Which version to move to
- PHP 8.3 gets security fixes until 31 December 2027. The smallest step from 8.2.
- PHP 8.4 gets security fixes until 31 December 2028. Most plugins already run on it (see our PHP 8.4 results).
Dates from the official PHP supported-versions schedule.
What can break when you upgrade from 8.2
From 8.2 to 8.3 or 8.4 almost nothing was removed, so working plugins rarely break; you mostly get new deprecation notices. In our scan of 3,044 plugins, the ones that really break are old plugins that never supported PHP 8 at all:
- WP Edit (40,000+ installs)
- Audit Trail (20,000+ installs)
- SEO Friendly Images (10,000+ installs)
- Granular Controls For Elementor (10,000+ installs)
- SEO Ultimate (10,000+ installs)
- Cookies for Comments (10,000+ installs)
- Search Everything (10,000+ installs)
- wp-jalali (10,000+ installs)
- Zendesk Chat (10,000+ installs)
- Gravity Forms No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA (10,000+ installs)
- TypePad emoji for TinyMCE (8,000+ installs)
- IP Geo Block (8,000+ installs)
- Better WordPress Minify (7,000+ installs)
- Maven Algolia (6,000+ installs)
- Ambrosite Next/Previous Post Link Plus (5,000+ installs)
- HTML Import 2 (5,000+ installs)
If your site already runs on PHP 8.2 without errors, these are not active on it, or the broken code never runs.
Check your site, including premium and custom plugins and your theme, with the free PHP Upgrade Check plugin. It runs inside WordPress and works on any host.
Step by step
- Find your PHP version: WordPress admin → Tools → Site Health → Info → Server.
- Update WordPress, plugins and theme.
- Look up your plugins in the index, or scan the whole site with the plugin above.
- Make a backup, switch PHP to 8.3 or 8.4 in your hosting panel, and click through your site (forms, checkout, admin).
- If something fails, switch back and fix or replace that plugin first.