Managing PHP and Node runtimes

PHP versions

Different sites may need different PHP versions. The panel lets you set the version per site.

Before switching versions:

1. Back up the site (files and database).

2. Check your theme/plugins for compatibility — most modern software supports PHP 8.1+.

3. Switch on a staging copy first if you have one.

4. Switch, then immediately load the site and check the error log.

Common breakages after a major PHP bump: removed functions, stricter type warnings, and old extensions. The error log names the file and line — start there.

PHP settings worth knowing

• memory_limit — raise it if a script dies with "allowed memory size exhausted".

• max_execution_time — raise it for long imports or exports.

• upload_max_filesize / post_max_size — raise both, together, for large uploads.

• OPcache — leave it on; it is a straight performance win.

Change these per site rather than globally so one heavy app does not loosen limits for everyone.

Node.js apps

For a persistent Node process:

1. Set the site runtime to Node.

2. Give the panel a start command (e.g. node server.js or npm start) and the port your app listens on.

3. We run it under a process manager and proxy requests to it.

Key points:

• Bind to the port we give you (often via process.env.PORT), not a hard-coded one, and add that port to the proxy.

• Never bind to port 80/443 yourself — the proxy owns those.

• Environment variables (database URLs, API keys) go in the panel's env settings, not in committed files.

• Builds run once at deploy; keep build tooling in devDependencies and production deps slim.

Common runtime errors

Related reading

• Reading your server logs

• Deploying a Next.js app