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Choosing a PHP Web Host

You are reading this article because you are looking for a good web hosting service. And of course you would like to get the best deal that you can afford. Choosing a web hosting service is a decision that is going to have long term effects, because you may use it to support your business for many months or even years.

In the present times, PHP web hosting has become very cheap and offers a host of benefits which make it very attractive.

Before moving on with the main issue, a little information about PHP would be helpful. It is a very popular server side programming language that can be embedded into HTML. Its popularity has been aided by the following features:

1. It is free.
2. Easy to learn and use.
3. It is a fully object oriented language.
4. It is platform independent.
5. Its speed on the Linux server makes it very effective in building complex, and large web applications.
6. It allows advanced programming and is very easy to integrate with web pages.
7. PHP also integrates very nicely with MYSQL.

In order to choose a PHP web hosting service, you need to take a number of factors into account. First of all it is not all that easy to get a satisfactory PHP web hosting service. Most of the web-hosting companies are in the business for a quick buck. They don't really care about the service, so situations like your PHP domain hosting being down for 2-3 days, and you not being able to do anything about it, because no support was available, are quite frequent. Most people go through a long trial and error process, before they find the right PHP web hosting solution. This is because the best web hosting companies are usually not very well known.

The above facts may present a daunting picture, where selecting the right PHP web hosting service provider is concerned. But there are some tips following which one can land up with the right solution very easily.

A good PHP web hosting company will provide the following features:

1. Technical Stuff: It will provide you with all the technical applications you may need, like MySQL, PHP, Perl, Python, Cron, CGI etc. You may not know what all these mean, or what they are used for, but that's all right, its good to have these stuff, as you may require them in future.
2. Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the volume of files (in gigabytes or megabits per second) that are transferred in and out of your server on a monthly basis - and ultimately determines the number of visitors that can view your website in any given month. the more bandwidth, the more users. In this case a bandwidth of 75 GB is a good starting point; though many websites can use 1,000GB, 10,000 or more.
3. Cost: Free does not always equal to good service quality, and 'cheap' does not automatically mean that, you have to make do with inferior service. A good price would be around $10 per month, which provides you with satisfying service.
4. 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.
5. PHP web hosting script installers: These are among the essential features to be included in your PHP hosting search. One should get a PHP web host script installation pack, at no extra cost from the service provider. You should be wary of providers that ask you to pay extra money for PHP web host script installation pack. On such application is "Fantastico", which comes free with cPanel in most cases.

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:

• Banners
• Pop-up ads
• 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.

Another problem with free web hosting sites is that, since they usually have thousands of websites running on a single server, they are prone to frequent crashing.

Furthermore PHP web site hosting companies, that are offering free services are generally not able to offer the range of features, that even a cheap web hosting company can.

Keeping the above in mind, it is a better idea to go for a paid but affordable web hosting service rather than a free one. The extra benefits offered by the paid services would easily make-up for the few dollars a month that they cost.

In order to zero in on the right cheap web hosting service, you will have to keep the following things in mind:

1. You should look for balance among the benefits you aim for. This is because when you opt for a low cost service, you have to make some sacrifices which may affect uptime, customer service or even security. So think about it and determine what would be the ideal combination of benefits you would like to have.
2. Cpanel is a feature that is useful for installing tools like blogs, discussion forums, shopping carts. It is also used for handling MySQL databases and support centers.
3. 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.
4. Disc space: The amount of disc space you require will depend upon the amount of information your site will be managing. However, it's always better to have enough space keeping future requirements in mind.
5. 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.

You should supplement the above pointers, with your own research before you sign-up with a company that satisfies your requirements and is in your price range.

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!