WPForms is built to run reliably across a wide range of WordPress hosting environments. However, to ensure all features function as expected, your server must support a few essential PHP extensions.
In this guide, we’ll cover which PHP extensions are required, why they’re needed, and how to check if they’re enabled on your server.
Required PHP Extensions
The following PHP extensions are required for WPForms to function properly:
- cURL
- DOM
- JSON
- LibXML
Most modern hosting providers enable these extensions by default. However, if you’re experiencing issues with WPForms, it’s a good idea to confirm that they’re available on your server.
Why These Extensions Are Needed
Each required extension plays an important role in the core functionality of WPForms:
- cURL: Enables communication with external services, such as spam protection, payment gateways, and marketing integrations.
- DOM: Required for processing and validating HTML or XML documents, which supports template loading and form submissions.
- JSON: Used for encoding and decoding data formats, especially for AJAX-based functionality and plugin configuration.
- LibXML: A core dependency of the DOM extension and is necessary for parsing XML used in form configurations and other internal functions.
How To Check PHP Extensions on Your Server
To check whether these extensions are enabled, you can create a simple PHP file and upload it to your server. Add the following code:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Once uploaded, visit the file in your browser (e.g., https://yourdomain.com/phpinfo.php) and search the page for curl, dom, json, and libxml.
What To Do If Extensions Are Missing
If any of the required extensions are not enabled, WPForms may not work correctly.
To resolve this, please reach out to your hosting provider’s support team and ask them to enable the missing extensions for you. These extensions are widely supported and should be available on virtually all modern hosting platforms.
That’s it! Now you know which PHP extensions are required for WPForms to run smoothly.
If you’ve confirmed that the necessary extensions are enabled but are still experiencing issues, feel free to reach out to our support team for further help.