PHP – which version to use?

create a phpinfo.php file with this code inside:

save it and upload it via SFTP to your hosting

recall it from the browser http://www.nomedominio.it/phpinfo.php

At this point, a page will appear with all the active PHP information on your hosting, version and active modules.

The stable releases as of today are: 5.6 – 7.0 – 7.1 – 7.2

So, if you are not using one of these versions, you are potentially at risk of "hacking" and in any case you are not giving your site the performance in terms of speed that it could have using one of the latest releases.

How do I upgrade the PHP version I'm using? First of all you need to verify that your application (WordPress, Joomla!, Prestashop or any other CMS or php applications you are using) supports the version of PHP you intend to enable.

Next, check whether you need to update the application first or PHP first (based on the application's stated backwards compatibility)

Ask your hosting provider how you can change the PHP version in use (this can usually be done independently from the control panel)

Why is it important to upgrade to PHP 7.x? Php 7.x is much more secure than previous versions of PHP

It's right to keep up with technology

PHP 7.x is much faster than previous versions of PHP, so your website will load much faster than before…

How much faster depends... and is therefore a factor that must be measured, how?

In this post, I talked about how, on all hosting profiles, a very useful tool is activated that measures the response times of websites every 60 minutes. You could therefore see your performance improve objectively, without having to do anything special.