PHP FAQ

The latest stable version of PHP is 8.5.3. There are currently 4 actively supported versions and 14 versions that have reached end of life. Visit the PHP Version Tracker on ReleaseRun for a complete breakdown of all versions, including release dates, support timelines, and end-of-life dates.

Each PHP minor version receives 2 years of active support (bug fixes) followed by 1 year of security-only fixes, for a total of 3 years. After that, the version reaches end of life. This is shorter than Python (5 years) or Node.js LTS (30 months).

No. PHP 7.4, the last PHP 7.x release, reached end of life in November 2022. All PHP 7.x versions are unsupported and do not receive security patches. Upgrade to PHP 8.1 or later. The migration requires attention to breaking changes, particularly around strict typing, named arguments, and deprecated functions.

PHP 8.4 (released November 2024) introduced property hooks (getter/setter syntax similar to Kotlin/C#), asymmetric visibility for properties, new array functions (array_find, array_any, array_all), lazy objects, and HTML5 DOM parsing. It also deprecated several functions and implicit nullable parameter types.

WordPress recommends PHP 8.0 or higher. PHP 8.2 or 8.3 are good choices for the best balance of performance, security, and plugin compatibility. Check that your active plugins and theme are compatible with your target PHP version before upgrading, as some older plugins may use deprecated PHP features.