PHP versions and settings

Change the PHP version for a website, review its extensions, add php.ini directives, and control opcode caching and the IonCube loader.

PHP is configured per website, not per account, so two sites in the same organisation can run different versions. Applies to all WordPress Cloud packages.

Open a website and go to Advanced → Developer tools.

Change the PHP version

The Developer tools PHP panel, showing the version selector and built-in extensions

The PHP version list, marking the latest release and the LTS versions

Versions run from the current release back through several older ones, with the newest marked LATEST and the supported ones marked LTS.

New websites are provisioned on PHP 8.1, which no longer receives security updates. Move to an LTS version unless something you run genuinely requires 8.1. Change it on a staging copy first — a version jump is the most common cause of a white screen after an otherwise routine change.

Restart, top right, restarts the PHP container. Changes to the version or to php.ini need it before they take effect.

Extensions

Beneath the version selector, the panel lists the built-in extensions compiled into the version you are running — curl, gd, imagick, intl, mbstring, pdo and the rest. Built-in extensions are always on and cannot be switched off.

If a plugin reports a missing extension, check this list first. If it is present and the plugin still complains, the problem is usually the PHP version rather than the extension.

php.ini directives

The php.ini editor, listing the directives set for this website

Add directive sets a value in the site's php.ini. A new site carries one: opcache.enable set to 1.

Common ones for WordPress:

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300

Raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size together — the second must be at least as large as the first, or uploads fail without a useful message.

Restart the PHP container afterwards.

Opcode caching

Go to Advanced → Optimisation.

The Optimisation panel with the opcode caching toggle

Opcode caching stores the compiled form of your PHP scripts so they are not recompiled on every request. It is on by default and should stay on.

Turn it off only while you are actively editing PHP on the server and want your changes visible without a restart. Turn it back on afterwards — leaving it off on a live site costs real performance.

IonCube loader

The cron jobs and IonCube loader panels

IonCube runs commercially encoded PHP — some paid themes and plugins ship this way. It is off by default; enable it only if something you run requires it.

It cannot be enabled on sites running PHP 8.0.

Verify

After changing the version:

The site loads and wp-admin works.
Tools → Site Health in WordPress reports no PHP version or extension warnings.
Any page that generates PDFs, resizes images or talks to a payment gateway still works — these depend on extensions most directly.