In the ever-evolving landscape of web development and ongoing changes, Managed WordPress Hosting customers desire seamless functionality for their WordPress site. Addressing this imperative need, GoDaddy is pleased to announce a new partnership with Zend by Perforce to provide GoDaddy Managed WordPress Hosting customers the benefits of Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Long-Term Support (LTS), enabling the extended support for WordPress sites that are using End of Life (EOL) PHP versions by incorporating security and bug fixes into custom PHP builds.

Think of WordPress as a secure vault with PHP as the special key that opens it. PHP is a server-side scripting language that powers dynamic web applications. When WordPress and PHP versions match, it's like using the correct key for the lock – everything works smoothly. But if they don't align, it's like trying to open the vault with the wrong key, leading to potential issues from sluggish performance to critical security vulnerabilities.

The compatibility between PHP and WordPress is crucial to the success of a website. Hosting companies should allow users the freedom to choose the right PHP version that complements their WordPress installation. Fortunately, GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress customers now have the flexibility to extend support for PHP 7.4, 8.0, and any future PHP versions as they reach EOL with the introduction of PHP LTS by Zend. The support window for each PHP release is extended beyond the community support lifecycle by a minimum of two years, with PHP 7.4 having a total extension of four additional years beyond the original EOL date.

Managed WordPress customers already using these PHP LTS builds since the rollout, especially where compatibility problems were detected with a newer PHP release, have already seen improvement. Zen’s PHP LTS capability is more than just support for GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Hosting customers, it's a commitment to resilience and reliability in the dynamic world of web security and development.

For more information about GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Hosting, visit here.