'Craft requires PHP 7.0 or later'

Question

I took the manual install route, unzipped the latest Craft version, and edited the .env file with my database settings, but when I direct my browser to /craft/web/index.php I get a plain page with

Craft requires PHP 7.0 or later.

I have Bluehost Shared Site and have tried setting my PHP version to 7, but that justs adds a PHP 7 handler to my .htaccess file. When I check the PHP version through the console it still says 5.6.

I have tried the composer route, and added --ignore-platform-reqs, but when I get to the ./craft setup step I get the exact same message.

I'm just not sure what to do from here.

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm afraid Craft 3 requires PHP 7. https://docs.craftcms.com/v3/requirements.html

Craft 2 will work with older PHP versions (5.3 to 7.1.x) so you could fall back to using that. https://docs.craftcms.com/v2/requirements.html

Other than that, I'd say you would need a different host in order to run Craft 3.