PHP 8.4 is now supported on WPhost!

PHP is the open-source scripting language that WordPress is built on. Keeping your site’s PHP version up-to-date allows your site to utilise all of PHP’s latest features and improvements, resulting in optimised security and speed.

At WPhost, we work hard to ensure our customers have access to the latest versions of PHP, and we typically make those versions available as soon as we’ve completed the necessary testing.

All new sites created on WPhost are provisioned running PHP 8.4 as the default.

How to update to PHP 8.4

The great news is that the latest WordPress version has the most compatibility with the latest PHP version. Making the switch to PHP 8.4 is easy — submit a ticket from your Client Area. Just let us know that you’d like to update your PHP version, and we’ll be happy to help!

We recommend that your active theme and all plugins have been updated before switching. WordPress developers have been hard at work to ensure compatibility with the latest version of PHP and the best experience will happen on the latest version of their work.

For your upgrade to go as smoothly as possible, we recommend ensuring all your plugins and themes are up to date. Need help updating your plugins? Check out our Managed Plugin Updates!

PHP 8.5 available on eCommerce and Enterprise Plans hosted on C3D containers

Following the release of PHP 8.5 in November 2025, this latest version of the server-side scripting language is now available to clients on our eCommerce and Enterprise Plans.

On top of the new features and updates, this latest version is the fastest yet – bringing up to a 33% speed boost on eCommerce and Enterprise Plans. But hold up before you jump in: Check that your plugins and themes work well with the new version.

PHP speed benchmarks: The PHP performance boost for WordPress and WooCommerce

WordPress shows steady performance improvements when moving from PHP 7.4 to modern PHP versions. PHP 8.4 and PHP 8.5 deliver the fastest results in testing, both landing around 148 req/s, with PHP 8.5 slightly ahead.

Performance between PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 remains close, and no major regressions appeared. The biggest gain comes from upgrading older sites still running PHP 7.4, which sees an approximately 6.6% improvement when moving to PHP 8.5.

WordPress results:

• PHP 7.4: 139.06 req/s
• PHP 8.2: 146.09 req/s
• PHP 8.3: 142.75 req/s
• PHP 8.4: 148.22 req/s
• PHP 8.5: 148.30 req/s

WooCommerce experiences a substantial performance improvement when upgrading from PHP 7.4 to modern PHP versions, with PHP 8.2 delivering about 23% higher throughput than PHP 7.4. Performance remains stable across PHP 8.2–8.4, with only minor variation.

The standout result is PHP 8.5, which reaches 71.02 req/s, a roughly 33% increase over PHP 8.4.

WooCommerce results:

• PHP 7.4: 44.20 req/s
• PHP 8.2: 54.67 req/s
• PHP 8.3: 53.74 req/s
• PHP 8.4: 53.37 req/s
• PHP 8.5: 71.02 req/s

How do I check my site’s PHP version?

Since the release of WordPress 5.2, a new tool called “Site Health” is built into WordPress. Using Site Health, you can check the version of PHP your WordPress site is running.

• How do I check my site’s PHP version?