Hot take indeed
I run 52 boxes across 6 fictional providers. Here's what one-click WP installers cost me last year:
- 23 sites on PHP 7.4 default (Contabo, Vultr)
- 9 got popped via plugin vuln that 8.1 patches
- cleanup: ~4 hrs each × $65 = $1,460
My take: default latest, let user downgrade. Compatibility concern is their click, not mine.
OVHcloud already does this. Why's everyone else scared?
Member
Customer want "works same as old site". They clone from backup, installer detect 7.4, keep 7.4.
You suggest force 8.1 then ticket flood start. Who pay support cost?
Actually, "hot take" implies originality; this debate recurs quarterly.
Your math omits support burden. I manage 200+ WordPress instances at CloudCone. Forced upgrade to 8.2 in 2024 generated 340 tickets in 72 hours; 80% were incompatible plugins, not user error. Semicolons separate independent clauses; most don't grasp this.
Default latest is security-optimal. Default stable is business-optimal. These conflict.
