PHP, select version, modules and basic configuration

All our services give you flexibility in choosing which PHP version to use, and you can do it from the client area or from cPanel.

From the client area

Go to Hosting, open your service and go to PHP. Click Change on a website's row: its page has four tabs.

• Version: change that website's version or the default version, with a compatibility study, checks and 24 hours to roll back. This is explained in Change a website's PHP version.
• Extensions: enable or disable the modules of the version the website uses.
• Limits: adjust memory_limit, upload_max_filesize, post_max_size, max_execution_time and max_input_vars.
• Errors: read that website's errors.

Extensions and limits belong to the PHP version across the whole account, not to the website. If you enable a module on PHP 8.3, it is enabled for everything that runs on 8.3. Before you change anything, the page tells you which other websites share that version.

When you enable a module that cannot coexist with another, such as mysqli and nd_mysqli, we first disable the incompatible one and tell you. After each change we check that it has been applied; if the server does not accept it, we tell you and leave everything as it was.

From cPanel

Change the PHP version

Log in to the cPanel control panel, Select PHP Version section.

Select the version you want in the drop-down menu and apply the change with the action next to the selector. This change affects your hosting's default version, the one used by websites without their own version.

Note down the version and enabled modules first. Reset to default replaces the selection with the default profile: it may disable modules you added for an application. You do not need to use it after every change.

Select the modules

In that same section you have a list of enabled and disabled modules. Enable only those your application needs and avoid disabling one shared by other websites without checking how it is used.

If you use Reset to default, check afterwards whether any extension specific to your project is missing. Extensions are stored per version: when you change PHP version, check the required modules again. If different websites use different versions, also see the guide to PHP per directory or domain.

Change common configuration values

From Options you can control the most common PHP configuration values. Edit the value or option you want and the change is saved automatically.

Do not enable display_errors on a public website: it can show paths and stack traces to visitors. Keep error logging enabled and check errors in the Errors tab on the website's page.

If an option does not appear, check whether your user can change it and which method the server supports. Some can be customised from the .htaccess file.

Review scope and result

The default version does not move websites or folders that have their own version. In Hosting > PHP you can see each one's version and where it comes from.

After a change, test the home page, the admin area, forms and scheduled tasks. A manual change from cPanel does not include the checks and rollback that the client area provides.