Title: Upgrade to PHP 7
Last modified: September 17, 2018

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# Upgrade to PHP 7

 *  [wilmad](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wilmad/)
 * (@wilmad)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrade-to-php-7/)
 * Hi,
 * Not sure if this is the right forum but I would like to ask assistance about 
   upgrading our current PHP version to PHP 7. Would there be any risks or problem
   that we might encounter if we upgrade? I read before that we can also check the
   compatibility of the plug ins before upgrading. I would like to upgrade the PHP
   version since I’ve read that it will be faster to work in wordpress with the 
   latest PHP but I am afraid to encounter any problems in the future cause we are
   already working on the site for long time.
 * Thanks!
    Wilma

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [stefsternyc](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stefsternyc/)
 * (@stefsternyc)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrade-to-php-7/#post-10696789)
 * You could break everything. I advise you to use a plugin called Compatibility
   Checker before doing so.
 * However, this plugin may give false positives. So it is in your best interest
   to install your site locally first using MAMP and run it using 7.0 server and
   test before making the switch on your host. Also, some hosts will copy your site
   over to a 7 server and you can run a test there.
 * Just know you can switch back but you may have to fix things that are stuck or
   broke.
 *  [MarkRH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markrh/)
 * (@markrh)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrade-to-php-7/#post-10697500)
 * I installed PHP 7.2.8 locally on my PC first. The only problem I ran into was
   custom code I had made that was using deprecated mysql functions. Had to change
   all those to use mysqli functions instead. I was coming from PHP 5.6.
 * I then backed up all my files and database on the webhost before changing it 
   there.
 * My webhost’s cPanel allows me to set what PHP version I use for each domain/subdomain
   so all I really had to change was one setting for my blog’s subdomain and could
   change it back easily. I will say, the PHP execution times were more or less 
   cut in half going from 5.6.
 * I didn’t use something like [https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/)
   but it might be useful just to see what it says.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Upgrade to PHP 7’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [new](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/new/)
 * [PHP7](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php7/)
 * [upgrade](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/upgrade/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [MarkRH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markrh/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/upgrade-to-php-7/#post-10697500)
 * Status: not resolved

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