WordPress 6.3 to Drop Support for PHP 5

WordPress is officially dropping support for PHP 5 in the upcoming 6.3 release, which is expected on August 8. WordPress’ minimum supported version has sat at PHP 5.6.20 since 2019, but will be updated to 7.0.0 in the next release. The recommended PHP version will stay the same at 7.4+. “The minimum supported version was last adjusted in WordPress 5.2 in …

Yoast SEO 20.5 Drops Support for PHP 5.6, 7.0, and 7.1

Yoast SEO 20.5 was released this week with several security fixes and an improved Google SERP preview. The preview shows mobile and desktop snippets with Google’s current styling so users can see exactly how their snippets will look and tweak how they optimize them for Google Search results. Another highlight of this release is that Yoast SEO has dropped compatibility …

WordPress Versions 3.7-4.0 No Longer Get Security Updates

In September, WordPress’ Security Team announced it would be dropping support for versions 3.7 through 4.0 by December 1, 2022. Yesterday the final releases for these versions (3.7.41, 3.8.41, 3.9.40, and 4.0.38) were made available to the very small percentage of users who are running ancient versions of WordPress. As part of the final releases, the upgrade notification now informs …

PHP Foundation Gains Momentum with $280K Estimated Annual Budget on Open Collective

At the end of November, prominent members of the PHP community formed a new PHP Foundation as a non-profit organization, “to ensure the long life and prosperity of the PHP language.” The founding members include Automattic, Laravel, Acquia, Zend, Craft CMS, Private Packagist, Tideways, PrestaShop, Symfony, and JetBrains—a group of companies with products that rely heavily on PHP. In just …

How To Update PHP To The Suggested WordPress Version

Using an outdated version of WordPress core, plugins, or themes puts your site at risk. PHP is no different. While WordPress technically works with some older versions of PHP, you’re sacrificing performance and compatibility, while opening yourself up to security vulnerabilities by using these. For safety and stability, always aim to use the WordPress recommended versions of PHP. In this …

First Look at PHP 7.4 for WordPress Developers

PHP 7.4 is slated for release on November 28, 2019. WordPress 5.3 will also include several commits that address deprecated features. It’s unlikely that most WordPress plugin and theme developers will be able to use the new PHP 7.4 features for a while except when working on setups where they have some measure of control over the environment. Given WordPress’ …