New and Improved in WHMCS 8.6

Now in its Beta release, WHMCS 8.6 includes new functionality to help you easily find and activate payment gateways, get ready for upcoming requirements for Microsoft email services, and keep your installation safe and secure with PHP 8.1.

You can learn more about the technical details of this release's changes in our Release Notes.

PHP 8.1 is Here

Updating to WHMCS 8.6 adds support for PHP 8.1, allowing you to take advantage of all of PHP 8.1's performance enhancements and improved features.

Keeping PHP up to date helps you keep your server and websites secure. Because of this, we always encourage using the most recent PHP version that WHMCS supports. Not doing so can mean exposing yourself to unnecessary risks since older PHP versions aren't in active development and aren't receiving the latest bug and security fixes.

In this release, we also updated the PHP Version Compatibility tool to help you make a trouble-free move from our other supported PHP versions (7.2, 7.3, and 7.4) to PHP 8.1. After you upgrade to WHMCS 8.6 but before upgrading PHP, you can use it to find ionCube Loader®-encoded files that might not work in PHP 8.1.

With the arrival of this support, we plan to deprecate support for PHP 7.2 soon. Preparing now for your PHP upgrade ensures the easiest transition with the most planning and lead time.

A New Workflow for Activating Payment Gateways

In WHMCS 8.6, we moved payment gateway activation to Apps & Integrations. This gives you one centralized location to find and activate modules that we ship with WHMCS or explore the downloadable options in the WHMCS Marketplace. It's also easier to find our recommended payment gateway modules.

After you activate a payment gateway at Configuration () > System Settings > Apps & Integrations, you can configure it in the list at Configuration () > System Settings > Payment Gateways.

WHMCS 8.6 simplifies this page for a completely streamlined experience. We removed the tabs from previous versions and implemented a collapsible layout that makes it easy to find and configure only the payment gateways you use.

OAuth2 Support for Microsoft® Services

WHMCS 8.6 offers enhanced configuration options for Microsoft® email services, letting you easily update your setup to comply with Microsoft's new authentication requirements. This works with any Microsoft mail services that are compatible with Microsoft Azure® apps, like Hotmail®, Microsoft Outlook®, Microsoft 365®, and several others.

After October 2nd, 2022, Microsoft email services will require additional security via OAuth2 in order to function. If you use Microsoft email services, we recommend updating to WHMCS 8.6 and configuring your Microsoft email services as soon as you can to ensure that you're ready for Microsoft's changes.

Microsoft email configuration is possible for two separate features in WHMCS. You can configure Microsoft services for email importing at Configuration () > System Settings > Support Departments. If you want to configure a Microsoft service as your WHMCS installation's mail provider, go to Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings in the Mail tab.

Updating to WHMCS 8.6

To take advantage of these changes, you need to update to WHMCS 8.6. We recommend making sure your customizations are up-to-date for the new version and checking the compatibility of any third-party modules you use.