About PHP
What is it?
A general purpose scripting language.
"PHP is a server-side scripting language designed primarily for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". Source: Wikipedia.
PHP powers your website.
PHP Series and Release
Periodically compare the PHP Series and Release used by the server hosting your website with the PHP Series and Release data published by the PHP developer.
Check the PHP Series and Release used by the server hosting your website in the System Information screen of your website Dashboard.
Read more: System Information Screen.
Check the latest available Release for each current developer-supported PHP Series at the following link.
If the System Information screen of your website Dashboard shows a different Release number for the PHP Series used by the server hosting your website (and there has been one or more recent security fixes) then you may wish to contact your hosting provider's Technical Support for clarification.
Fully Supported PHP Series
Note: PHP Series = PHP Release Branch.
"Each release branch of PHP is fully supported for two years from its initial stable release.
During this period, bugs and security issues that have been reported are fixed and are released in regular point releases.
After this two year period of active support, each branch is then supported for two additional years for critical security issues only.
Releases during this period are made on an as-needed basis: there may be multiple point releases, or none, depending on the number of reports.
Once the four years of support are completed, the branch reaches its end of life and is no longer supported.
A table of end of life branches is available" - see link below.
PHP Series and Joomla!
The Joomla! Project recommend which PHP Series to use with any one Joomla! CMS series on their website at the following link.
Read more: Joomla! CMS Technical Requirements.
PHP Modules
When switching from one PHP Series to another, you may observe some changes in the available and selected PHP Modules.
Before making any changes, note down the settings for your currently used PHP Series.
You can do this via the Select PHP Version screen of cPanel.
The button for this function is located in the Software panel of the cPanel Dashboard.
See image below.
In the unlikely event that your website breaks after changing the PHP Series used then you will see an error message displayed in the web browser when you try to visit your website.
The message may indicate the need to enable a particular PHP module.
If so then this should be possible via the Select PHP Version screen.
If unable to quickly identify the cause of your website not working, contact your hosting provider's Technical Support for assistance.
PHP Benchmarking
December 2025
Hosting provider KINSTA has benchmarked 13 widely used CMSs, including Joomla, on PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, and 8.5 under identical conditions.
Read more: https://kinsta.com/blog/php-benchmarks/
KINSTA report that "Joomla’s performance remains very stable across all tested PHP versions."
Tested PHP versions: PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4.
