What is PHP? How to Check the PHP Version?

The progress of completing a website is updated daily. A site’s PHP version is one of the most important factors in increasing site speed. Upgrading the PHP version makes things twice as fast as normal operations; However, one method on how you can check the PHP version is all we need to know to do this – maybe your PHP version is the latest, and you do not need to update it.

More specifically, PHP is a popular programming language that powers many user-friendly websites and apps. Although it may not be as popular as some newer languages, it is still widely used and supported by a large population of developers. Many successful companies in the world use PHP so it won’t die in 2023.

What is PHP?

Check the files of your WordPress site to see multiple PHP files. These files are instructions that your server uses to create web pages that your visitors can use in the WordPress frontend and admin area. PHP is a big part of WordPress. PHP is the majority of web pages—about 70% of all websites use PHP. Statistically speaking, PHP is used by 77.5% of all websites for server-based programming coding that we are used to.

Large companies use PHP for many reasons. First, PHP doesn’t separate views and business logic like a NodeJS/main stack combination. PHP view and server code are deciphered and so on. As a result, code maintainability and scalability are poor, and introducing new functions is often challenging; Hence, managing large code bases is difficult.

Checking the PHP version of the site

There are several ways to check the PHP version and in this article, I will explain two ways to do it for WordPress and non-WordPress sites. According to Wikipedia, PHP 7.4 is the latest stable version currently. So better to install this version on your website server. Of course, we’re eagerly awaiting the stable release of version 8. It was probably a lot faster with this version.

But let’s check your site’s PHP version. Maybe it’s 5.6, and by updating it to version 7.4, you’ll see an amazing change in your site’s speed. If so, don’t forget to let us know in the comment section of this post.

How to Check PHP Version

It is very easy to check the PHP version on a WordPress site. Just go to Tools > Site Health. Enter the Info tab; Now, click on the server. Here you can see your web server information. Finally, look at your site’s PHP version, which appears as a number like 6.8.9. Now follow instructions to change PHP version.

Checking PHP version by host

In this method, the details may differ depending on the type of control panel installed on your host, which is for Cpanel, DirectAdmin, and Plesk control panels as a whole. DirectAdmin > Plesk > We explained.

What are the benefits of upgrading the PHP version?

Upgrading the PHP version has many benefits:

• Better Security: The most obvious reason to update PHP is to improve security. For example, the new version is more secure against hackers. For instance, deprecated codes are no longer supported.
• Faster Websites: Newer PHP versions are faster. Sites using PHP version 7.3 are 9% faster compared to sites with PHP 7.2.
• New Features and Improvements: All updates and new versions contain new features and improvements related to error handling.

Update WordPress to the latest version

After checking the PHP version used by your site, you need to make sure WordPress and all templates and plugins are up-to-date.

1. First, enter the WordPress dashboard.
2. Then, from the “Counter” section, press on the “Events” option.
3. On this page, check if the latest version of WordPress is installed and if all plugins and themes are up to date.
4. If they’re not up to date, be sure to update them.

Before updating, we recommend you take a backup and make sure the templates and sites you use are compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Go to any template or plugin page. Check the WordPress Repository section or the site of the developer of that template or plugin.

Updating PHP version via direct admin

You can update the PHP version directly through admin.

1. Enter your direct admin.
2. Select desired domain to change PHP version.
3. At the bottom of the page, find the option “PHP Version Selector”.
4. In this section select the PHP version and then click on the Save option.

For more than a day, PHP has used many versions to improve site speed and security. However, many site owners still use older versions of PHP. It is recommended that you update your site’s PHP version. I hope this article helped you to change the PHP version of WordPress.

Conclusion

In this article, we have tried to teach you why you should upgrade PHP and how to do it. PHP should always be up to date. If you have experience in this field, share it with us. A short call will link you to our friend group on Azar Online. We are ready to provide consultancy services in various areas of AI. We are passive, and we can transform your business overnight.