As of August 2019, WordPress sites on CiviHosting are starting to display a message:
PHP Update Reqquired
WordPress has detected that your site is running on an insecure version of PHP.
What is PHP and how does it affect my site?
PHP is the programming language we use to build and maintain WordPress. Newer versions of PHP are both faster and more secure, so updating will have a positive effect on your site’s performance.
This is because on the Get a faster, more secure website: update your PHP today page, WordPress has announced that users of older versions of PHP, while still supported, will now see a message to upgrade.
Our server default as of today is PHP 5.6, which falls into the above category. We also support several other version of PHP however, and you can change the version for your own site by yourself.
To change, visit your hosting Control Panel and then the PHP Settings page and then the Default PHP Interpreter tab and then you can select 7.1, 7.2 or 7.3. We recommend you set PHP 7.1 and then review your site to make sure it is working still. It’s fairly rare, but you could have a plugin or a theme that is not compatible PHP 7, so you should review your site briefly.
In most cases, however, that’s all you need to do, and you’re all set. 🙂