How to adjust the timezone on your hosting if the server uses UTC?
Description
Are you seeing incorrect times on your website? Learn how to show the local time for your country even though the server is on UTC. Quick and easy guide!
Can I change the hosting server clock to match my timezone?
All shared servers at Bacan.com are synchronized with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a standard industry practice to maintain stability and consistency between systems.
More information about UTC:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time
This means that it's not possible to directly change the server time on a shared hosting plan. But don't worry: you can adjust the time shown on your website or applications to reflect your local timezone.
How to adapt the server time to your timezone?
Step 1: Find your UTC code
Each country has a time difference from UTC. This difference can be positive (UTC+) if your country is ahead of UTC, or negative (UTC-) if it's behind.
Look up your country's UTC code at:
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/
Step 2: Apply the time difference in your code
When working with date and time functions (for example, in PHP), simply add or subtract the necessary hours to show the desired local time.
Common examples:
-
If you're in London (UTC+0 or UTC+1 in BST), adjust accordingly.
-
If you're in New York (UTC-5), you need to subtract 5 hours from the server time.
Step 3: Use timezones in PHP (optional and more precise)
A more professional option is to configure your timezone directly in your PHP code. This lets you display the correct time automatically, without manual calculations.
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York'); // For example, for New York
echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
Find all PHP-compatible timezones here:
https://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php
Useful tips
Always use full timezone names (such as America/New_York or Europe/London) to avoid problems with daylight saving time changes.
If you're using a CMS (like WordPress), check if you can adjust the timezone from the panel settings.
For more complex scheduling or cron jobs, make sure to also adjust the times using UTC as a base.