PHP Version 4 or Version 5 - What do I need?

If you're lost in the world of PHP Version Numbers, and more recently the MySQL Version numbers, you're not alone! The versions are constantly changing, and older versions are no longer being supported.

PHP4 has been the standard on the web for many years. PHP5 is not NEW, but since PHP4 is no longer being supported after 2008, web hosting companies are being forced to move their clients to the newer version. Normally this is not a problem - many hosts went through this process when migrating from PHP3 to PHP4, but with so many new hosting companies that have started in the past few years, it's the first time some of these are having to deal with it. Not to fear, Hands-on Web Hosting has been through this process (and more) since we've been in business since 1994!

Many programs made in the past 4 years were developed using PHP4 and sadly many of the commands that programmers had used are not compatible with PHP 5. This is also true of MySQL (the database of choice for many PHP programmers).

Hands-on Web Hosting's recommendation is to use PHP5. Check any scripts that you are running on your site that utilizes PHP4 explicitly and they likely have an upgrade patch for you.