BrightLeaf Digital PHP Compatibility Scanner
This plugin scans your installed plugins and themes for potential PHP compatibility issues when upgrading to newer PHP versions.
The facts
- Active installs
- 300+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 7 Jan 2026
- Added
- Nov 2025
- Tested up to
- WP 6.9.7
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 1,599
Our analysis
AI-assistedBrightLeaf Digital PHP Compatibility Scanner is a WordPress plugin designed to help you assess the compatibility of your site's code with newer PHP versions. It performs static analysis on plugins and themes to identify code patterns that may not work with selected target PHP versions ranging from 8.0 to 8.4.
The plugin generates a clear report highlighting new issues that could arise when upgrading PHP, allowing you to make informed decisions. It is suitable for WordPress site owners and developers who want to ensure their code is compatible with the latest PHP versions before making updates.
Best for: This plugin is best for WordPress site owners and developers looking to assess PHP compatibility before upgrading.
What it does well
- ✓Performs static analysis using PHP_CodeSniffer
- ✓Identifies compatibility issues with PHP versions 8.0 to 8.4
- ✓Provides a clear report of new issues
- ✓Allows selection of specific plugins and themes for scanning
- ✓Runs all analysis locally on your server
Where it falls short
- •Static analysis may miss issues in dynamic code paths
- •Can generate false positives
- •Results should be treated as guidance, not guarantees
Verdict
BrightLeaf Digital PHP Compatibility Scanner offers useful functionality for checking PHP compatibility but should be used with caution due to the limitations of static analysis.
From the developer
BrightLeaf Digital's own description of BrightLeaf Digital PHP Compatibility Scanner, lightly tidied.
PHP Compatibility Scanner helps you assess whether your site’s code (plugins and themes) is likely to run on newer versions of PHP. It performs static analysis using PHP_CodeSniffer and the PHPCompatibilityWP ruleset to flag code patterns that are incompatible with the selected target PHP version.
What the plugin does (at a glance):
– Compares your current runtime PHP (baseline) to a selected target PHP version (8.0–8.4).
– Scans plugins and themes, then highlights only the new issues that would appear on the target version (the “delta”).
– Shows results in a clear report on the Tools screen and adds small badges on the Plugins list screen.
– Lets you pause, resume, or stop a running scan.
Important limitations of static analysis:
– Static analysis can miss issues in dynamic code paths and can generate false positives. Treat results as guidance, not guarantees. Always test site functionality on a staging environment before upgrading PHP in production.
Features
- Select a target PHP version (8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4)
- Scan all plugins or select specific ones
- Scan all themes or select specific ones, with an option to also scan a parent if a child theme is selected
- Pause/Resume/Stop controls for long scans
- Clear report of only the new issues between baseline (current runtime) and target
- Plugin list badges showing a quick summary for the last scan
Privacy
All analysis runs locally on your server. No data is sent to external services by this plugin.