As we’ve done several times in the past, we’re about to increase our minimum supported PHP version for the Shield Security plugin for WordPress. This time to PHP 7.4.

At the time of writing, our minimum supported PHP version is 7.2.

We rely on our telemetry data to inform us when it’s a good time to update our minimum requirements. The move to PHP 7.4 will leave behind a number (~6.4%) of sites. Telemetry data shows us that 2.8% are on PHP 7.2, while 3.6% are running 7.3. The vast majoriy (~93%) are already running at least PHP 7.4+

Why Increase Minimum Supported PHP Version?

The main reason we increase our mimimum supported PHP is to allow us to take full advantage of the newer PHP language features.

PHP 7.0 was a huge jump from PHP 5.x, and with each successive release in the PHP 7 series, the language improved. PHP 7.4 is great to work with, as it offers more flexibility when working within PHP’s strict mode (which we try to do in all our latest code).

Furthermore, moving to PHP 7.4 decreases the range of PHP language syntax that Shield must support. This is a good thing for developers and reduces potential for coding errors. This is particularly important as new PHP versions are released.

PHP 8.4 will be released in a few months and this will drive more WordPress admins to make the switch to PHP 8.x. (~44% of Shield sites already run on PHP 8)

How Do I Know If I Need To Upgrade My PHP?

We started a new initiative this month where we send a report to our active members about the state of their WordPress sites.

In this first edition, we focused on 2 key areas:

  • Is your Shield plugin out of date?
  • Is your PHP older than PHP 7.4?

We look at each of your sites and where either one of these were true, we collated the info and sent an email outlining the details.

We plan to do this at the beginning of each month to help you stay up-to-date, and where appropriate we’ll expand these email reports to include other useful information.

If you’ve missed that email, search for the email with the subject “[IMPORTANT] Some Shield Security sites need attention“. If you can’t find it, it probably wasn’t sent to you because all your sites are up-to-date.

Another way to find your PHP version is to open up Shield > Tools > Debug and it’ll show you the current version of PHP on your WordPress site.

How Can You Upgrade Your PHP Version?

The 1st place to begin is a discussion with your webhost. They probably have tools to help you with this.

You should always have a backup ready of your site should you run into issues. Please see our Ask Paulie Anything Episodes where we discuss further, or read more detail about upgrading PHP here.

What If You Can’t Upgrade Your PHP Version?

If for some reason there are other plugins/themes on your site that prevent you from upgrading your PHP, we would urge you to invest the resources now to move past that restriction.

More and more plugins are moving their minimum PHP version to PHP 7.4 and beyond, including WooCommerce, for example. The trend is upwards, and it’s only a matter of time until WordPress itself will require PHP 7.4 (they already recommend it).

When Will Shield Security Move to PHP 7.4?

From version 20.1 we’ll be switching Shield Security to PHP 7.4. This won’t be released for another few weeks (late-September/early-October 2024)

Question or Comments

We know this is a big change and that it may cause some stress. We’re here to help with any questions you have. Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions about this change.