PHP (or Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source coding language found on millions of websites. It’s most commonly used for server-side scripting, including accessing files, executing commands and opening network connections.

WordPress is built with PHP, but most users don’t need to know anything about PHP in order to create and manage their WordPress websites. However, this means that PHP updates are often overlooked or seen as not important.

As PHP was developed nearly 30 years ago, there are a large number of legacy PHP versions that aren’t actively maintained. Whilst WordPress and other websites may still work with old PHP versions, updating to the latest PHP offers a huge boost for your site’s speed, performance and security.