The latest version of PHP is 5.4, and if you are hosting a WordPress site on any hosting, it’s important to have the latest version of PHP installed on your server. Recently, I was working on a WordPress blog which was installed on Bluehost server, and after activating a WordPress plugin (Extended comment for WordPress), I realised that server is using PHP 5.2 version, and due to older version of PHP, the plugin is not working. Here is the exact error message which I got after activating the plugin:

$plugin name requires PHP 5.3+ and will not be activated,your current server configuration is running PHP version ‘5.2.17Any PHP version less than 5.3.0 has reached ‘End of Life’ from PHP.net and no longer receives bugfixes orsecurity updates.

Now, many of you who are not so tech savvy, must be wondering what the heck you can do to update PHP version of your blog. In the tutorial, I will share how you can update your Bluehost Account PHP version right from your cPanel. You don’t even need to get in touch with customer support, as this process will not take more than 1 minute. So lets get on with our tutorial.

Using Bluehost cPanel to update PHP version:

The process is very simple and you don’t need to be a tech-savvy guy to do it. All you need to have is your Bluehost cPanel login, and you need to know which PHP version you need. In my case,I upgraded my Bluehost account PHP version to latest 5.4 version. Now, follow the simple 2 steps mentioned below, and you can easily make changes on your account:

Login to your Bluehost account and click on cPanel to access cPanel options.
Under Software/Services click on PHP Config

Now, on the next page select which PHP version you want to use. Simply select the PHP version box, and click on save changes. Along with this, you can use the same page to activate additional modules like:

Imagick
MagicWand
Mail Parse
IonCube
Source Guardian
OAuth

As soon as you click on Save changes, the PHP Engine selected by you will be activated, and now you will not get any more PHP version error warning.

Over all Bluehost makes it easier for it’s customers to make changes in PHP engine without getting into Tech-hassles. Where as on Hostgator hosting, You need to add .htaccess code to use 5.3 or 5.4 version of PHP.

Over all, if you are ever stuck in outdated PHP version issue on your Bluehost hosting account, with above mentioned steps, you can quickly make changes. I hope this tutorial helped you, and feel free to ask me any questions related to same via comments. Also, don’t forget to share this article with other Bluehost users.