17 Sep Why hosting companies only allow modern PHP versions

Modern PHP versions only

If you allow every account to select every available PHP version, you can end up with a mixture such as:

PHP 7.4
PHP 8.0
PHP 8.1
PHP 8.2
PHP 8.3
PHP 8.4
PHP 8.5

all running simultaneously on the same server. Then that creates several problems:

1. Security

   Older PHP versions eventually stop receiving security fixes.

   A hosting company therefore doesn’t want hundreds of customers running obsolete versions indefinitely. Removing unsupported versions reduces the attack surface of the entire platform.

2. Server stability
   

   Different PHP versions can behave differently with:

   WordPress
   WooCommerce
   Plugins
   Themes
   PHP extensions
   Database connections
   Caching systems

   A hosting provider has to support the combination of software, not just PHP itself.

   Limiting the available versions gives the hosting company a much more predictable environment.

3. Resource management

   This is particularly important on shared/managed hosting.

   Every PHP version generally requires its own PHP runtime/configuration and associated processes. Supporting many versions increases the amount of infrastructure that has to be maintained.

   For a provider with thousands of websites, eliminating unnecessary PHP versions makes the platform more efficient.

4. Compatibility testing

   A hosting company can test something like:

   WordPress + PHP 8.3 + MySQL + their server configuration

   and know that this combination is supported.

   If customers can choose absolutely any PHP version, the possible combinations become enormous.

   That’s why hosting providers generally offer a supported range, rather than unlimited choice.

But there’s another important reason: plugins

This is one of the biggest problems for WordPress hosting.

Imagine you have:

PHP 8.5
WordPress
WooCommerce
30 plugins
An old theme

PHP 8.5 itself might be perfectly fine, but one old plugin may contain code that was written for PHP 7.x.

The result could be:

• fatal errors
• deprecated-function warnings
• broken checkout
• white screens
• unexpected redirects
• database errors

The hosting provider doesn’t necessarily want to expose every customer to the newest PHP version immediately.

Why we limit PHP versions

We don’t make every PHP version available simply because it exists.

PHP is a core component of your hosting environment, and allowing unsupported or poorly tested versions can introduce security, compatibility and stability problems.

Our servers provide a controlled range of supported PHP versions that have been tested with the hosting environment and common WordPress applications.

This allows us to maintain a more stable platform while still giving you the flexibility to run modern WordPress, WooCommerce and other PHP applications.

We currently provide PHP 8.3 and newer supported PHP versions. Older PHP versions are not made available on our servers.

Where a website requires an older PHP version for compatibility, we can assess the requirement and recommend the appropriate solution.

We limit the available versions because we support the hosting environment as a whole, rather than offering every PHP release indiscriminately.