PHP 8: Is the Latest Supported PHP Version Compatible to Use or Not?

PHP 8.0 is set to be released on November 23, 2020. As the programming language WordPress sites, PHP’s newest version offers new features that developers will find valuable and it can significantly improve security and performance in the long run. PHP 8 is a massive change from earlier versions.

In this blog, we are providing detailing of PHP up-to-date versions and why you should be or not using supported PHP versions.

Should you upgrade PHP-supported versions?

PHP powers WordPress websites. But a big problem, we’re facing in the WordPress community is that numerous sites, businesses, hosting providers, and developers aren’t supporting the newest versions of PHP. Unforeseen bugs still arise for a certain time, even without the presence of additional plugins or themes.

WordPress has named for additional testing with PHP 8 to find and fix as many remaining bugs as possible. A vast number of WordPress plugins and themes will not be instantly compatible with PHP 8. Those that do not run into lethal errors during standard usage may still show unexpected behavior for a certain time.

What changes does this include?

Several developers have claimed that PHP is insecure by default. Problems that were previously caused in notices now result in warnings, and issues that previously resulted in warnings now result in errors. WordPress developers may need to wait until these are updated compatibility.

Final Takeaway,

The transition to PHP is one of the broadest and most impactful modifications the language has ever seen. The benefit of updating for compatibility with PHP 8 is that PHP 7.4 is going to reach the end of life in 2022 and will no longer see security updates. PHP 8 is remarkable in terms of performance, but the code is completely new and incompatible with previous ones. Countless hosting companies are already pushed PHP 8 in their library but stick to the PHP 7.4 and 5.3 for a certain time.