PHP 8.0 has served us well. So did PHP 8.1 But now it's time to move on–to newer PHP 8 versions.

No longer supported by the developers, PHP 8.0 no longer receives any updates at all since November 26th 2023. As the PHP website states:

Each release branch of PHP is fully supported for two years from its initial stable release. […]

After this two year period of active support, each branch is then supported for an additional year for critical security issues only. […]

Once the three years of support are completed, the branch reaches its end of life and is no longer supported.

As PHP 8.0 has reached it's end-of-life, it's time to drop support for that versions in Beach.

Skip PHP 8.1

Switching to PHP 8.1 would be a waste of resources – active support for 8.1 ended about 3 moths ago, already. So you should really go for PHP 8.3, unless some needed libraries block that.

Upgrade to PHP 8.3

Flow and Neos by now support PHP 8.3 very well.

If you use no or only a few 3rd party packages in your project, chances are you can upgrade easily. Running composer update with the desired PHP version should suffice.

If you are wondering whether the Flow or Neos version used in your project supports PHP 8.3, the compatibility matrix in the Neos documentation should clear things up.

But if there really is something blocking you from going to PHP 8.3, you still have PHP 8.2 as an alternative that is actively supported until December 2024.

What happens in Beach

The option to use 8.0 and 8.1 for instances will be removed from Beach soon.

The maintainers of instances using those outdated PHP versions have been contacted directly.

If you need help with updating, be it just the PHP version or more substantial parts of your project, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We are here to help!