Finding a Host for your PHP Website
People are reading this article because they look for a good web hosting service. And naturally you would like to receive the best agreement, which you can work with. A web hosting service is a big decision, which will have lasting effects, because you can use it, in order to support your business long into the future.
Today’s modern PHP web host site is quite cheap and yet can still offer benefits to satisfy a customer.
Some important points will follow later but knowing a small amount about PHP would be good. There is no doubt PHP is a popular language, used for programming and capable of being placed into HTML. Some of the reasons for its popularity can be seen here:
a. It is free.
b. It can be used easily and with little trouble
c. It is able to be considered a fully object orientated language
d. It is platform independent.
e. It is very fact on the Linux server, which makes it great in building difficult web applications
f. It allows advanced programming and is very easy to integrate with web pages.
g. PHP is able to be used successfully with MySQL.
Before receiving the PHP service to host a web site, first you must take many issues onboard. Firstly, and especially, it can be difficult to get a good PHP service for hosting web sites. The majority of web hosting companies are in the matter for a fast return on their money. They do not want to offer a full service, so it is common to be without PHP for 2-3 days. Equally, you can do nothing about this as support was unavailable, which is often the case. Finding the right PHP host solution can take many attempts to find the best solution. A reason in this is that not all the firms are commonly known or discussed.
These factors make selecting the best PHP provider a very hard task. However, it is possible to find some advice to follow.
A genuine PHP host will have these areas provided:
a. Technical products. Software and programs including Cron, Python, CGI, MySQL, PHP or Perl need to be on offer. Even if you don’t know what they are, be happy to have them as they can be very useful later.
b. Bandwidth. This equates to how many visitors your site can have each month. For many users, 75GB per month will be satisfactory.
c. How much it should cost. Free does not always mean the best and low in price doesn’t equate to low in quality. It should be possible to get a satisfactory service for $10.
d. Who uses your web site. Having true statistics regarding usage of your site and where it is linked from can be a massive help to your site.
e. Script installers for PHP web hosting. It is vital to be aware of these and include them in any search you undertake. An installation pack should be obtained for free from your provider. Do not trust providers that ask for a fee for this service.
Coming to the free PHP web hosting service providers- they can have a number of disadvantages associated with them. Since the web hosting company is providing the services for free, it is not possible for them to sustain the services for long, without any source of revenue. This revenue is generated by them, through advertisements put upon your website. These advertisements can be in the form of:
a. Advertisements on banners
b. Pop-up ads
c. Advertisement frames
You would have no control over these advertisements. This is not a satisfying solution for small to medium sized business. In fact there have been instances, were users of free PHP web site hosting services, have complained that they were having there competitors’ advertisements running on their websites! You can imagine how distressing such a situation could be. You cannot even complain to your service provider, because they are being able to provide you with free services, only with the help of those advertisements.
It is also true to say that free sites quite often crash. If the host caters for a great number of sites, this is likely to occur.
Also, with no other source of income, the host may be unable to offer even the minimum of services, even less than a very low cost provider.
These issues make it advisable to go for the paid option as opposed the free option. Paying a bit of money will be more than recouped by the extra features obtained.
In order to zero in on the right cheap web hosting service, you will have to keep the following things in mind:
i. Attempt to balance the price of the service with the services. A cheaper option may lose you some services but can you live without them? If not, then you have to pay. If you can live without guaranteed uptime or support options, you could cut these out as long as you know what is vital for you.
ii. Many websites choose to run blogs, shopping carts or forums. If you want to offer these, then installation tools are vital and this is where Cpanel is required. Cpanel is perfect for working with MySQL databases and providing support centers.
iii. Support services: You should opt for nothing less than 24/7 support services. It is an essential feature as you never know when you can meet a crisis for which you will require expert help.
iv. How much disc space is available: The amount of content is on your site will impact on the disc space you need. Bear in mind any expansion before deciding what disc space you need.
v. Email Accounts: If a web hosting company acts cheap with essential facilities like email accounts, you should not think twice before dumping it. Web site hosting is a very competitive business, so you will be easily able to get a provider that offers unlimited email accounts.
Now comes the harder part of your search- look for companies that provide offers like 30 day money back guarantee, uptime guaranteed etc, you won’t be able to find many, because such services cost money. But do look for them, because such companies do exist, and along with the afore-mentioned benefits they may also offer good service at highly affordable rates.
The decision process should never stop and with your own budget and requirements in place, you should be able to choose which host best suits your needs.
Now if you have gone through the whole gamut of analysis and research, and finally signed up with a PHP web hosting service provider, how do you know, whether you made the right decision? This is simple- if the rates make you happy, because they are so low, you have at your disposal unlimited email accounts, and reliable 24/7 support, you get free statistics about the traffic at your site along with windows and PHP option, then you have taken the right decision!
