WordPress 7.0 Server Compatibility

The HostingHosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Team reviews the compatibility between each WordPress release and the serverServer A server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. software it runs on: PHPPHP PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language especially suited to web development. PHP code is usually processed on a web server by a PHP interpreter. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code would form the whole or part of an HTTP response., MySQLMySQL MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). MySQL is free and open-source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. / MariaDBMariaDB MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. MariaDB intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, ensuring a drop-in replacement capability with library binary parity and exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands. and the web serverServer A server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.. This post covers WordPress 7.0, released on 20 May 2026.

This post is published retrospectively. WordPress 7.0 shipped in May 2026 and the compatibility review was not posted at the time, so the versions below describe the software landscape as it stood at the 7.0 release date rather than today. Hosts running 7.0 today should also read the WordPress 7.1 Server Compatibility post.

Previous compatibility articles:

This post focuses on new installations and on the best strategy for upgrading. It is not a discussion of how far backward compatibility reaches.

Hosting Team recommendations

For a new WordPress 7.0 installation, the recommended minimum versions are:

PHP: 8.4.x, 8.5.x
MySQL: 8.4.x
MariaDB: 10.11.x, 11.4.x, 11.8.x

These recommendations are for new installations. They favour the most recent compatible versions rather than the oldest ones that still work.

Where do the recommendations come from?

The Hosting Team reviews, for each WordPress release, which versions of PHP and of the databaseDatabase A database is an organized collection of data. Access to this data is usually provided by a “database management system” (DBMS) consisting of an integrated set of computer software that allows users to interact with one or more databases and provides access to all of the data contained in the database. Because of the close relationship between them, the term “database” is often used casually to refer to both a database and the DBMS used to manipulate it. engines are still receiving security support from their own upstream projects at the time of the release, and cross-references that against the compatibility work done in WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress.. A version that is end-of-life upstream is never recommended, even when WordPress still runs on it.

WordPress server requirements

WordPress supports older software for backward compatibility. The absolute minimums for WordPress 7.0 are:

PHP: 7.4+
MySQL: 5.5.5+
MariaDB: 5.5.5+

WordPress 7.0 raised the minimum required PHP version from 7.2.24 to 7.4, dropping support for PHP 7.2 and PHP 7.3. This is the first minimum-PHP increase since WordPress 6.6. Hosts still offering PHP 7.2 or 7.3 as a default should move those sites before upgrading them to 7.0.

The full requirements are documented on the WordPress Requirements page.

WordPress compatibility at the time of release

The following versions were available and receiving security support on 20 May 2026.

PHP

Version	Status at release	End of life
PHP 8.5	Active Support	2029-12-31
PHP 8.4	Active Support	2028-12-31
PHP 8.3	Security Support	2027-12-31
PHP 8.2	Security Support	2026-12-31

PHP 8.1 reached end of life on 31 December 2025 and was no longer supported upstream when WordPress 7.0 shipped.

MySQL

Version	Type	End of life
MySQL 9.7	LTS	2034-04-21
MySQL 8.4	LTS	2032-04-30

MySQL 8.0 reached end of life on 30 April 2026, three weeks before the WordPress 7.0 release. Sites still on MySQL 8.0 should be migrated to 8.4 LTS.

MariaDB

Version	Type	End of life
MariaDB 12.2	—	2026-05-28
MariaDB 11.8	LTS	2028-06-04
MariaDB 11.4	LTS	2029-05-29
MariaDB 10.11	LTS	2028-02-16
MariaDB 10.6	LTS	2026-07-06

MariaDB 10.6 was within weeks of its end-of-life date at the time of the 7.0 release and should not be used for new installations.

Web servers

The versions below were current and receiving fixes on 20 May 2026.

