ChurchCRM System Requirements

ChurchCRM needs three things: PHP 8.4 or 8.5, MySQL 8.4 or MariaDB 10.11 (or newer), and a web server that can rewrite URLs. Apache is the tested server. The Docker image already includes the right PHP.

Windows, including XAMPP, is not a supported system. You may try it. See Windows and XAMPP for what does not work and why we do not help with it.

If something is missing, setup shows a message, and the same check runs again each time a page loads.

Prerequisites are validated at every page load, so if the hosting environment is changed to an incomplete / unsupported model, a notification will appear.

Validation occurs in the getApplicationPrerequisites() function.

Authoritative Requirements Table

Component	Minimum Version	Recommended	Notes
PHP	8.4	8.4 or 8.5	Required for all core functionality
Web server	Apache 2.4 with mod_rewrite	Apache 2.4+	The official Docker images bundle Apache 2.4 + PHP 8.4. nginx is not tested. FrankenPHP exists only as an unsupported example in docker/ — no image is published and CI does not build it
MySQL	8.4	8.4+	Or MariaDB 10.11+. The long-term-support (LTS) release
MariaDB	10.11	10.11+	Alternative to MySQL. The long-term-support (LTS) release
PHP memory_limit	256MB	512MB+	1GB+ for larger congregations
Storage	500MB	1GB+	Depends on attachments and data size

Detailed Prerequisites

PHP 8.4 or Higher

Status: REQUIRED

ChurchCRM requires PHP 8.4 or higher as the absolute minimum. This requirement is enforced in the application and verified at every page load.

Installation:

• Shared Hosting (cPanel): Select PHP 8.4 or higher from your hosting control panel
• Self-Hosted Linux: Follow the steps at Self-Hosted on Rocky Linux

Tested Versions: The application is tested and verified to work with the following PHP versions:

• PHP 8.4 (minimum supported)
• PHP 8.5 (safe to run)

For a complete list of tested versions and configurations, see the GitHub Actions CI workflow.

Required PHP Extensions

Setup checks these on every page load via getApplicationPrerequisites():

• PHP 8.4+
• PCRE with UTF-8 (preg_match with the /u flag)
• mbstring
• Phar
• session
• XML
• iconv
• URL rewriting (Apache mod_rewrite, nginx, or LiteSpeed)
• GD (image create, resample, and PNG)
• fileinfo
• cURL
• gettext
• ZipArchive (php-zip)
• mysqli

Composer also requires these PHP extensions: bcmath, PDO, filter, and zlib.

exif, soap, sodium, and intl are not required.

Web Server

Apache 2.4+ with mod_rewrite

ChurchCRM currently requires Apache's mod_rewrite module for URL routing. While we'd like to deprecate this requirement, it still exists. If you know mod_rewrite is loaded and working on your Apache setup, it is SAFE to ignore this prerequisite during setup.

nginx: not tested, and not a substitute for the Apache rules. ChurchCRM does not read .htaccess on nginx. Each Slim app has its own index.php, and a request for that directory has to reach that file. One location / that sends everything to the root index.php drops /session/begin and the other module URLs.

These directories are separate apps: setup, session, api, v2, admin, finance, kiosk, plugins, external, people, groups, event, fundraiser, ministries, and portal. Include/, cli/, logs/, and tmp_attach/ must not be served. Person and family photos under Images/ must not be served as files.

An unsupported example that encodes those rules is docker/examples/nginx/default.conf. When a new directory with its own index.php is added, that file has to gain a matching location. Use Apache, or the official Docker image, unless you can maintain this yourself. A bare directory URL such as /setup has to redirect to /setup/. Without the slash, setup returns a JSON 404.

Database Server

MySQL 8.4+ or MariaDB 10.11+

ChurchCRM supports MySQL 8.4 or higher and MariaDB 10.11 or higher: the long-term-support releases that still receive security fixes. Older versions are end of life and are not tested. These versions give you:

• Modern schema features and compatibility
• UTF-8mb4 character set support
• Improved performance and reliability
• Support for JSON and modern SQL features

Database must support:

• UTF-8mb4 character set
• InnoDB storage engine
• Foreign key constraints

File System Permissions

These write permissions are validated during setup and at every page load via the getFilesystemPrerequisites() function.

Include/Config Directory

Path: Include/ directory (contains Config.php)
Permission Required: Writable
Purpose: Store application configuration during setup
Typical Permission: 755 or 775
User: Must be writable by PHP process owner (www-data, apache, or similar)

Images Directory

Path: Images/ directory
Permission Required: Writable (recursively)
Purpose: Store user uploads and generated images
Typical Permission: 755 or 775
User: Must be writable by PHP process owner
Subdirectories That Must Be Writable:

• Images/Family/ - Family profile pictures and documents
• Images/Person/ - Person profile pictures and photos

Temporary Directory

Path: System temporary directory (usually /tmp on Linux)
Permission Required: Writable
Purpose: PHP session storage, file uploads, temporary operations
Configuration: Controlled by php.ini session settings
Note: Ensure PHP's temporary directory is not mounted as noexec

Character Set and Localization

PCRE with UTF-8 Support

Regular expression support with Unicode handling (usually built-in to modern PHP)

UTF-8 Locale Support

System should support UTF-8 locales for proper text handling

Memory and Performance

PHP Memory Limit

• Minimum: 256MB
• Recommended: 512MB or higher
• Larger congregations may need 1GB+

Configuration: memory_limit in php.ini

PHP Max Execution Time

• Minimum: 30 seconds
• Recommended: 60+ seconds for data imports
• Large reports may need higher values

Configuration: max_execution_time in php.ini

Hosting Environment Considerations

File Uploads

Must be enabled and configured:

• file_uploads = On
• upload_max_filesize - recommend 10MB+
• post_max_size - should match or exceed upload_max_filesize