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Compare PHP Hosting Services

PHP hosting serviceBest forBest featuresStarting price
SiteGround

SiteGround Logo

Best PHP hosting for customer support

Why it’s best: SiteGround excels at customer service and tech support, and assistants are available to help with any issues that develop with your site 24/7

  • Integrations with popular apps like Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
  • Reseller and collaboration tools
  • Unmetered SSD (solid state drive) storage and bandwidth
  • 24/7 customer service with live chat support system for quick access
$3.99 per month

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Bluehost

Bluehost Logo

Best PHP hosting for beginners

Why it’s best: Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that provides strong customer service, offers uptime, and is a great value for your money

  • Free site builders
  • Dozens of site tool add-ons
  • Free Cloudflare integration (speeds up your site loading)
$2.95 per month

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A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting Logo

Best PHP hosting for speed

Why it’s best: Impressive uptime, 24/7 customer support, and generous refund policy

  • 24/7 support
  • SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate
  • Database backups
$2.99 per month

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How Did We Pick the Best Hosts for PHP?

We’ve reviewed a vast array of hosting plans and focused on those that meet all the technical requirements for running a PHP site. We then shortlisted the hosts which offer fast servers, a LAMP stack, and PHP extensions.

Finally, we looked at real customer reviews to identify the top hosts for PHP.

What Is PHP Hosting?

PHP originally stood for “personal home page,” but has since evolved to mean “hypertext processor.” It’s designed to make dynamic websites easier to create. PHP is primarily available on Linux web hosting plans, and connects HTML (hypertext markup language) pages to dynamic content from databases and multimedia applications, making it easy to create interactive content.

PHP’s open-source code and versatility make it a popular web hosting option for most providers.

How To Choose a PHP Web Host

Most hosting packages come with PHP support at no extra cost — including free web host plans or inexpensive shared plans that offer unlimited resource allocation and a free domain name.

These plans most likely also include a range of PHP scripts that you can install to enhance your website. Many hosts also provide technical support for such scripts, which is not the case if you decide to use a less commonly-used language.

As such, you can rest assured that you’ll find a great PHP hosting option at a price you can afford.

PHP Development Hosting

If you want to do more than simply run a PHP-powered CMS (content management system), like develop your own software — standalone or extensions to existing applications — there are a few more things you should look for in PHP hosting.

  • Access to FTP (file transfer protocol): This will allow you to easily upload your code to the server. All hosts offer this to some extent, but you don’t want to be limited to a control panel interface. And if you work with others, you may need additional control.
  • Access to SSH (secure shell): This will allow you to log in to your server and work on it just as if you were sitting in front of it. With it, you can conceivably do your coding right on the server without having to upload it. SSH access is more limited in hosting plans; if you need it, be sure to check with any prospective hosts before you sign up.

Other factors to consider depend on the work you are doing. It could be helpful to have SSD storage, an SSL certificate (for encryption), access to a CDN (content delivery network), and anything else that is necessary for your project. You might also need access to other languages like Python and Ruby.

Best PHP Hosting Providers

SiteGround Logo

SiteGround

Best PHP hosting for customer support

  • Integrations with popular apps like Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
  • Reseller and collaboration tools
  • Unmetered SSD storage and bandwidth
Visit SiteGround

Summary

  • Pricing
    • $3.99 per month
  • Why it’s best
    SiteGround excels at customer service and tech support, and associates are available to help with any issues that develop with your site 24/7
SiteGround landing page

SiteGround bills itself as web hosting that’s been “crafted with care,” and we agree. In addition to offering a full slate of feature-rich options at a variety of price points, ittreats itscustomers well (over 2,900 customers have contributed to its 4.8 out of 5 star rating).

This hosting companyalso owns data centers on three continents, implements technology to ensure top-notch performance, and offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9%.

Pros and cons of SiteGround

Pros

  • Blazing fast servers
  • Fast and secure tech stacks
  • Staging environments provided

Cons

  • Limited storage space on starter plans
  • Requires a 3-year contract for the lowest rates

What customers are saying about SiteGround

SiteGround doesn’t offer much storage compared to other shared web hosting providers. However, it receives nearly universal praise for its customer service, with customers reporting near-instantaneous responses. That response time adds a significant element of peace of mind for users who need some extra help setting up the platform or working through any unexpected issues.
Bluehost

Bluehost

Best PHP hosting for beginners

  • High-performance platform
  • Easy setup
  • Frequent updates
Visit Bluehost

Summary

  • Pricing
    • $2.95 per month
  • Why it’s best
    Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that has strong customer service, offers uptime, and great value for money
Bluehost landing page

Bluehost is known for its close collaboration with and optimal support for WordPress, but the host offers myriad options that will appeal to those looking for web hosting (regardless of whether they’re using WordPress or not).

It is a solid provider of full-featured hosting plans at a range of prices and offers 24/7 support, a money-back guarantee, and extras such as marketing credits with all purchases.

Pros and cons of Bluehost

Pros

  • Solid uptime
  • Generous storage
  • Includes several security features such as unique IPs (internet protocol), SSL, & SiteLock protection

Cons

  • No automated daily backup
  • Bluehost only offers servers in Linux; Windows hosting is not available

What customers are saying about Bluehost

Bluehost’s incredible uptime was the main thing we noticed when reading both consumer and professional reviews. While Bluehost doesn’t offer any specific uptime guarantee, we couldn’t find any current or past subscribers who reported experiencing any significant downtime on their Bluehost site.
A2 Hosting Logo

A2 Hosting

Best PHP hosting for speed

  • 24/7 support
  • SSL certificate
  • Database backups
Visit A2 Hosting

Summary

  • Pricing
    • $2.99 per month
  • Why it’s best
    Impressive uptime, 24/7 customer support, and generous refund policy
A2 Hosting landing page

If you want a web hosting package that offers quick speeds to help combat bounce rates and get your website up and running with little hassle, A2 Hosting is the host for you.

What makes A2 Hosting hosting stand out, however, is the configuration of its administrative areas. A2 Hosting offers fast PHP web hosting with multi-version support.

Pros and cons of A2 Hosting

Pros

  • 24/7/365 support
  • International data centers

Cons

  • Windows options not yet implemented (coming soon)

What customers are saying about A2 Hosting

Customers speak highly of their pricing plans and customer support. One reviewer says, “A2 Hosting is a cost-effective deal for both companies and small-medium businesses.” Another says, “I am very pleased and impressed with the level of support from A2 Hosting — that’s in addition to their excellent documentation.”
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Frequently Asked Questions About PHP

What is PHP?

PHP is an interpreted scripting language used to create dynamic web applications. The language is extremely powerful, with libraries that allow coders to interact with databases, alter images, communicate with other web servers, and much more. As a result, it is the basis of a vast number of web applications.

What does PHP stand for?

PHP was originally an acronym for “personal home page” tools. With the release of PHP 3, a recursive acronym was invented, and PHP now stands for “hypertext preprocessor.” Try not to think about it; as recursive acronyms go, it’s not very good.

Why are so many popular applications written in PHP?

PHP has been included as part of the industry-standard web server configuration referred to as the LAMP stack since the late 1990s. Its ubiquity, open-source roots, and ease of use make it a natural fit for the web. PHP has somewhat fallen out of favor with modern web developers. However, the massive installed PHP base and the fact that popular applications such as WordPress are written in PHP mean that it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Do I need PHP?

Many modern web applications, such as content management systems and e-commerce platforms, are written in PHP. If you’re planning to use a PHP application, it is important that your web hosting provider supports the language. Additionally, there are a number of PHP modules that might be needed by any particular program. Virtually all hosting plans include PHP. However, you should research the specific modules and PHP version requirements of the applications you plan to use and then check with your web host to verify that they can meet these requirements.

Who should learn PHP?

Virtually all web developers should know PHP. It’s the most common server-side language, so web developers are almost certain to run into it on a regular basis. It’s also relatively easy and natural to learn, with a lot of good tutorials and other educational materials available online. A lot of web developers get their start working on WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal – all written in PHP. It’s a natural progression for a budding developer to go from tinkering with a WordPress theme in order to modify a basic plugin to developing their own themes and plugins.

What is a PHP framework?

A PHP framework is a set of classes designed to make development faster and more secure. Each PHP framework includes a different set of classes and is designed with different development goals in mind, so picking the right framework is important. The most popular PHP framework is Zend, which is developed by the same company that underwrites the development of PHP. Two other popular frameworks are Laravel and CodeIgniter, and there are dozens of other PHP frameworks that can speed up your development and help ensure that you follow best coding practices.

Is PHP secure?

PHP can be used to build secure web applications. However, it is also quite easy for inexperienced developers to introduce significant security holes into their web applications if they aren’t careful. If you’re building a publicly-accessible web application, take the time to educate yourself about the most common security threats that PHP developers face and make sure you have protected against these pitfalls in your codebase.

How do I get PHP?

PHP is pre-installed on virtually all managed web servers. However, if you’re going to manage your own VPS, cloud, or dedicated server, then you may need to install it. There are many different ways to do so depending on the operating system and software on your server. In general, you’ll install PHP by connecting to your server over SSH and running a series of commands. Detailed installation instructions are available from the official PHP website: PHP.net.

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