PHP has the capability to create a user-friendly and interactive website or application.
Always evolving features have made PHP a popular choice in the web development industry and raised the need for the best and affordable web hosting solution.
Find the best affordable hosting for PHP now.
Contents
This article covers:
- What is PHP?
- Which is the best server for PHP?
- Benefits of PHP hosting over generic hosting
- Top PHP hosting providers
Let’s get started.
What is PHP?
PHP is a server-side programming and scripting language used to develop websites and web applications. As it is server-based, only a PHP installed server can interpret PHP scripts. PHP is a server side language that powers almost 8 out of 10 websites out today.
Initially, PHP stood for Personal Home Pages, but later it was changed to Hypertext Preprocessor. It’s accepted worldwide because of its ease of learning and ability to reduce the cost of building a website.
Which is the Best Server for PHP?
A web server is a computer system to run websites. It stores, processes and delivers web pages to the users to display the website content.
There are various open-source PHP web servers equally capable of carrying out all required operations.
XAMPP (or MAMP if on a Mac) is the most common and popular PHP server for hosting applications locally. It has some pre-installed web tools like MySQL, PHP, PERL, FileZilla, and others. Its latest version, XAMPP 8.0.2, helps with Apache web servers’ easy installation and supports all the new versions of MariaDB, PHP and Perl.
Benefits of PHP Hosting Over Generic Hosting
As a website developer, it’s essential to understand that PHP hosting is quite different from generic hosting. The very fundamental difference is that PHP hosting supports PHP scripting, which generic hosting may not necessarily support.
Let’s find out how it makes a difference.
Supports the latest PHP version
PHP goes through many regular improvements to ease off the developer’s effort and boost user experience. Such changes, if not supported by the hosting service, can render features in a website useless.
Easy-to-Use
PHP hosting services allow users to connect to various databases, making them flexible and easy-to-use for developers.
Improves page load speed
The PHP hosting uses a server optimized for speed considering all the latest tools required to run a PHP website. As a result, the page performance is always better. Benchmarking for some of the more recent version of PHP have shown vast improvements in performance.
The Top PHP Hosting Provider
After you’ve known the importance of PHP hosting, it’s time to explore the best affordable PHP hosting.
Here are some of the best PHP hosting providers that won’t go heavy on your pocket:
A2Hosting
Best for: PHP hosting support system
With A2Hosting, you get different PHP versions to choose from, using the control panel’s PHP Switcher tool. Some of the PHP versions their hosting solutions include are v5.6, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 or 8.0.
It offers excellent Guru Crew Support available 24/7/365 and turbo servers up to 20X quicker for ultra-fast website performance. It also offers HackScan and promises 99.9% uptime.
Pricing starts from $2.99 per month.
InMotion Hosting
Best for: Secure hosting
InMotion is power-packed with an impressive security suite and free SSL. Secure automatic data backup is another feature that makes it an apt choice for secure PHP hosting.
By including the latest tools like suPHP, it proves to be a technically-advanced hosting service provider.
It also provides numerous free e-commerce features, add-ons and unlimited email at all levels with fantastic server uptime. And if you aren’t satisfied, you can get your money back within 90-days.
Plan pricing starts from $2.49 per month.
SiteGround
Best for: Latest PHP features
SiteGround supports the latest version of PHP and secure execution. A wide range of PHP module options provides a better work environment to deliver the best user experience. The user can also switch between the versions to reap the benefits of fast execution times.
Some of the other attractive features include free SSL, free CDN and free email. All shared plans offered by SiteGround are PHP hosting enabled.
Its plan pricing starts from $6.99 per month.
Bluehost
Best for: Overall PHP hosting
With a vast customer base, Bluehost is known to provide excellent PHP hosting. And this feature-rich web hosting is affordable. It is especially popular for WordPress users.
As a result, it can be a good option for beginners. Bluehost supports PHP 7.3 version, Perl 5, MySQL 5 database server and Javascript.
In addition to that, users get unmetered disk storage, unlimited domain hosting, endless add-ons and FTP access. The control panel is considered the best control panel to manage web hosting.
Bluehost plan pricing starts from $2.75 per month for a 36-month term.
iPage
Best for: Automatic PHP updates
iPage automatically performs PHP updates to save your time and also provides options to modify the php.ini file. Doing so gives more control to the users over the way PHP code runs on their iPage account. However, updates do have the potential to cause aspects of you application to break, so this needs to be done with close consideration.
Features are straightforward. You’ll get unlimited disk space, scalable bandwidth and a free domain for a year. iPage also supports hosting an unlimited number of websites.
The plan pricing starts from $1.99 per month for a 36-month term.
Hostinger
Best for: Best for cheapest hosting
Hostinger guarantees the best PHP hosting experience. Along with managed hosting, it promises 99.9% uptime.
The platform supports all the latest PHP versions so you can switch between versions 5.2 to 7.4 at any time. It also includes managing extensions and all the essential PHP values. Hostinger does a free weekly backup of website data.
As far as tech support is concerned, it doesn’t provide phone support but offers email support, tickets and 24/7 live chat.
Plan pricing starts from $0.99 per month.
Find PHP Hosting Today
When it comes to powerful PHP web hosting, you’ll never run short of options. The decision to go with a hosting provider should depend on your needs.
No matter which hosting service you choose, an excellent PHP-based content management system (CMS) solution can get your business going in no time. CMS options like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, MotoCMS, ModX and Concrete5 also have a large user base and can support you with your website’s setup and maintenance.
Get started with one of our recommended PHP hosting services today.
