PHP 5.6 and 7.0 End of Life
PHP, the open source programming and scripting language used by all websites built with WordPress, has planned the end of life (EOL) for versions 5.6 and 7.0 by the end of December 2018. At that time, PHP will cease to offer critical security support for these versions. The end of life process is standard within PHP release cycles, and, as your partner, we are here to provide you with the guidance and tools to ensure a smooth upgrade to PHP 7.2.
WP Engine’s PHP 7.2 Upgrade Plan
We understand that managing the upgrade to a new PHP version can be complex and require your investment in additional development effort. In order to provide you with enough time to ensure compatibility, we are implementing protective and preventative measures to extend PHP 5.6 and 7.0 availability on our platform past the December 2018 EOL date.
WP Engine will assign an upgrade date starting on December 4, 2018. Each customer will be notified 48 hours prior to the upgrade. All upgrade notifications will be sent to Account Owners and Technical Contacts, as listed in the User Portal. To update these contacts, please review this article .
Ensuring PHP 7.2 Compatibility
Our job is to make your upgrade process easier. We’ve invested in new tools within the WP Engine User Portal to help you upgrade each install to PHP 7.2 with no need for a DNS change.
In line with our recommended Staging and Development Environments workflow, we have a best practices workflow available to guide your upgrade process. If you are still on a Personal, Professional, or Business plan, or not on our User Portal Sites Experience, we highly recommend converting to the Sites Experience in order to take advantage of this workflow. If, however, you prefer to upgrade your websites to PHP 7.2 on one of these plans, we have a separate workflow available as well.
Before getting started, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with some of the tools you’ll use in this workflow: