What Is PHP Web Hosting and Why Should You Use It?

Website owners often find choosing a proper hosting service one of the most challenging decisions. Hosting companies offer a myriad of options based on different technical capabilities to meet various needs. One of these popular environments is PHP hosting that owns the required module to process PHP.

Here we are going to discuss PHP web hosting and the advantages it offers over the other available items in the market.

What Is PHP Web Hosting?

This type of service stores the applications and scripts you use on a remote server. A host maintains and controls the server and makes it possible for users to have a proper environment to develop codes. Using this service, you can improve your web elements and end up having completely responsive and clean codes since you have access to all the segments. Both Linux and Windows users can benefit from PHP web hosts without any hassle.

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What Are the Advantages of PHP Web Hosting?

Now that you are aware of what is web hosting in PHP, It is time to mention its most significant advantages. If you have a website made with PHP, such as WordPress, having a host that supports PHP as well will bring you the following benefits.

1. Cost-Efficient Option
The hosting environments that support PHP are often cheaper since PHP is free and open source. You can rest assured that you always find a service that matches your budget and meanwhile performs at peak functionality.
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2. Responsiveness

The necessity of having a responsive website that supports all screen sizes is now an essential requirement for every website. Most internet users nowadays access the web through their mobile phones, and the lack of optimized pages for devices other than computers results in losing reputation and eCommerce SEO rankings.

Luckily, PHP language supports compatibility with other devices like Android and iOS. So by using a PHP-based hosting service, you will have no concerns in this regard.

3. Fast and Secure Performance
PHP can use the resources of a server efficiently, meaning that your website will load and perform extremely fast.
Let’s say that your site requires a lot of server resources for every page it loads. It not only increases your costs over time but also leaves your website visitors with dissatisfaction and poor user experience. You can consider PHP hosting a lightweight option that can be found in all hosting plans.

Furthermore, as earlier stated out, the visitors can’t read PHP. Therefore, it provides the highest level of security if you have user authorization or online payment gateways on your site.

4. Ease of Use
Web developers prefer PHP over other options because it easily integrates with HTML and CSS without other plugins or tools. Plus, beginner users also enjoy PHP since they can add small dynamic parts of codes to their website in a straightforward approach.

Moreover, the PHP web hosting integrates well with different databases, especially MySQL. It also lets you pull content from various databases. Consider that you use a single template and publish it on your website with different contents gathered from multiple resources. This feature comes in extremely handy for different blogs, forums, eCommerce platforms, and so on.

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Cons of PHP Hosting?

If your website or web app uses Windows-specific technology, you’ll need to use Windows hosting. For example, if you are using ASP.NET or other technologies that can only operate on Windows-based servers, you should choose Windows hosting over Linux-based hosting. Typically, PHP hosting makes use of Linux as the web server operating system.

Typically, PHP hosting makes use of Linux as the web server operating system. It’s worth noting, though, that PHP may still be used on Windows hosting. Despite the fact that it has been stated that this is not the greatest strategy. As a result, if you need to deal with PHP, a plan that employs Linux as the server operating system is definitely the best option.
In summary, if you want to utilize PHP on your website, you should go with a provider that runs on the Linux operating system. However, if you want or need to utilize a server with the Windows operating system, you may do so while still running PHP. It might not be as simple as you think.

What Is PHP?

Hypertext Preprocessor or PHP is an in-demand programming language all around the world. Programmers use PHP as a means of web development and also general-purpose coding. Users can benefit from PHP by embedding it to HTML pages or put other CMSs into use.

You’ll need to use this server-side programming language for your dynamic pages and proper functionality of them. Contrary to other languages like C# and ASP, PHP is an open-source language that runs on servers of this kind like Apache and also proprietary web servers. The easiest way to identify PHP code pages is their extension since the files are saved as “.php” on the server or other sources.

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What Is the Difference Between PHP and HTML?

PHP is a server-side language, meaning that the server processes the source code. Unlike HTML, the end-user doesn’t have direct access to code when using PHP language. But the pages that run using PHP codes can have different segments of CSS, HTML, or any other language.

Also, HTML pages sometimes consist of PHP snippets to make the impossible server-side functionalities of HTML codes available. For instance, these pages can’t accomplish querying or save records to databases.

Why Use PHP?

PHP is a language that you can use to connect different HTML pages, which are populated with dynamic content. You will be able to create a fully interactive website or web app with the support of PHP.
PHP is quite popular among programmers out there. That’s mainly because of the support that PHP is offering to them in order to incorporate to HTML documents. You will be able to add small pieces of PHP code into an existing website developed on HTML without a challenge.
Another great thing about PHP is its lightweight design. Due to the same reason, you can run PHP on any type of hosting account. You don’t have to pay for PHP, and you are provided the chance to use it for free. Moreover, PHP will assist you to pull content out of a database pretty quickly. Visitors of your website will not be able to read PHP. Hence, you can even think about using PHP when you are in the process of developing a secure application. On top of everything, it is important to note that you should have PHP in order to run WordPress.
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What Versions Does PHP Have?

PHP was released for the first time in 1995 and gained great popularity upon the release of version 5 in 2004. It offered a complex approach for those who needed object-oriented coding with higher security features. In an attempt to make PHP completely Unicode supported, PHP 6 was introduced, but it failed and didn’t release.

The version that is currently used everywhere is PHP 7 that rolled out in 2015. To be more specific, version 7.4 is the latest update available. Programmers are expecting PHP 8 to be released by 2021, in which a variety of new capabilities will be available.
There are multiple versions of PHP available as of now. Let’s take a quick look at those different options and what you can get along with them.

PHP 4
PHP 4 was a sophisticated programming language with minimal object-oriented features when it was released in 2000. Although PHP 4 is still available, it is no longer officially maintained, and all public coding should be done using PHP 7.
PHP 5
PHP 5 was released in 2004 and featured a more advanced approach to object-oriented programming as well as improved security. It is no longer supported as of 2019.
PHP 6
PHP started offering fully Unicode support along with PHP 6. However, all efforts put to it were failed because the version didn’t come out.
PHP7
PHP7 is the current version that you can find. This was released in 2015. As of now, we can see PHP 7.4.
PHP8
PHP 8 will be the upcoming release of PHP. We can expect it to be released before the end of 2021.

If you are interested to know how to update php version of wordpress , this post can help you!

How Do You Know If You Need PHP Hosting?

If your website is based upon a Content Management System, or CMS, such as WordPress, you will need to have PHP to keep it up and running. On the other hand, PHP is helpful when you wish to protect the code of your website along with customer information. It can provide a robust line of defense to you. PHP is not just open-source, but also versatile. Hence, most providers prefer to use it.

What To Look For in PHP Hosting Plans?

When you are looking for PHP hosting plans, you will need to pay your attention to few important factors. Let’s take a look at some of the most important aspects that you need to be mindful about.
1- PHP Versions Supported
There are numerous PHP versions available. While keeping this in mind, you need to take a look at the PHP versions that are supported. This will help you to stay away from compatibility issues that would come on your way.

2- Usage Allowance
Next, you should focus on the usage allowance. You may check and see the number of websites that you can possibly host on the website. You will also need to see the bandwidth and storage limitations.

3- Uptime
Uptime is an important factor that you need to consider as you look for PHP hosting plans. You should settle down with a hosting plan that offers an uptime of 99.99% or above.

4- Ease of Upgrade
If you want to scale up your hosting account, you should have the ability to do it without a problem. This is something that you need to be mindful about.

5- Website Migration Service
Having a website migration service can help you to make your life easy as you migrate. That’s because you will not have to go through the migration process on your own. All you have to do is to hand it over to a team of experts.

6- Support Channels
Last but not least, you need to focus on the channels that it is supporting. This will help you to pick the best option and go ahead.

Where Do I Install PHP?

You will usually be able to find the option to install PHP on the control panel of your website. For example, if you are using cPanel as the control panel, you will notice PHP installer in there.

Does PHP Hosting Cost More?

PHP hosting should not be ideally adding any extra expenses to the overall hosting charges. However, it is still better if you can get in touch with the customer support team and see whether you will be forced to spend any extra money on it or not. This will help you to take an informed decision as you proceed.

Conclusion
PHP is a well-known programming language with so many advantages that can let you have a secure and optimized website without spending too much money. It’s supported widely, and therefore you won’t need to upgrade your hosting plans to meet the needs of a particular app or website. If your site is built by a PHP framework, going for a PHP web-hosting service is the best choice for you. For more information click here .