Contact person: Upgrade my website to PHP 8.4 & WP Bakery newest version (if possible)

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Location: Fairfax, United States

Budget: Recommended by industry experts

Time to start: As soon as possible

Project description:
"My WordPress site, [login to view URL], is stuck on PHP 7.4 because the moment I push the server to 8.1 the front end breaks. WP Bakery is also several versions behind, even though I have already purchased the latest license. I would like everything running smoothly on PHP 8.4, the new WP Bakery release installed, and a solid page-caching plugin configured so the site finally performs the way it should.

Current status and what you’ll be working with
• PHP 7.4 is forced through a handler in .htaccess; I can remove it once the upgrade path is safe.
• A complete files-and-database backup is ready.
• There is no staging environment, so you’ll need to spin up a local or remote clone first to avoid downtime.
• I’m not sure whether previous developers tweaked WP Bakery, so assume you may have to spot and port any custom short-codes or template overrides.

What I need from you
- Investigate why the site breaks on PHP 8+, update any incompatible theme or plugin code, and migrate the server all the way to 8.4.
- Install and activate the latest WP Bakery Page Builder license, confirm that page editing and all existing layouts still work.
- Add and configure a page-cache solution (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache—open to your recommendation) to improve load times.
- Remove the legacy PHP handler and tidy the .htaccess once the upgrade is confirmed stable.
- Document any code changes so future updates are painless.

Acceptance criteria
1. The live site runs on PHP 8.4 without fatal errors or deprecated-notice floods.
2. All pages can be edited in WP Bakery; existing designs render correctly.
3. Caching plugin shows active, page speed scores improve measurably, and no cache-related conflicts appear.
4. A brief change log and rollback instructions are delivered with the final hand-off.

If you’re comfortable troubleshooting WordPress/PHP compatibility issues and can work safely without a pre-existing staging site, let’s talk timelines and next steps." (client-provided description)