App Service upgrades the underlying PHP runtime of your application as part of the regular platform updates. As a result of this regular update process, your application will be automatically updated to the latest patch version of PHP available in the platform.
Once a version of PHP has reached it's end of extended support your application will be upgraded to the next recommended supported minor version.
For example on February 01, 2020 any application running on PHP 7.0 or PHP 7.1 will be upgraded to PHP 7.3
Due to the popularity of PHP 5.6 and the high volume of applications hosted using this version of the PHP runtime, critical security fixes have been actively backported from the 7.X PHP branch into the version of PHP 5.6 provided by Azure App Service.
Extended support for this version of PHP 5.6 will end on January 01, 2019. At this point any application hosted in App Service targeting this version of the PHP 5.6 will be out of support and at risk of security vulnerabilities that remain unpatched.
Extended support for PHP 7.3 will end on December 6, 2021. After this date, your applications will continue to run, however any application hosted in App Service targeting PHP 7.3 will be out of support and at risk of security vulnerabilities that remain unpatched. We recommend migrating your application to PHP 7.4. See our guidance below to target a new version.
NOTE:
If you are explicitly hardcoding paths to PHP 7.2 or 7.3 in your web.config files i.e.
D:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v7.3\...oro D:\Program Files\PHP\v7.3\...they should be remove to rely on the versions available in the path to avoid breaking your app.If your app is using custom PHP extensions they must be updated to PHP 7.4
Example Safe extension=php_mysqli.dll Custom Extension extension=d:\home\site\wwwroot\bin\my_nifty_php_72_extension.dll If you need a specific version of PHP you can bring your own runtime
Extended support for PHP 7.4 will end on November 28, 2022. After this date, your applications will continue to run, however any application hosted in App Service targeting PHP 7.4 will be out of support and at risk of security vulnerabilities that remain unpatched.
If you are currently targeting Windows for PHP development, we advise to plan for migrating development to target Linux. After November 28 2022, Linux will be the only OS supported by future versions of PHP and continued feature, quality and security updates.
The next version of PHP is expected to be PHP 8.0. Official support for PHP 8 will only be available on Linux, as a result of this App Service will only support PHP 8 on Apps Service Linux instances.
| Version | Support Status | End of Active Support | End of Security Support | OS Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHP 5.6 | End of Life | December 31, 2018 | January 01, 2019 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 7.0 | End of Life | December 03, 2018 | February 01, 2020 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 7.1 | End of Life | December 01, 2019 | February 01, 2020 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 7.2 | End of Life | November 30, 2020 | February 01, 2021 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 7.3 | End of Life | December 06, 2020 | December 06, 2021 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 7.4 | End of Life | November 28, 2021 | November 28, 2022 | Windows & Linux |
| PHP 8.0 | Official Support | November 26, 2022 | November 26, 2023 | Linux only |
| PHP 8.1 | Official Support | November 25, 2023 | November 25, 2024 | Linux only |
| PHP 8.2 | Official Support | December 08, 2024 | December 08, 2025 | Linux only |
NOTE:
Changing the stack settings of your app will trigger a re-start of your application.
Update your App Service apps to use a supported version of PHP in the Azure portal:
- In the Azure portal, click the App Service blade. Select the app you want to update.
- In the Configuration panel, click the General settings tab.
- Under Stack Settings, click the drop-down menu under Minor version and select the PHP version you want (we recommend choosing the most recent version).
- Click Save.
