PHP 7.4, the next minor PHP 7 release, is expected to be released to the general public on November 28th, 2019. So it’s time for us to dive into some of the most exciting additions and new features that will make PHP 7.4 faster and more reliable than PHP 7.3 – Actually, even if PHP 7.4 significantly boosts performance and improves code readability, PHP 8 will be the real milestone for PHP performance. So, PHP 8 will be a game changer. The real incentive for upgrading your PHP 7.3 version to PHP 7.4 on your Synology NAS is the promise of a performance boost if you use WordPress 5.3.X

PHP 7.4 will introduce preloading to PHP core. This is essentially done via an extension to Opcache, the software that stores pre-compiled script bytecode in shared memory. This helps eliminate the need for loading scripts on every request. Opcache works by using opcodes, simplified versions of your code. Preloading works by compiling source files to opcodes, compiling things together, and keeping the compiled code in memory. This code will be much easier and faster for PHP to pull than the alternative: files loaded and linked on every request. This will result in huge performance gains in WordPress and represents the most compelling reason to update to PHP 7.4 on your Synology NAS.

Right now, WordPress 5.3 fully supports PHP 7.4 – Read how to manually update a new version of WordPress in your Synology NAS. In the next days, after PHP 7.4 will have been released to general public, I will send the first “Support Ticket” to Synology and also a Feature Request for PHP 7.4

Remember to follow this article because all the updates about Synology and PHP 7.4 will be added to this post.

UPDATE 28.11.2019

PHP 7.4 is out. Here, you can find the changelog for PHP 7.4

UPDATE 29.11.2019

I sent “feature suggestions” for PHP 7.4 via the Synology official page. I strongly recommend my readers to send “Feature Suggestions” to Synology to speed up the process with PHP 7.4 – On the package Area “Category” of Feature Suggestion select phpMyAdmin because Synology has forgotten to add PHP in the category list.

After some hours Synology reply to me with the message below. Finger crossed.

UPDATE 18.12.2019

Official PHP 7.4.1 Released on 18 December 2019. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 23.01.2020

Official PHP 7.4.2 Released on 23 January 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 20.02.2020

Official PHP 7.4.3 Released on 20 February 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 19.03.2020

Official PHP 7.4.4 Released on 19 March 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 16.04.2020

Official PHP 7.4.5 Released on 16 April 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 14.05.2020

Official PHP 7.4.6 Released on 14 May 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 11.06.2020

Official PHP 7.4.7 Released on 11 June 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 9.07.2020

Official PHP 7.4.8 Released on 9 July 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 6.08.2020

Official PHP 7.4.9 Released on 6 August 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 3.09.2020

Official PHP 7.4.10 Released on 3 September 2020. Right now not included on Synology DSM.

UPDATE 15.09.2020 PHP 7.4 Released.

Synology PHP 7.4 is released today!!!

This post was updated on Monday / November 9th, 2020 at 1:51 AM