Have you been wondering about how to maximize your site loading speed and performance? In this article, I will show to choose PHP 7 hosting for WordPress.
Before getting started, I want to share with more facts and information on PHP 7 features and why it’s highly recommended over php 5.6. And most importantly how to check your current PHP version on your WordPress site.
PHP 7 vs PHP 5.6:
Basically, PHP 7 will boost your site performance. Upon different studies , It was clear that using PHP 7 hosting for your WordPress site will help your pages to load relatively faster than if you were to use PHP 5.6.
Before the launching of PHP 7 in December 2015, Most of the web hosting companies were using PHP 5.6 as the main PHP version for their client’s websites. And FYI, PHP 5.6 was released back in 2004 (13 years ago).
And since PHP 7 is the newer version, It has a lot to offer for whichever CMS platform you’re using for your site like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, ..etc.
It has been proven and reported that using PHP 7 hosting will speed up your WordPress site by 200%. Furthermore, I’ve personally experienced a spike in my site loading speed after upgrading to PHP 7.
This simply means that your site will load 2x faster on a PHP 7 hosting. So if your current hosting provider is not supporting PHP 7, you should think about shifting to a more promising web host soon.
What’s New in PHP 7 ?
Taking in mind the PHp 5.6 was developed and launched since 2004, PHP 7 release date is December 2015 and accordingly it’s having a lot to offer. The developers have worked hard on delivering a whole excpetional PHP version that will leverage your site performance.
As you may know WordPress is a CMS based on PHP and MySQL. And with PHP 7, WordPress has been proven to perform faster. Guess what’s new in PHP 7 hosting boosting loading speed like this?
Well, PHP generally is being executed and interpreted by Zend Engine. PHP 5.6 was developed on Zend Engine 2.0, while PHP 7 has been developed on Zend Engine 3.0 (PHPNG).
No surprises now that PHP 7 hosting will perform 200% faster. And the reason here is that Zend Engine 3.0 (PHPNG) is offering better server resources utilization and lower memory consumption.
How to Check Current PHP Version In WordPress?
Okay, You have a website now and you want to check the current PHP version. But you don’t want to go over the coding headaches to figure that out.
I hear you! Let me show you how to check it right from your WordPress Dashboard:
- Install & Activate “Display PHP Version” WordPress Plugin.
- Once activated, Go to WordPress Dashboard and you should see the following:
The above screenshot has been taken from my new micro-niche blog. This site is proudly hosted on BlueHost hosting. And I’ve just updated the PHP version to 7.
In case your site is still running on PHP 5. and you want to upgrade to PHP 7, You need to ensure the following points:
- Your themes and plugins are compatible with PHP 7.
- Your web hosting provider is supporting PHP 7.
Keep reading and I will tell you how to ensure check the PHP 7 compatibility of your WordPress assets (Plugins and Themes). And also what are the best web hosting providers offering top rated PHP 7 hosting services.
PHP Compatibility Checker WordPress Plugin:
The plugin is making it pretty easy and straightforward to check WordPress PHP version.
After installing and activating the plugin, Go to Tools > PHP Compatibility. Once there, You will be able to choose the PHP version and your scan mode.
In our case here, you will need to choose latest php version PHP 7.0 and Scan All Plugins and Themes. And hit “Scan Site“.
And here is the result of the PHP compatibility checker WordPress plugin on my site:
If you’re interested in upgrading your WordPress site PHP version to PHp 7, then you will need to run this test and see the compatibility before performing the update.
If you’ve found that a plugin or more are incompatible with PHP 7, then you may need to consider removing it before proceeding with PHP 7 upgrade. This is crucial in order not to mess your site.
As a prerequisite, I would strongly recommend taking a full backup of your site before perfoming the PHP 7 upgrade. This is important to guaranteee you have a copy of everything before changes.
Best PHP 7 Hosting For WordPress:
In this section here, I will go over the best PHP 7 hosting for WordPress. I did an extensive research based on a personal experience, and I’ve concluded that the following providers are supporting PHP 7 with a 200% site performance boost.
