I was trying to install a WordPress plugin but failed. It says PHP 5.2 is no longer supported and the minimum requirement for it to run is PHP 5.3.2. Since my site is hosted with Bluehost, a famous cPanel hosting service provider, the change of PHP version is very easy. If you are on cPanel or using Bluehost hosting service as well, you can upgrade PHP to a higher or latest version, download PHP to a lower version easily.
How to Upgrade PHP Version with cPanel Linux hosting?
Log on your cPanel using your hosting account username and password, then scroll down to the Software / Services section.
Click PHP Config from above screen, you will be taken to the PHP configuration page where you can find a list of PHP versions you can choose.
Bluehost have configured multiple PHP versions on their Linux hosting servers. You can choose to use any PHP versions you need. They will also update the PHP version in time so you can always upgrade to the latest PHP version at the first time. Once you select the PHP version you like, click the Save Change button on the page bottom and you are done.
PHP Version Upgrade Important Tips:
- You need to backup the .htaccess file from ~/public_html/.htaccess before you change the PHP version. If you have custom handlers specified in ~/public_html/.htaccess, changing these settings can overwrite them.
- If you can’t upgrade or downgrade PHP version in cPanel, make sure you have set proper file permission on the .htaccess file.
To check what version of PHP your server is running, you should contact your host, or you can find out PHP version by yourself. See how to find out PHP version on Linux server hosting?
Since I was in the middle of installing a WordPress plugin which requires a newer PHP version, I tried to install it again after the PHP version upgrade, and found the unsupported PHP version error disappeared. Bluehost is the best WordPress hosting in the world. The hosting service is cheap and reliable. Want to know more features of Bluehost? Check out below.
