Improve the performance of your shop with PHP 8.1

Last month a new version of PHP was launched: PHP 8.1. An important update, because this version contains many new features and improves the performance of your shop. In this article we discuss which benefits this PHP update has for you.

In short: what does PHP do again?

PHP is a scripting language intended to create dynamic web pages on web servers and can be used on any operating system (Windows, Linux and MacOs). PHP uses a database, from which it retrieves the content and layout of a web page. With PHP, applications such as web shops, forms, login systems, content management systems or search engines can be developed.

Performance improvements through PHP 8.1

In this new version of PHP, several caching improvements have been made. This leads to an average performance gain between 5 and 8 percent.

Other added features

• Enumerations
• Fibers
• Readonly properties
• Pure intersection types
• Never return type
• First-class Callable Syntax
• “Final” modifier for class constants
• New fsync and fdatasync functions
• New array_is_list function
• Explicit Octal numeral notation

Looking for the technical details of these features? Check out this article from PHP about the release of PHP 8.1.

Always test your new PHP version

It is always very important to test a new PHP version before upgrading it on a production environment. Your webshop must be compatible with the PHP version. For example, it is useful to know that PHP 8.1 isn’t compatible (yet) with ioncube, newrelic or blackfire. If you test PHP 8.1, and it doesn’t work as expected, you can always switch back to your “old” PHP version.

Upgrade your PHP version

You can choose from different PHP versions on our platform. Users can check and modify their current PHP through the Hypernode-systemctl Tool, through the Service Panel and through the Control Panel. Want to know more? Take a look at the changelog about PHP 8.1 or our support documentation that explains in detail how you can adjust your PHP version.

Do you have questions about this article or about upgrading your PHP version? Please contact us. We are always happy to help you!