Changing your PHP version on cPanel Hosting

Changing your PHP version in your hosting account is a problem free way to check if your website can handle the latest upgrades from PHP. Any changes you make to PHP can be easily “undone” if they do not work for your hosting account.

Heres how it works. You can either read along, or click the video for a tutorial on how it works.

At the time of writing, PHP 8.1 is the newest supported version. PHP 7.4 reaches end of life status on November 28, 2022. You can find up to date information about PHP Versions by clicking here

1. While logged into your cPanel account, type “PHP” in the searchbar to show the Change PHP Versions button and click it
2. In the new screen, choose your new PHP version in the selector, and then once loaded click “Set as Current”
3. Visit your website (we recommend using a different browser) to check your website to make sure it works under the new version

Troubleshooting

1. If your website does not work, head back to the selector and click “Reset to Defaults” to load the default options for PHP from the server.
2. If that doesn’t work, check your error log for reasons why the PHP is not loading to identify the error
3. You can create a PHP INFO page to make sure your PHP is loading properly, create a new PHP file in your public_html directory (e.g. phpinfo.php) and add the following text:
   
   

   <?php phpinfo(); ?>

Then visit the name of that file for your website, e.g. https://example.com/phpinfo.php. If the Major PHP version matches the one you selected (PHP 7.4 for example) then your PHP is functioning properly and you need to update your website software.