We have started rolling out updates across our servers for cPanel, PHP, and MySQL, we expect these updates to be completed by the end of the month. The only major change here is that you will now have the additional option of using PHP 7, the rest of the changes will be mostly behind the scenes related to performance and security. These updates will be for all of shared hosting including free and premium.
Highlights
- PHP 5.6 will become the new default PHP version on new and existing accounts.
- PHP 5.4 and 5.5 will remain available as options for the foreseeable future.
- PHP 7.0 will now be available as an option, but will not be the default.
If you have previously selected a PHP version besides the default these changes will not affect your choice, if you are on the default you will be automatically switched to PHP 5.6. If your scripts\site are not compatible for some reason you can downgrade to PHP 5.4 or 5.5 via your cPanel. More information and instructions on changing your PHP version and settings can be found in this blog post.
Also keep in mind that older PHP versions can be phased out at anytime, our number one priority is security and because a lot of the older versions of PHP are end of lifed there is not a guarantee they will see security updated in the case of exploits being found. It is strongly recommended that you make sure your scripts are up to date and support at least PHP 5.6 with PHP 7 support being available in the near future. Popular scripts such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc all support the current PHP releases by default, just make sure you keep them up to date.
More information can be found at the below link regarding PHPs end of life policy:
http://php.net/supported-versions.php
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