The current status of ioncube's public support seems to be limited to paying customers only, as forums were closed as of April 1st.
There has been no news on PHP 8 compatibility, despite its release in November, and it appears that there is no progress being made on this front. This lack of updates has left some wondering if the project is completely on hold.
I have also been following the situation and it appears that Ioncube is dangerously close to being abandoned. The delay in PHP 8 support is simply unacceptable, especially considering Ioncube's status as a major player in PHP development.
They should have started working on an encoder for PHP 8 as soon as it went into alpha stage and continued working on it through its full release. Unfortunately, they did not do that, and it's time for projects that depend on Ioncube, such as WHMCS, to consider moving away from it.
If I remember correctly, Ioncube faced a similar issue with PHP 7.0, but the delay was not nearly as long as the current PHP 8.0 delay.
In terms of alternative PHP encoders, there are a few options available. Sourceguardian is one option, and another is phpBolt, although there doesn't seem to be much discussion about it. Are there any other encoders worth considering?
If anyone uses it, please inform me.
I'm very curious about this question because I purchased a licensing for an encoder that functioned without any issues several years ago. I encoded files under PHP 7.1 and they functioned perfectly on PHP 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4.
However, I'm not sure if the old encoder will be compatible with PHP 8 or if I'll need to buy a new license for a different encoder, as the old one only supports up to PHP 7.2 at most.