Thursday, July 14, 2011

Finding a Host for your PHP Website

By Matt Ewing


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.

The key issue will follow later but basic knowledge of PHP would help proceedings. It is an extremely well liked programming language which can be embedded in HTML. Its popularity was supported by the following characteristics:

a. It is free.

b. Easy to learn and use.

c. It should be viewed as a fully object orientated language.

d. It can be used on a variety of platforms

e. It has a rapid pace on the Linux server and this can be used effectively in utilizing and constructing complex web applications.

f. It is a great tool for programmers of an advanced nature and is suitable to be used on 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. Issues of a technical nature. Applications such as MySQL, Perl,PHP, Cron, Python, or CGI should be provided to you. These things may not mean a lot to you but it is good to have them, so don't worry about them.

b. Bandwidth. This equates to how many visitors your site can have each month. For many users, 75GB per month will be satisfactory.

c. Price. Getting a service for no charge is not always good and paying a low fee does not always mean low quality. A price that should provide you with an enjoyable service would be around $10.

d. Web Statistics: Getting accurate web statistics like the amount of traffic your web site is getting, and the sites that are linking to you, are information that you need to have.

e. Script installers that were created with PHP web hosting in mind. Again, these are vital for many firms and need to be considered. This provision should be given to you by your provider at no extra charge to you. If a provider seeks a fee for this service, tell them that this will not be happening.

Turning attention to the free of PHP host provision, they can have many disadvantages related to them. All firms need revenue and if a firm provides this service for free, they may not be able to do it for too long. This income is produced by them, by advertisements placed upon your Web site. Some forms these advertisements will come in include:

a. Advertisements on banners

b. Adverts that pop-up on screen

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.

To fully grasp the situation regarding the best web hosting provisions of cheap providers, try to consider these issues:

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. If you want to have blogs, shopping carts or forums then installation tools would be good and this is where Cpanel could be handy. Cpanel can also assist with running centers of support and controlling MySQL databases.

iii. Services of support: 24/7 has to be your requirement. You can never predict a crisis so having this support is vital.

iv. Available space on the disc: Depending on how much content will be on your site, how much disc room you will require will alter greatly. It is also good to consider future development when planning how much disc space to have.

v. Accounts for email purposes: Do not hesitate to get rid of a web host firm that provides cheap or shoddy email accounts. There are many rival firms who want your business so feel free to go with them if you want.

There is always more research to be done and it still matters at this stage. You should look for firms providing offers. Does a firm with 30 day money back guarantee sound appealing to you? Would you be more interested in a firm that provides a guarantee of uptime? These firms are not always easy to find as they all require a level of money to make these promises. However they are available and if you can find them, they could be a good reason for choosing that firm.

These ideas should be added to your own research to make a decision on who best to sign up with to meet your needs and budget.

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!




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