Web Server Settings

In your website’s web server settings, you can configure options related to the PHP version and nonexistent assets on your site. This guide will explain each setting you can use to fine-tune how the web server runs your website.

This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Creator or Entrepreneur plan.

Access Your Web Server Settings

To visit the web server settings:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. On the left side, navigate to Settings → Hosting Configuration. 
3. Scroll down to the “Web server settings” section.

WordPress Version

A website hosted on WordPress.com always uses the latest WordPress version, so you never have to worry about updating to the latest version yourself.

You can try the beta version of the next release (if available) on a staging site. Follow the below steps to try a beta version of WordPress on a staging site:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. On the left side, navigate to Settings → Hosting Configuration. 
3. Scroll down to the Staging site section.
4. Click the Add staging site button.
5. Once your staging site has been created, click the Manage staging site button.
6. Under “Web server settings,” use the WordPress version dropdown and select Beta.
7. Click the Update WordPress Version button.

PHP Version

PHP is the programming language that primarily powers WordPress. Newer versions of PHP often come with performance improvements that make your site more speedy. Older versions of PHP stop receiving security updates.

WordPress.com strives to ensure sites have access to the latest compatible versions of PHP. The versions we currently support can be found by visiting the PHP environment support page.

You don’t need to switch your PHP version. In the event an update to your site’s PHP version is required, this will happen automatically. However, it’s possible that a plugin or theme might require a newer version of PHP. Therefore, we provide the option for you to change the PHP version your site uses.

To switch the PHP version on your site, follow these steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. On the left side, navigate to Settings → Hosting Configuration. 
3. Scroll down to the “Web server settings” section.
4. Under “PHP Version,” you can find the version of PHP your site is currently running.
5. Use the dropdown to change the PHP version your site runs.
6. An Update PHP Version button will appear. Click the button to confirm your change.

While we always recommend using the latest stable version of PHP, there can be times when older, more obscure, or poorly created plugins and themes may not yet be compatible with the latest version and may stop working as expected or cause errors. If you change your PHP version and find that it causes issues, you can return to the previous version while we still support it. Still, we recommend contacting the plugin or theme developer to ensure they will update their PHP version support in the future, as the plugin may become fully incompatible otherwise.

There may be issues if a plugin or theme is not updated to work with PHP 8.0. In this case, we recommend you downgrade your PHP version to the previous version, resolving the immediate issue. Then, reach out to the developer of the plugin or theme that isn’t working to let them know they need to update their plugin/theme for PHP version 8.0 so you can upgrade to the recommended version as soon as possible.

Handling Requests For Nonexistent Assets

The “Handling requests for nonexistent assets” setting allows you to specify how requests for assets (like images, fonts, JavaScript, and CSS files) are treated when a requested resource no longer exists on your website.

There are 3 options to choose from:

• Default: Use the setting the platform has decided as the best option.
• Sent a lightweight File-Not-Found page: Let the server handle static file 404 requests. This option is more performant than the others because it doesn’t load the WordPress core code when handling nonexistent assets.
• Delegate request to WordPress: Let WordPress handle static file 404 requests.

Last updated: April 08, 2024

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