Proposed change: Requiring PHP 8.1 or newer for WooCommerce 11.5 and beyond

The WooCommerce engineering team has been evaluating WooCommerce’s minimum PHP requirement, talking with the community, and tracking general store hosting trends. Our goal is to bump the minimum requirement to PHP 8.1 or newer, starting with the WooCommerce 11.5 release currently targeted for January 2027. This change would end support for PHP 7.4 and 8.0 in future versions of WooCommerce.

We want to hear from store owners, agencies, hosting providers, extension developers, and other WooCommerce contributors as we determine the target release.

Benefits of requiring PHP 8+

PHP 7.4 and PHP 8.0 are no longer supported by the PHP project. PHP 7.4 reached end of life in November 2022, and PHP 8.0 reached end of life in November 2023. Running unsupported PHP versions can leave sites exposed to security issues that no longer receive fixes.

Our internal WooCommerce usage data shows that PHP 7.4 currently accounts for approximately 7% of tracked stores, while PHP 8.0 accounts for approximately 2%. Among stores running a relatively recent WooCommerce version (within the last year), the combined usage is closer to 6% and trending consistently downward. WooCommerce usage tracking is opt-in, so these figures do not represent every store, but a representative sample.

Moving to a newer minimum PHP version would allow WooCommerce and third-party developers to:

1. Use modern PHP language features (union types, attributes, null-safe, match, named parameters, …).
2. Adopt newer, more secure dependency packages that no longer support older PHP versions.
3. Reduce the number of PHP versions that must be tested in continuous integration, speeding up e2e testing, PR reviews, and releases.
4. Remove compatibility branches and legacy code paths that are increasingly difficult to maintain.

Simply upgrading to PHP 8.0+ means performance improvements for WooCommerce stores by default. Those benefits come from upgrading the PHP runtime itself, and our goal is to see every WooCommerce store continually running the most optimized stack available.

Impact on stores running PHP 7.4 or 8.0

A store running PHP 7.4 or 8.0 would not be automatically upgraded to a WooCommerce version that requires PHP 8.1.

If the proposal is adopted:

• WooCommerce 11.5 would declare Requires PHP: 8.1.
• By default, WordPress would prevent the update from being offered to stores that do not meet that requirement.
• The store would continue running its existing WooCommerce version and receive any dot releases to that particular branch.
• The store would need to upgrade PHP before updating to WooCommerce 11.5 or a later compatible release.

This follows the same general approach used for previous WooCommerce PHP requirement changes. For example, WooCommerce 8.2 raised the minimum requirement to PHP 7.4 with advance communication and migration guidance. See New Requirement for WooCommerce 8.2: PHP 7.4+.

The change would not update PHP on a store’s behalf or automatically deactivate an existing WooCommerce installation. Stores that remain on an older PHP version would remain on the latest WooCommerce release compatible with that environment, subject to WooCommerce’s existing support policy.

WordPress and WooCommerce PHP requirements

WordPress currently runs on PHP 7.4 or newer and recommends PHP 8.3 or newer for a modern hosting environment. See the WordPress requirements.

WooCommerce has previously maintained a higher PHP requirement than WordPress. WooCommerce is a complex ecommerce application with its own dependencies, performance requirements, and compatibility considerations, so its minimum PHP version does not need to match WordPress’s minimum version.

Guidance for extension developers and agencies

Developers extending Woo should already be testing their code against newer PHP versions, but additional testing may be helpful.

Extensions that target WooCommerce 11.5 or later could use PHP features and dependencies available in the new supported range. Extensions that continue supporting older WooCommerce versions may need to maintain compatibility layers or separate code paths.

Raising WooCommerce’s minimum PHP version does not guarantee that every extension, theme, or custom snippet will work after a store upgrades PHP. Testing on a staging site remains important.

Feedback on the proposed PHP requirement

Please let us know:

• What would prevent your store or client sites from moving beyond PHP 7.4 or 8.0?
• Are there extensions, themes, or custom integrations that still require these PHP versions?
• Would targeting WooCommerce 11.5 (January 2027) provide enough time to prepare?
• Do hosting providers have additional data about PHP version usage across WooCommerce stores?
• Are there compatibility or deployment concerns we have not covered?
• What migration guidance would make this change easier for your team or customers?

When reporting a compatibility concern, please include the PHP version, WooCommerce version, affected extension or integration, and any relevant error messages or reproduction steps.

Decision and release timeline

We will review the feedback and usage data before confirming the target release and minimum PHP version.

As the change proceeds, we plan to provide advance notice, communicate the final release target, and give developers time to test against the new requirement before WooCommerce 11.5 is released.

Please share your feedback in the comments below.