Software	Version at release	Released
Apache HTTPDApache HTTPD The Apache HTTP Server, colloquially called Apache, is a free and open-source cross-platform web server software. The vast majority of Apache HTTP Server instances run on a Linux distribution, but current versions also run on Microsoft Windows, OpenVMS, and a wide variety of Unix-like systems.	2.4.67	2026-05-04
nginxNGINX nginx is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. Nginx is free and open-source software, released under the terms of the 2-clause BSD license.	1.30.1 (stable) / 1.31.0 (mainline)	2026-05-13
Angie	1.11.5	2026-05-15
LiteSpeed Web ServerLiteSpeed Web Server LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS), is a proprietary web server software. The software uses the same configuration format as Apache HTTP Server and is compatible with most Apache features.	6.3.5	2026-03-24
OpenLiteSpeedOpenLiteSpeed OpenLiteSpeed, is a open-source web server software. The software uses the same configuration format as Apache HTTP Server and is compatible with most Apache features.	1.9.0.1 (latest) / 1.8.5 (stable)	2026-04-22 / 2026-01-08

Two of these projects ship a supported branch that is not their newest release, which matters if you would rather not follow every version. nginx maintains a stable branch alongside mainline and retires the previous stable each April, so 1.30 was the conservative choice on the 7.0 release date. OpenLiteSpeed labels 1.8.x stable and 1.9.x latest, and ships both.

The other three do not offer that choice. Apache HTTPD patches only the newest 2.4.x, and Angie and LiteSpeed Web Server each release on a single line, so for those three the current version is the only one receiving fixes.

Check which branch you were on rather than assuming it was current. nginx retired 1.29 on 13 May 2026, a week before WordPress 7.0 shipped, and 1.28 five weeks before that. The 1.26 and 1.27 branches had been end of life for over a year by then.

WordPress and PHP

PHP is the language WordPress is written in, and keeping it current matters for both security and performance.

WordPress 7.0 is fully compatible with PHP 7.4 (1), 8.0 (1), 8.1 (1), 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5.

(1) These PHP versions are end-of-life and are supported by WordPress for backward compatibility only. Use of supported PHP versions is strongly recommended.

The Core team retired the “compatible with exceptions” label in April 2025 and the “beta support” label in May 2026. Both labels were removed retroactively from all WordPress versions, so this post uses neither.

The minimum version bump itself:

#62622: Increase the minimum supported version of PHP to 7.4. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.

PHP 8.5 support:

#64322: Media: Adjustments for official HEIF/HEIC support added in PHP 8.5. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.

Deprecation notices resolved in this release:

#64864: Code Modernization: Fix “passing null to non-nullable” deprecation from previous_posts(). NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#64728: Toolbar: Prevent PHP deprecation warning in admin bar when a node is added with a null parent. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#64928: Code Modernization: Replace the deprecated auto_detect_line_endings setting. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.

Modernization the 7.4 minimum unblocked. #58874 had been deferred since WordPress 6.8 because the null coalescing operator was not available on every supported version. Dropping PHP 7.2 and 7.3 closed it:

#58874: Code Modernization: Consider using the null coalescing operator. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#63430: Code Modernization: Replace isset() ternary checks with the null coalescing operator. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#64488: Code Modernization: Replace if statements with the null coalescing operator. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#64497: Code Modernization: Utilize the spaceship operator in sort comparison logic. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#64773: Code Modernization: Use str_starts_with() in WP_Duotone class methods. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.

Worth knowing if you run the servers:

#64332: Database: Further correct the MariaDB version check in wpdb::has_cap(). NOTE: Closed / Fixed.
#63697: Site HealthSite Health This WordPress functionality will perform a number of checks on your installation to detect common configuration errors and known issues, and also allows plugins and themes to add their own checks.: Add test and debug data for opcode cacheCache A cache is a component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster; the data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsewhere.. NOTE: Closed / Fixed.

Upgrading WordPress

For step-by-step upgrade paths from any older WordPress version, see Upgrading WordPress in the Hosting Team handbook.

Questions or corrections? Leave a comment below, or find us in the #hosting channel of the WordPress Slack.

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WordPress 7.0 Server Compatibility

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