Store Sheriff → Platform versions
Is your store platform still supported?
Each platform only supports its own recent versions, and each of those versions only runs on certain PHP releases. Those two facts interact, and the interaction is where stores get stranded — on a platform version that is still just about supported, but which cannot run any PHP version that is. Here is where each one stands, from each vendor's own documentation.
The trap worth knowing about first: PrestaShop 8
PrestaShop 8.2.x still receives security patches from PrestaShop. But PrestaShop 8 officially supports PHP only up to 8.1 — and PHP 8.1 is dead — it gets no security fixes, ever again. PrestaShop 9, which supports current PHP, requires 8.2 or newer.
So a PrestaShop 8 store has no combination available to it where both the platform and the language underneath it are supported. You can keep the platform patched or run supported PHP, but not both. There is no setting that resolves this — the only way out is upgrading to PrestaShop 9, which is a platform migration rather than a hosting change.
This is not a hypothetical. It is the single most common situation we see in PrestaShop stores that were built years ago and have been quietly working ever since.
PrestaShop
| Version | Status today | PHP supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0 | Active development | 8.2 – 8.5 8.4 recommended | The current branch, under active development. Later 9.x releases extend PHP support further still. |
| 8.2.x | Security patches only | up to 8.1 EOL | Still patched for now, but see the trap above — the newest PHP it allows is already dead. |
| 8.1.x / 8.0.x | Not maintained | up to 8.1 EOL | Removed from the repository as no longer maintained. Nothing is coming. |
| 1.7.x | Not maintained | varies by minor, 7.1–8.1 EOL | Critical-security-only for a long time now, and the last published fix was a long while ago. Its development branches have been removed entirely. Treat this as unmaintained. |
| 1.6 and earlier | Long dead | 5.x – 7.1 EOL | No fixes of any kind. If you are here, the store is running on borrowed time. |
Upgrading PrestaShop across major versions is the hardest of the three platforms here, because themes and modules rarely survive the jump untouched. SwiftForge have written up how a 1.7 → 9 upgrade actually goes, including what breaks.
WooCommerce
| Requirement | WooCommerce 10.8+ | Older WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| PHP | 8.3 or greater required tested up to 8.4 | works on 7.4+ EOL |
| WordPress | 6.9 or greater | varies |
| MySQL / MariaDB | MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+ | MySQL 5.6+ / MariaDB 10.4+ |
| Other | HTTPS, 256 MB WordPress memory limit | — |
WooCommerce works differently from the others: there are no published per-version end-of-life dates, because the expectation is that you stay on the current release. In practice the live constraint is the one in the table — current WooCommerce now requires PHP 8.3 or newer, which is a meaningful jump for stores that have been sitting on 7.4 or 8.0.
WooCommerce's own documentation is blunt about the legacy column: those versions may work, but they have reached end of life and "may expose your site to security vulnerabilities".
The practical sequence for a neglected WooCommerce store is almost always the same, and the order matters: get WordPress and WooCommerce current enough to tolerate modern PHP, verify the plugin list can follow, then raise PHP. Doing it in the other order is how stores go white.
Magento / Adobe Commerce
Adobe gives each version a fixed support window from its release, after which it stops getting quality fixes and security patches. Extended support exists for a couple of versions, but it is an Adobe Commerce benefit — the Magento Open Source codebase does not get it, so for an Open Source store the standard support window is the real one.
| Version | Verdict | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| 2.4.9 | Supported | The most headroom of any 2.4 release. Where you want to be. |
| 2.4.8 | Supported | Comfortably inside its support window. |
| 2.4.7 | Supported | Still supported, but it is the oldest one that is. Start planning the next move rather than waiting. Adobe Commerce customers get an extra year here; Open Source does not. |
| 2.4.6 | Support ended | This needs fixing now. Standard support has run out, so no quality fixes and no security patches are coming for it. |
| 2.4.5 | Support ended | Overdue. No fixes of any kind. |
| 2.4.4 | Support ended | Overdue. No fixes of any kind. |
| Magento 1 | Long dead | This is a huge problem. Many years past the end of all support, on a platform that handles payments. There is no patching your way out — it needs replacing. |
If you are on 2.4.6 or below, the clock has already run out and the work is overdue. Magento is also the most resource-hungry of the three platforms here, so a neglected Magento store usually has a hosting problem stacked on top of a version problem.
How to work out where you stand
- Get your exact version. Platform and PHP both. The admin dashboard shows the platform version; the hosting panel shows PHP. If you can't log in to either, that is itself the finding.
- Find your row above. If the platform row and the PHP row can't both be green at once, you are in the trap, and the fix is a platform upgrade rather than a config change. Budget accordingly — it is project work, not an afternoon.
- Check the plugins and modules before committing. On every platform, the thing that actually blocks an upgrade is a paid module whose author stopped publishing, or custom code nobody has the source for. Find those first; they determine whether the upgrade is routine or a rebuild.
- Do it on a copy. Every time, without exception, with a real test purchase before cut-over.
Step 3 is the one that decides the cost, and it is the one you cannot answer from a dashboard. It needs someone to read the module list and the custom code. That is what a free store review from SwiftForge produces — a written list of what would block the upgrade, with fixed prices, before you commit to anything.
Sources
- PrestaShop 9 system requirements (PHP 8.2–8.5, 8.4 recommended; MySQL 5.7+ / MariaDB 10.2+)
- PrestaShop — cleaning up old branches (which branches are maintained, and which have been removed)
- WooCommerce server requirements (WordPress 6.9+, PHP 8.3+, MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.6+)
- Adobe Commerce lifecycle policy (three-year standard support; per-version end dates)
- php.net supported versions — and our own PHP support table
Compiled from those pages, not from memory. Vendors do revise their support windows, so confirm against the primary source before committing money to a plan. Where Adobe's own policy page does not state Magento Open Source terms, we have said so rather than guessed.
Version is one of eighteen things worth checking
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