PHP 7.2 improvements

For anyone who uses PHP to build their website it is recommended to switch to the latest available PHP version. This not only for the safety of your website and Hosting but also for speed. The latest major update release is the version PHP 7.2.x. In this release there are a number of new features added and a lot of improvements applied. Let's go over them in this blog post.

Speed

Compared to PHP 5.6, with the latest PHP version you will see a significant change in speed of your website hosting. This is due to the more efficient code and the removal of obsolete features. A fast website is what everyone is looking for and with good reason. Visitors click away quickly if they have to wait longer than 3 seconds.

So it's up to you to make sure your website is as fast as possible.You do this by making regular updates to your code by, for example, increasing the PHP version. The images on your website also play a big role. If you have 5 images of 5 MB on your homepage it is a logical consequence that the loading time is slower.

You can also partly solve this by using smart caching and for example GZIP. That way your images and content are cached and made available to the visitor.

Support of PHP

If you are still using an older version of PHP then security is the biggest reason to switch. Nothing is as annoying as a hacked website. No matter how good your passwords are, an older version of PHP can ensure that they use an exploit to get in.

It is actually the case that older PHP versions no longer receive security updates and therefore fall behind. PHP 5.6, as an example, will expire at the end of 2018. Would you like to see all the changes to this PHP version? Then go to the following link to make sure you know all about the PHP version 7.2. https://php.net/releases/7_2_0.php