Most People trying to run, The newer Joomla 3.x on an older server will most likely run into the message.
“Your host needs to use PHP 5.3.10 or higher to run this version of Joomla!”
The options vary, depending on Your situation
If You are on a Shared Web Hosting Account Your options are limited.
- Ask Your WebHost to move your account to a newer server that has a newer version of PHP. This option is usually Your best all around option, and 9 out of 10 hosting providers can do this with very little or no downtime.
- Contact Your web host, and ask them to upgrade Your PHP version. This is almost certain to end in a “I’m Sorry, Sir/Maam, but No.”
- Change web hosts. In short You pay for a service, if it does not function they way you require it to, get a new service. Check Here for a list of trustworthy Hosting providers.
If you have a Virtual Server, or a Dedicated Server, You have more options to choose from.
If Your Server is a “Managed” Server, just ask Your Administrator to Upgrade Your PHP version. She, or He wil be more than happy to help. If not see Option 3 from the section above.
If You Manage Your Own Server keep reading.
1. Ditch Your Entire Setup, and run Ubuntu 14.04. It’s drastic, but it will work. or Another distro that uses, the “traditional” UNIX package version designation format.
2. Upgrade Your PHP Version. This is a journey for another article.
3. Side load the latest stable release of PHP. Yet another journey, for yet another article.
4. Maybe its time to use a dedicated Joomla Host.
Whatever You do…….. Do Not edit the Joomla files to “Fool” Joomla. It will end badly, very badly