

On your car you may have the best tires and top of the line fuel, but if that recalled part stays in your car, none of those features will matter and you could still have car problems. You could choose to ignore the recall, but there is a big risk that you’ll have problems in the future. You get the notice that a part is being recalled and you need to go to a mechanic and get it replaced. The situation with PHP and your WordPress site is similar to when you receive a recall notice for your car. 3 Critical Reasons to Update to a Supported PHP As of 2021, most sites are transitioning now to 7.4.
#How to update php 5.2 to 7.2 upgrade
It’s recommended to upgrade to your WordPress site to PHP 7.3 or 7.4 as soon as possible. PHP 7.3 was released in 2018 and will receive security support until 2021. Unfortunately, the majority of WordPress sites are using PHP 5.6 or a lower/outdated version. Starting with WordPress 5.2, any sites on PHP versions below 5.6 will not be able to update to the latest WordPress core.
#How to update php 5.2 to 7.2 code
After 3 years from the release of that version, there is no longer any security support for that version.Īfter December 31, 2018, PHP 5.6 will no longer receive security or support, which means the code will no longer be secure. Similar to the WordPress core and plugins, there are new versions/updates of PHP released every few months (see chart below).Įach version of PHP is fully supported for 2 years, which means during that time, any bugs and security issues are fixed and patched. This means that when we talk about PHP versions and updating a website to a new version, you have to consider the hosting server. The unique thing about PHP is that it is a server-side language. The same is true of your website if you decide to skip this.īecause WordPress is built on PHP, this means everything in the WordPress environment (themes, plugins, etc.) also uses PHP. You could choose to ignore it and not take the steps to get the recalled part fixed, but down the line, you could have major problems.


Think of this PHP update to when you get a recall notice for your car. In the next few months, all WordPress sites will need to update to the latest version of PHP in order to avoid major security & performance issues on their website. Basically, without PHP, WordPress wouldn’t exist. PHP is the most popular server-side programming language, and it’s used for all WordPress sites, plugins, and themes.
