Change the PHP version

Test on staging first, then switch the live site. Rolling back takes seconds.

New PHP versions are faster and supported for longer. Old plugins occasionally are not ready for them, so test before switching a live site.

Switch it

1. Copy the site to staging

   Sites → your site → Staging → Create from live.

2. Change PHP on staging

   Settings → PHP version. The pool restarts in a few seconds; nothing is lost.

3. Walk the site

   Home, an archive, a single page, a form, the checkout if there is one, and the plugin screens in wp-admin.

4. Check the error log

   Logs → PHP errors. Deprecation notices are usually harmless; fatal errors are not.

5. Apply it to live

   Same setting on the live site. If anything breaks, switch back to the previous version and the site returns to how it was.

Check what a site is running

wp eval 'echo PHP_VERSION . PHP_EOL;'
wp plugin list --status=active --format=table