PHP Upgrade Guide
In order to comply with each version's requirements, you must sometimes upgrade the PHP version on your WHMCS installation's server.
- WHMCS 8.0 and higher requires PHP 7.2 or later. You won't see WHMCS 8.0 in the Automatic Updater if you do not run PHP 7.2 or PHP 7.3.
- While WHMCS 7.10 and earlier don't support it, we recommend upgrading to PHP 7.4 after you successfully upgrade to WHMCS 8.0. For more information, see Updating.
- For steps to migrate to previous PHP versions, see PHP 7 Migration Guide.
- For a full index of PHP compatibility by WHMCS version, see the PHP Version Compatibility.
Before you upgrade
Before you upgrade PHP, we recommend that you:
- Make sure that IonCube Loader 10.1 is properly installed.
- Run the utility at Utilities > System > PHP Version Compatibility to locate any ionCube-encoded files that won't work with a higher version.
- Ensure the compatibility of any custom or third-party code by checking the relevant listings in the WHMCS Marketplace.
Upgrade using cPanel's MultiPHP
If you use cPanel & WHM and EasyApache 4 to host your WHMCS installation, you can use MultiPHP Manager and MultiPHP INI Editor to change your PHP version.
For other control panels or systems, consult the vendors' documentation.
To upgrade PHP on cPanel:
- Log in to your cPanel account.
- Go to Software >> MultiPHP Manager.
- Check the box for the domain for your WHMCS installation.
- Select PHP 7.2 or 7.3 from PHP Version in the top-right corner of the page.
- If the desired version isn't available and you have WHM access, use EasyApache 4 to install a higher version of PHP.
- If the desired version isn't available and you do not have WHM access, contact your system administrator.
- Click Apply.
- Go to Software >> MultiPHP INI Editor.
- Click Editor.
- Select your domain from Select a location. A php.ini file (or a blank file if you don't have a php.ini file yet) will appear.
- Add these lines to the file: php_admin_flag[allow_url_fopen] = 1
php_admin_flag[memory_limit] = 128M - Click Save.
- Log in to your WHMCS installation to ensure that there aren't any errors.
You're now ready to upgrade to WHMCS 8.0.
Errors
After you upgrade, the following errors could indicate an incompatibility with the new PHP version:
- A 500 internal server error
- A blank page
- An oops error page
See our [PHP Troubleshooting Guide] for steps to debug and resolve these issues. For an immediate solution, reverting to the previously-installed PHP version should allow you to keep using WHMCS.