Updated: 04/01/2018
Even if WordPress itself still supports PHP 5.2.x, we strongly believe that this should not be the case for our themes too. That’s why, a few months ago, we decided to raise this limit to PHP 5.3. Heads up…time for 5.3.x to rest in peace!
After this WordPress.org recommendation we decided to move a step further and raise again this limit to PHP 5.4 . From a technical point of view, this was not a hard decision at all: why trying to produce and maintain obsolete code just to support a non secure and abandoned PHP version? The hard part had to do with a small portion of potential clients that would be too frustrated to contact their host support and ask for a PHP upgrade to the latest version available. Well, from our point of view, this is a good chance for you to learn how to get the most out of your hosting package and deliver a fast and secure website that can handle all plugins that don’t support PHP 5.2.x / PHP 5.3.x ( there are plenty of them! ).
We understand that many of our customers might don’t even know the detailed configuration of their hosting packages, that’s why we added a PHP version checking functionality on our themes, that will inform you what needs to be done on any case.
Activating a Plethora theme on a PHP 5.2.x installation
If you are trying to activate a Plethora theme on a PHP 5.2.x installation, you won’t be able to use the theme and the following notice will rise up on the WP administration:
Your installation is running under PHP 5.2.xx
To continue working on your project, you have to upgrade your PHP to 5.4 or newer version. Unfortunately we cannot ignore the fact that this PHP version is considered obsolete, non secure and with poor overall performance. Please help us to deliver high quality and secure products…contact your host and ask for a switch to PHP 5.4 or newer. This is a simple procedure that any decent hosting company should provide hassles-free. This restriction will disappear after switching to PHP 5.4 or newer.
After the PHP upgrade, this notice will disappear and you will be ready to work on your project.
Activating a Plethora theme on a PHP 5.3.x installation
If you are trying to activate a Plethora theme on a PHP 5.3.x installation, most possibly you will still be able to use the theme, depending on your host’s configuration. Nevertheless, the following notice will rise up on the WP administration:
Your installation is running under PHP 5.3.xx
You may continue working on your project, but keep in mind that Plethora Themes will not provide support for PHP 5.3.x related issues. Unfortunately we cannot ignore the fact that this PHP version is considered obsolete, non secure and with poor overall performance. Please help us to deliver high quality and secure products…contact your host and ask for a switch to PHP 5.4 or newer. This is a simple procedure that every decent hosting company should provide hassles-free. This message will disappear after switching to PHP 5.4 or newer.
Keep in mind that this is a sticky notice and it will disappear after upgrading to PHP 5.4.x or newer.
Recommended host environment
There is no reason to deviate from WordPress.org’s recommendations, we will just add the RAM factor, as it is important, especially if you plan to use lots of of memory consuming plugins ( i.e. WooCommerce or WPML ). So, we recommend your host should support:
- PHP 7.2 or greater
- HTTPS support
- MySQL 5.6 or greater OR MariaDB 10.0 or greater
- The mod_rewrite Apache module
- 128MB RAM or more if you plan to use lots of memory consuming plugins ( i.e. WooCommerce or WPML )
Note that, for the moment, we will still provide support for PHP 5.4 and newer
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