version is a real risk
An unsupported PHP version still runs, which is exactly why it gets forgotten. But when a vulnerability is found in PHP itself, there is no fix. Older versions are also slower: each recent release has brought performance improvements, so upgrading often makes a site faster at no cost.
How to upgrade without breaking things
- Check your platform first. Update WordPress, its themes and plugins, or your framework, to versions that support the target PHP release.
- Create a staging copy of the site and switch it to the new version.
- Turn on error logging and click through the important paths: checkout, login, forms, admin.
- Look for deprecation warnings. They show what will break in the next version.
- Switch production during a quiet period and keep the option to switch back.
Most sites move from 8.1 to 8.3 or 8.4 with little or no code change. Custom code written for PHP 7 needs more attention.
How IDX helps
If your site runs on IDX hosting, our team can check its compatibility with a supported PHP version and handle the upgrade with you, one site at a time.
IDX on digital infrastructure
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