PHP 5.5 now available on shared web hosting

Good news! Combell has recently started offering PHP 5.5 with shared hosting packages. For each website, we let you choose the version you want to use, and now you can also activate this new version with a single click.

All new packages still come with version 5.3 because it currently is the most compatible with popular software packages. But if you want to, you can very quickly switch to the new version. If you do it, however, we advise you to check in advance all possible compatibility issues the migration may cause. On the PHP website, you will find a handy overview. There, you will find a list of all the new features, as well as the Backwards Incompatible Changes (certain features or methods that will no longer work in PHP 5.5).

PHP 5.5 also includes several deprecated features—features that are no longer actively supported. It is therefore also interesting to check this list in order to determine if they apply to your application or website.

But do not forget: switching to PHP 5.5 can also have many benefits! The following features, for instance, are no longer available in this new version:

• Generators added
• “Finally” keyword added to handle exceptions
• New password hashing API
• OPcache added

Every new PHP version is also remarkably more efficient in terms of speed. With the integration of “OPcache”, other opcode caches such as APC can no longer be used. In order not to compromise the user features of APC, we installed APCu. This way, you will be able to continue to write data to APC from your applications without having to change anything.

Forewarned is forearmed… But do not hesitate to test PHP 5.5 and check if you can gain benefits from it. For our part, we are definitely convinced.