Last Updated 06.14.2021
Keeping PHP up-to-date is important!
PHP is the coding language WordPress is built on, and its version is set at the server-level by your hosting company. WordPress recommends upgrading to the latest version of PHP ( currently version 7.4 ) and WordPress Core ( currently version 5.7.2 released May 12, 2021) for the following reasons:
01. Faster Performance – Updating to the latest version can deliver a huge performance increase; up to 3 or 4x faster for older versions. A faster WordPress website will be better crawled by search engines.
02. More secure – Because WordPress is so popular ( it runs 35% of the entire internet and close to 60% in the global CMS market ), it is a target for hackers. Updating gives your website the latest security features. A more secure website is better protected against hackers, and the cost associated with a hacked website.
03. New Features – Each major WordPress release comes with new features and changes to the platform. The new Gutenberg editor that ships with WordPress is a completely new editing experience rebuilt for media rich pages pages and posts with “blocks”, a great new tool for creating engaging content within the editor. WordPress 5.6 made major improvements to the editing experience in terms of building with “blocks” faster and easier.