WordPress is powered by a PHP programming language.
And every now and then, a new version of PHP is released with:
For example, there is a good performance boost from PHP 6.0 to PHP 7.0.
The performance gap only got better with PHP 8.0.
So, if your site is still running on PHP 6.0 or 7.0, it is missing out on the much-needed performance boost.
Having said that, upgrading to the latest version of PHP is never easy because of its compatibility issues with third-party themes and plugins.
Most plugin developers don’t follow good coding practices and one of them is not making their code compatible with the latest version of PHP.
So, if you’re trying to upgrade to the latest version of PHP with an outdated set of plugins, your site will break by throwing fatal errors.
The same logic applies to themes as well.
So, before upgrading to the latest PHP version, make sure your plugins and themes are compatible with the new version of PHP.
