How many of you themeforest (and codecanyon) authors are using or planing to use PHP 7 as a minimum PHP version on your WordPress themes/plugins?
Most themes nowadays seem to support 5.6 as the minimum PHP version, but seeing that 5.6 usage has fallen bellow 15% (10.5% to be exact), wouldn’t it make sense to start using PHP 7 for new themes? All client sites I’ve been given access (to help fix issues with my plugins) were using PHP 7 to 7.4
I’m thinking of developing my new theme in PHP 7. Would it be too risky? This is the market share as of today (keep in mind this is for all Wordpress sites (including people who’ve never purchased a theme or plugin)):
I have customers which are already using PHP 8 (ok, it is just 1 for which I know for sure). I am testing/running my themes only on PHP 7 but also have start to do some tests on PHP 8.
I think it’s ok to develop with PHP 7, but in case if you have complaining customers who still using 5.6 you can try to encourage them to switch to version 7 or provide a patch.
It’s a great version but it breaks a lot of stuff. I suppose a lot of people will be stuck with PHP 7 for a while. It’s very likely PHP 7 will become the new PHP 5 in 5-10 years.