So keep reading, and get to know about the best PHP 7 Hosting providers for your site:
1. GreenGeeks PHP 7 Hosting:
While you may not have heard about GreenGeeks earlier, They’re offering top rated web hosting services since 10 years ago. They’re featured with their green energy web hosting services and quality support staff.
They’re offering a wide range of web hosting services. Their shared hosting service should be perfect for your website project requirements with strongly supported PHP 7 environment.
Their prices are starting at $3.95/mo (60% OFF) & featuring:
- Unlimited SSD Web Space & Data Transfer
- FREE Domain Name Registration or Transfer
- FREE Website Transfer Service
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Go To GreenGeeks (60% OFF + FREE Domain)
2. BlueHost PHP 7 Hosting:
BlueHost is one of the largest web hosting providers on the internet. It has been known for it’s reliability and performance. BlueHost has been suggested by WordPress developers as the #1 host of choice for WordPress.
I’ve been using their services for a couple of my sites with no complaints at all. They are offering a wide range of web hosting services that will always fit your budget.
- How To Buy Web Hosting From Bluehost? (50% OFF)
- [5 Minute Tutorial]: Installing WordPress on Bluehost
- How To Install Free SSL Certificate on BlueHost (Full Guide)
BlueHost shared hosting services is what we’re recommending here and it comes with a strong PHP 7 support for a flawlessly running WordPress site. Their prices starts at $3.49/mo and featuring:
- Unlimited Webspace & Data Transfer.
- FREE Domain Name Registration.
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
- FREE SSL Certificate (HTTPS) – Read more
Go To BlueHost (50% OFF + FREE Domain)
3. DreamHost PHP 7 Hosting For WordPress:
DreamHost is a popular company that has been around for a long time. They’ve been strongly recommended by WordPress developers themselves when it comes to PHP 7 WordPress hosting.
Their prices start at $7.95/mo and featuring:
- Unlimited SSD Web Space & Data Transfer
- FREE Domain Name Registration.
- 97 Day Money Back Guarantee
- FREE Website Transfer Service
- FREE SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
Go To DreamHost ($25 OFF + FREE Domain)
4. WPX Hosting PHP 7 WordPress Hosting:
WPX Hosting has been known for their reliable WordPress hosting services. Although being relatively expensive, They’ve specifically designed for WordPress hosting.
Upon my own personal experience with WPX Hosting, I’ve noticed a 217% site speed boost after migrating to their services. They’re featuring Managed WordPress hosting with SSD Disk space.
Their pricing starts at $24.99/mo for 5 WordPress websites (each for ~ $5 is not bad at all). So it’s highly recommended if you’re looking to host up to 5 WordPress websites on the same hosting account with WPX Hosting.
They’re featuring:
- PHP 7 Support
- FREE Website Transfer Service
- FREE SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
- Managed WordPress Hosting
Go To WPX Hosting ($50 OFF Discount Coupon)
Conclusion:
My recommendation here is that if you’re not yet running PHP 7 on your site, then you should start doing right today. It’s time to save more seconds on your site loading time and better serve your visitors.
Using little server resources is what PHP 7 is offering. Compared with PHP 5.6, I’ve experienced a 200% performance boost with PHP 7 hosting.
I’ve also showed you above how to check the compatibility of your WordPress assets (Plugins and Themes) before performing the upgrade.
It’s time to check with your current hosting provider if they’re supporting PHP 7. If they’re not, then you should make the shift right today to one of the the above mentioned top rated PHP 7 hosting for WordPress.
Let me know what you think about PHP 7 and share your thoughts and experience in the comments section below. Don’t forget to share this post with everyone on social media.
It’s awesome designed for me to have a site,
which is valuable designed for my experience.
thanks karim
hello Karim,
I am Manish a blog intiator recently started writing blog you blog is very good in information and easy to understand.
Hiii Karim,
very good infomation and very usefull good job hope you do the same next
Hello Karim,
It is a very good tutorial you wrote very good information you collected and shared .good keep it up.
Hi, very good Article.
Thanks for sharing keep up the good work.