More PHP Updates
Traditionally Reclaim Hosting (like many hosts I'm sure) has trailed a bit behind on pushing bleeding edge versions of PHP for our clients. Maybe that's a symptom of how much of the web still has a ways to go in terms of compatibility, but we want to start pushing things a bit further on our end. At the end of last year we moved the default version of PHP on our servers to 7.0 and several years ago we added the ability for users to manage the PHP version for their sites (guide at https://community.reclaimhosting.com/t/changing-your-php-version/1619) and you can even specify this on a per domain/subdomain basis.
In the next 2 weeks we will be working to ensure that all of our servers have PHP versions as high as 7.3 available for users to optionally use with their sites. If you want to run bleeding edge new, you can opt in to that.
On July 30th 2019, we will make PHP 7.2 the default version for all clients who have not selected an alternative version. In your cPanel account you will find there is an option selected by default for a domain to run the "inherit" version which is whatever the server default is, and that is what will change.
For users who expect incompatibility issues, you have the option of keeping a domain on an older version of PHP, as far back as 5.6. We have to strongly recommend that you not do this due to PHP 5.6 and PHP 7 being end of life and no longer receiving security updates. Newer versions of PHP not only have greater security, there are performance benefits with improved caching and procedural functions to be gained as well. In many cases ensuring you are running the most recent version of whatever software or content management system you use as well as plugins and themes is enough to ensure compatibility, and in fact in some cases like Grav and Moodle, newer version require PHP 7.1+ to work.
We will not be removing PHP 5.6 in the short term, but users should be aware that it is end of life and in the not too distant future will be seen as a very high security risk so there is no better time than now to ensure that your sites are compatible with newer versions of PHP.
As always we are available to answer any questions so please do submit a support ticket if you have any!