News Courtesy of Wordfence.com:

PHP 7 has been out for a couple of years now. At this point, most webmasters should have made the transition from PHP 5. The performance gains alone should be reason enough for switching. However, now that version 5 is reaching the end of support, now is the time you MUST upgrade.

Any compatibility issues that plagued designers and webmasters from the launch of PHP 7 should long be settled. Websites that run themes or templates that haven’t been upgraded have had a lengthy grace period to get redesigned. Much like a car needs to be brought in for maintenance, a website also must be kept up-to-date. What the visitors see is important, but the engine that powers those websites is vital. Unfortunately, a lot of people only want to pay a one-time fee for the design and forgo any security and maintenance. Those people that I encounter for my own services are clearly made aware of the potential consequences.

Hosting, changes, backups, and support should all be bundled into a monthly fee. If you’re not charging your customers for this, you’re screwing yourself. You’re also setting up the expectation from others to get these same benefits for free. It’s tempting to offer maintenance for free when there is a client requesting a large website to be built. Take my word, it’s not worth it.

As an alternative, you can recommend that clients purchase their own hosting and that you will set up and configure the site on that platform. This takes the burden of responsibility off your hands as well as lightening your server load. As a result, any additional work requested can be charged at an hourly rate if charges are needed.