Do you want to ensure you have the right system requirements set to be able to use Thrive Themes products seamlessly? Like every other well-maintained WordPress plugin and theme, Thrive Theme too requires a supporting system to ensure you have a secure environment on your website.
In this article, we’ll list down the essential system requirements and recommendations for ensuring Thrive Suite plugins operate smoothly and efficiently on your WordPress website. Meeting these requirements helps prevent common issues and ensures optimal performance.
- Core WordPress Requirements
- WordPress Version
- Recommended Server Environment
- Understanding and Checking Your PHP Version
- Recommended Server Resource Limits
- Server Limitations for File Protection (Thrive Apprentice)
- Other General Recommendations
Core WordPress Requirements
Thrive Suite builds upon WordPress. Therefore, your hosting environment must first meet the fundamental requirements for WordPress itself.
PHP Version:
- Minimum Required: PHP 8.1. Thrive Suite requires at least PHP 8.1 to function correctly. Using older versions may lead to errors or instability.
- Recommended: PHP 8.2 or higher. For best performance, security, and compatibility, we recommend using the latest stable PHP version supported by your host (currently 8.2 or 8.3).
Database Services (Minimum Versions):
- MySQL: Version 5.7 or greater.
- MariaDB: Version 10.4 or greater.
HTTPS Support
Secure connections (HTTPS) are mandatory for modern web standards and many Thrive Suite features, especially those involving APIs or payments.
WordPress Version:
- Minimum Required: WordPress 6.5 or greater.
- Recommended: Always use the latest stable version of WordPress for security and compatibility.
You can always check the latest official WordPress requirements here.
WordPress Version
To use the Thrive Themes plugins, we will kindly ask you to upgrade to WordPress version 6.5 or greater.
Recommended Server Environment
While Thrive Suite can run on various server setups compatible with WordPress, we generally recommend hosting environments using:
- Web Servers: Apache, Nginx, or LiteSpeed are widely used and well-tested with WordPress and Thrive Suite.
- Operating System: Linux-based hosting is the standard for WordPress
Understanding and Checking Your PHP Version
Running an outdated PHP version is a common cause of issues. Here’s how to manage
your PHP version.
How to Check Your Current PHP Version
- WordPress Site Health Tool: Navigate to Tools -> Site Health in your WordPress admin dashboard. Go to the Info tab and expand the Server section. Your PHP version will be listed there.
- Hosting Control Panel: Most hosting providers (like cPanel, Plesk, SiteGround Site Tools, etc.) display the current PHP version for your site and often provide tools to change it.
- Using a Plugin: Plugins like “Display PHP Version” or “WP-ServerInfo” can show the PHP version directly in your dashboard.
- PHP Info File (Advanced): You can create a file named phpinfo.php in your website’s root directory containing <?php phpinfo(); ?>. Accessing this file via your browser (yourdomain.com/phpinfo.php) will display detailed PHP information, including the version. Remember to delete this file immediately after checking for security reasons.
Why Update PHP?
- Security: Newer PHP versions receive security patches, protecting your site from vulnerabilities.
- Performance: Each major PHP release brings significant performance improvements, making your site faster.
- Compatibility: Thrive Suite and other modern plugins rely on features available only in newer PHP versions.
How to Update Your PHP Version
- Via Hosting Control Panel: This is the easiest method. Log in to your hosting account and look for options like “PHP Version Manager,” “Select PHP Version,” or similar in your control panel (cPanel, Plesk, etc.). Select the desired version (8.1 or higher, preferably 8.2+) and save the changes.
- Contacting Your Host: If you cannot find the option or are unsure, contact your hosting provider’s support team. You can ask them: “Please update the PHP version for my website [yourdomain.com] to the latest stable version, preferably PHP 8.2 or 8.3. Please ensure all necessary PHP extensions are enabled.”
Troubleshooting PHP Version Errors
“Minimum Requirements Not Met” Error: If you see an error message like “The current PHP version X.X.X does not meet the minimum requirements…”, it confirms you need to update PHP using the methods above.
Compatibility Issues After Update: While rare, sometimes updating PHP can cause conflicts with very old, unmaintained plugins or themes. If your site breaks after a PHP update:
- Temporarily switch back to the previous PHP version via your hosting panel to restore site access.
- Deactivate all plugins except Thrive Suite.
- Switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four).
- Update PHP again.
- Reactivate your theme and plugins one by one, checking the site after each activation to identify the conflicting component.
- Replace or update the incompatible plugin/theme.
Recommended Server Resource Limits
While Thrive Suite is designed to be efficient, certain operations (like complex page saves, imports, or running reports) can benefit from higher server resource limits than the default minimums offered by some hosts. Insufficient resources can sometimes lead to timeouts, saving errors, or incomplete operations.
It is generally NOT mandatory to increase these limits unless you experience specific issues. However, if you encounter problems, checking and potentially increasing these limits with your hosting provider is a common troubleshooting step.
Recommended Values (Consult Your Host First)
- PHP Memory Limit ( memory_limit ): 256MB (minimum), 512MB (recommended for complex sites/operations).
- WordPress Memory Limit ( WP_MEMORY_LIMIT ): 128MB (minimum), 256MB (recommended). Note: This can often be set in your wp-config.php file, but the PHP Memory Limit above acts as the ceiling.
- PHP Post Max Size ( post_max_size ): 64MB or higher (important for uploading large templates, images, or files).
- Upload Max Filesize ( upload_max_filesize ): 64MB or higher (should be less than or equal to post_max_size ).
- PHP Max Input Variables ( max_input_vars ): 3000 or higher (can affect saving pages with many elements or complex forms/settings).
- PHP Max Execution Time ( max_execution_time ): 180 seconds (minimum), 300 (recommended) (prevents timeouts during long operations).
Need help framing a request for your hosting service provider? You can refer to our document here.
Server Limitations for File Protection (Thrive Apprentice)
Thrive Apprentice includes a Protected files feature to secure downloadable resources within your courses. For this feature to work correctly, your server needs specific configurations.
If you encounter warnings related to file protection limitations within Thrive Apprentice, you may need to contact your hosting provider and ask them to adjust the server configuration (often related to .htaccess or Nginx rules) to allow Thrive Apprentice to manage file access properly.
Refer to the specific instructions outlined in this article when contacting your host regarding file protection issues.
Other General Recommendations
- Staging Sites: We recommend you to test major updates (WordPress, themes, plugins) on a staging site before applying them to your live site.
- Backups: It is a good idea to implement a reliable backup solution and perform regular backups of your entire website (files and database).
- Asset Optimization (Project Lightspeed): Thrive Suite’s built-in Asset Optimization tool will ensure only necessary CSS and JavaScript files load on each page, significantly improving site speed.
- Site Speed Optimization: The options in the “Site Speed” section of Thrive Theme Builder and consider using caching plugins and image optimization tools as recommended.
By ensuring your hosting environment meets these requirements and recommendations, you create a stable and performant foundation for your Thrive Suite powered website.
Next, to know more about Project LightSpeed in Thrive Themes, refer to the list of documents here.