Title: Should one update PHP version?
Last modified: August 31, 2016

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# Should one update PHP version?

 *  [ferbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ferbert/)
 * (@ferbert)
 * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/should-one-update-php-version/)
 * Hello Everyone,
    I installed my WordPress site 3 years ago, and it works very
   well. It in a Windows 2008 R2 server runing IIS. The version of PHP it installed
   is 5.3. I see that the latest version is 7.00. Is it a good preactice to continually
   update PHP – or if everything is working well – should you just leave it alone.
   I would think that there are possible pitfalls. Any help would be appreciated.
 * Greg

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [ecuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ecuk/)
 * (@ecuk)
 * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/should-one-update-php-version/#post-7090861)
 * Hello Greg,
 * It is always wise to upgrade your version of PHP for security reasons. See [PHP Supported Versions](http://php.net/supported-versions.php),
   which indicates that security updates to 5.3 are no longer being made.
 * That said, upgrading all the way from 5.3 to 7.0 might cause you problems. You
   should consider trying the latest version of 5.6 for now, especially if you are
   using third-party plugins, which could break due to incompatibilities between
   5.3 and the later versions of PHP. Then test your site thoroughly. WordPress 
   Core should work with any of the currently supported versions of PHP, including
   7.0, but third-party plugins are a different matter, and many do not yet support
   7.0.
 * In any case, you should make a backup of everything first, including both your
   site and your old version of PHP.
 * Hope that helps,
    Eric

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Should one update PHP version?’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [php update](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php-update/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [ecuk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ecuk/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/should-one-update-php-version/#post-7090861)
 * Status: not resolved

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