week of June 18th we will be removing PHP version 5.4 and 5.5 from all cPanel-provided EasyApache 4 profiles. To help users understand what to do, and how to react when that change occurs, we’ve put together a quick list of questions that we think will frequently be asked.

What exactly will happen?

The week of June 18th (likely on June 18th, but maybe June 19th), we will push an update for EasyApache 4 that includes updated cPanel-provided profiles. With this release, the cPanel-provided profiles will no longer contain PHP 5.4 and 5.5. If you re-provision one of these profiles, these PHP versions will be removed from your server.

My customers use PHP 5.5 right now. What does this mean for me?

PHP 5.4 and 5.5 both reached End of Life more than a year ago (2.5 years ago for PHP 5.4). That means they are no longer receiving updates of any kind, including security updates, from the providers of PHP. Any user that you have on your server using these out of date versions are putting your server at risk. If your users require PHP 5.4 or PHP 5.5, we recommend you use CloudLinux. CloudLinux provides updated and patched versions of End of Life PHP and is well worth the protection if your users need it.

If you can’t get your users to upgrade, and you don’t want to use CloudLinux, you can create a custom EasyApache 4 profile.

I use a custom profile, not a cPanel-provided one. Will I be impacted?

Nope! We won’t be adjusting any customized profiles in any way with this release.

What about PHP 5.6 and 7.0? Are they going away too?

The short answer is “Yes.” We’re changing our approach with EasyApache 4, and going forward our profiles will only include supported PHP versions. That means that PHP 5.6 and 7.0 will be removed from our profiles in December of this year. Our new approach, which will be added to our documentation shortly, is this:

EasyApache 4 adheres to the php.net supported versions timeline. The profiles that we supply in WHM’s EasyApache 4 interface (WHM >> Home >> Software >> EasyApache 4) only provide PHP versions that php.net currently supports. RPMs for unsupported versions of PHP will remain on the cPanel Inc. mirrors and servers, but we will not provide any further updates.

My question isn’t here!

No problem at all! You have many avenues available to you. You can always open a ticket with our support team, or start a conversation on the cPanel subreddit. You can also find us on Slack, Discord, or the cPanel forums. No matter which avenue you take, we’re here to help! If the in-person approach is more your style, the majority of the cPanel Team will be at the cPanel Conference this October in Houston, Texas. Join us October 1st – 3rd for two days and three nights of connecting, learning, and fun.