PHP 7.4 is now available for use on all our hosting servers. If you want to use PHP 7.4, you can easily switch yourself in cPanel.
On our servers we support many different PHP versions. From 5.2 all the way up to 7.4.
The senate versions come with a number of changes and improvements.
For you non-developers, you will mainly notice the increased performance. So your website will run a little bit faster if you switch to PHP 7.4.
For developers, PHP 7.4 has many exciting new features. For example, you can now use:
- Arrow functions, which have become popular in JavaScript lately.
- The ability to type bucket properties on classes.
- Array spread operator
As usual, some older things are starting to be removed. Sitcher does a very good job of reviewing both the new features and what has been changed. If you want to dig really deep, read what PHP.net writes.
Things to consider before switching PHP versions
Consider testing the switch to 7.4 on a smaller scale first. Some features are not yet available. For example, modules for memcached and redis are missing at the time of writing.
Also, your code may be using something that no longer works with the new version.
You can easily choose which PHP version runs on your hosting account globally or for individual sites. If you find that your website is not working optimally with 7.4, you can easily switch back to the previous PHP version in the same way with a few clicks.