WP Engine

Solutions
AgencyEnterpriseSmall & Medium BusinessMarketer
How WP Engine supports marketers.Benefits for marketers.Features that help you innovate.
Developer
How WP Engine supports developers.Benefits for developers.Features that help you move faster.
Explore Our Platform
Insights
Thought LeadershipTopics

Read articles, trends, and insights on these topics from leaders in marketing and technology.

Creative AgilityEnterprise PerformanceActionable IntelligenceEcosystem Integration
Resources

Access ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, and other knowledge from our ecosystem of digital experts.
Visit Resource Center.

Delivering a Slam Dunk Experience on WordPressEbook: The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Plugins15 Common WordPress Mistakes Agencies and their Clients Make
Case Studies
About
Our CompanyOur PlatformLatest News

Access the latest news from inside WP Engine.
Visit the Newsroom.

WP Engine Secures Strategic Growth Investment From Silver LakeWP Engine Unveils First WordPress Digital ExperienceWP Engine Expands Global Presence with New Office in Brisbane
Media Center

Get announcements and resources about WP Engine.

Press Releases
Careers at WP Engine
Pricing
Sales Questions?

Contact Sales

Discover why organizations of all types and sizes choose WP Engine — and how it can benefit you.

Chat

1

I'm available right now to answer any of your questions!

Reply

Call

+1-512-201-4819

Contact

Send a message

Compare Plans
Need Support?
Support DocumentationBilling HelpSupport

We offer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Log in to get expert one-on-one help.

Log in for support

Sales Questions

Contact Sales

Discover why organizations of all types and sizes choose WP Engine — and how it can benefit you.

Chat

1

I'm available right now to answer any of your questions!

Reply

Call

+1-512-201-4819

Contact

Send a message

Sign in
Sign in
Search

Search

Compare Plans
Call Sales +1-512-201-4819
Menu
AgencyEnterpriseSmall & Medium BusinessMarketers
How WP Engine supports marketers.Benefits for marketersFeatures that help you innovate.
Developers
How WP Engine supports developers.Benefits for developers.Features that help you move faster.
Our PlatformPricingResource CenterOur CompanySolution CenterThought LeadershipDocumentationCareers

PHP 7 Testing Now In Mercury Vagrant (HGV) 1.5

Jason Cohen 10.1.2015

Now you can test your code against PHP 7 and compare those tests against PHP 5 and HHVM.

PHP 7, the latest version of PHP, is in beta now and is expected to launch later this year. PHP 7 promises to deliver massive performance and speed increases–up to double–than previous versions of PHP.

Here at WP Engine Labs, we’ve added the ability to test PHP 7 in Mercury Vagrant (HGV) 1.5. Mercury Vagrant lets you quickly create a local development environment and test PHP against HHVM. Mercury Vagrant (HGV) 1.5 includes a new toggle feature in WP-Admin that empowers you to simultaneously test and compare PHP 7, PHP 5, and HHVM–simply use the drop down menu in the browser to switch between PHP versions and HHVM.

You can use this new HGV feature to prepare your WordPress sites for PHP 7, which will be available on the WP Engine platform soon.

While HGV is not a direct speed comparison to production level servers, it gives you insight into code functionality and performance. It also provides an opportunity to take advantage of the many debugging tools included in HGV to ensure code compatibility against PHP 5 once PHP 7 reaches general availability.

Our goal at WP Engine Labs is innovation. We strive to provide ways for the open source community to experiment and test bleeding edge technology. We’re excited to include PHP 7 testing in Mercury Vagrant (HGV) 1.5.

If you already have HGV, all you need to do is follow the update instructions to start using  version 1.5 now. To install HGV and get started, click here.

If there are features you would like to see or if you encounter any issues, please reach out to us via GitHub.

For more info about HGV, click here!

Also, be sure to check out our Support Garage article for a technical deep-dive into developing with HGV.

More WordPress news from WP Engine

What Your Website Says About You…Video Recap: Josh Pollock On Finely Tuned Consultant

Comments

  1. Chris Howard says

    October 19, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    Excuse the cynicism, but what’s the point? WordPress will still force us to develop for old PHP for many years to come. They still, after all, have 5.2 has minimum spec. And the next move will probably only be 5.4. So it could be 10 years before we can take advantage of PHP 7 in WordPress land.

    Reply
    • Jason Cohen says

      October 20, 2015 at 8:22 pm

      Hi Chris, two things:

      1. PHP7 makes everything faster regardless of backward compatibility, so that’s important.

      2. Just because Core and popular themes/plugins will want to maintain maximum compatibility for maximum applicability, custom code for specific sites don’t have the same pressure, and can take advantage of the new language features as well.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Subscribe

    Subscribe to our blog to get great tips for your WordPress site.

  • Favorite Tweets by @wpengine
  • Sign In

    Solutions

    • Agency
    • Enterprise
    • SMB
    • Marketer
    • Developer

    Insights

    • Blog
    • Torque
    • Velocitize

    About

    • Our Company
    • Leadership Team
    • Our Platform
    • Careers
    • Affiliates
    • Contact
    • Legal
    • Newsroom
    • Privacy Policy

    Resources

    • Resource Center
    • Documentation
    • Solution Center
    • Find an Agency

    WP Engine

    504 Lavaca Street, Suite 1000
    Austin, TX 78701

    Sales

    +1-512-201-4819
    sales@wpengine.com
    7am–7pm CST

    Billing

    billing@wpengine.com

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    • RSS
    © 2013—2025 WPEngine, Inc. All rights reserved.
    WP ENGINE®, VELOCITIZE®, TORQUE®, EVERCACHE®, and the cog logo service marks are owned by WPEngine, Inc.