(cache) How to Update to PHP 7 in BlueHost Web-hosting using cPanel

In my earlier guide, I shared a ton of useful information for WordPress bloggers that include;

Why use PHP 7 over PHP 5.6?
How to check which version of PHP your site is running on
How to check if your plugins & WordPress are compatible with PHP 7

If you are a WordPress blogger using Bluehost hosting & if you have missed reading my earlier post, click here & read it first. This tutorial will help you improve your WordPress blog performance on Bluehost Hosting by a great extent.

Before you start following this tutorial, you just need to do one thing:

Check if your existing plugins & themes are compatible. You can follow the guide mentioned in the earlier tutorial to do that. Once everything looks ok, let’s go ahead & speed up your WordPress blog by using PHP 7.

How to update PHP version of Bluehost hosting:

Note: For all new Bluehost WordPress customer, they are adding PHP 7 by default.

If you are still on PHP 5.6 no need to worry as you can either ask Bluehost customer support to do it for you or simply follow this tutorial & do it yourself. If you are running more than one WordPress site on your Bluehost hosting account, make sure your check the plugin & theme compatibility on all the sites.

Note: If something goes wrong, you can always downgrade to PHP 5.6 & everything will be fine. Also, take a speed test before upgrading to PHP 7 to check performance improvement later on.

To get started,

Login to your Bluehost cPanel dashboard
Click on cPanel at the top & go to programming > PHP Config

Now on this page, you have the option to select between various version of PHP. In my website case, it was PHP 5.6 by default.

Now select the option that says “PHP 7.0 [Beta, check site functionality for compatibility after enabling]

& click on Save changes. Within seconds all files on your server with extension .php will be handled by the PHP 7.0 engine

If you were still using Display PHP version plugin, simply refresh your WordPress Dashboard to see the version of PHP. Here is the result from my WordPress blog after upgrading to PHp7 from Bluehost cPanel:

That’s it. Within few clicks, your WordPress blog would be running on PHP 7.0 Engine which is way faster than PHP 5.6.

Many shared hosting companies are now adding support for PHP 7.0 by default. However, it might take time for them so if you have an option to do it yourself, make sure you get it done.

Bluehost is also running special discount & you can grab the hosting right now @ discounted price below.

Get Bluehost hosting @Discounted price

Here are few more tutorials that would help you master using Bluehost Hosting:

Do let me know how was your experience of upgrading to PHP 7 on Bluehost hosting? Also, if you found this guide useful, do share with others on Facebook & Twitter.