Here are some tips for selecting a hosting provider for your PHP MySQL hosting. There are many angles to be checked before deciding a host. We will discuss some main issues and based on your requirement you can decide what is good for you. You can read our hosting article here.
Database
MySQL is the common of all the databases used along with PHP. PHP and MySQL are part of LAMP family ( Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), so it is natural that you will go for MySQL along with PHP. The important point in MySQL here is how many database you are getting from you host. You may require more than one database for your site based on application you plan to use. Three database are enough if you have multiple sites hosted with one service provider. Next is to check for easy admin interface to manage your MySQL database. PHPMyAdmin is a very common tool for this and try to check this interface. You should able to create more than one user id depending on the application you are using and such facility will help in securing your database as you can give different level of access to database or table based on your requirement. Check if your host has placed any upper limit on disk use for your database.
CRON support
If you are running any application where some periodic task ( routine job ) is to be done at a regular interval then better to use a script and run it periodically by the help of a cron. You should able to set up your cron from your admin panel and would able to manage it based on your requirement.
Phpinfo
This small function will tell you what are features available on your host's php configuration. You can read the article on phpinfo here. Some hosts disable this function but please verify this before accepting any offer from your host.
Email Account
This is a very common requirement so you can check for number of email address allowed. Disk space available for this and web mail facility to check the mails without any email client like outlook or outlook exp.
Bandwidth
You have to take care for your bandwidth requirements based on your targeted traffic if you feel you are in a growth path and your traffic is going to increase.
Server Uptime
Ask for the server uptime and report if any is there. You can take any third party service provider help to know if your server is down.
Backup
Your host must be taking back up periodically and ask for the frequency of this process.
Stats
Many hosts gives this as a part of their hosting package to provide stats of your site. Ask for a sample of it and see if it matches your requirement or not.
Price
What is the price you are going to pay depends on what features you want the infrastructure facility of your host. If you have more than one site to host then better to go for a reseller package with more disk space. This will be cheaper then hosting several individual sites under different accounts. You also can offer space to others under reseller package.
How many sites you are hosting can you give a idea on what type or package you are going to buy from your hosting service provider. A good reseller account where you can host more sites may be available at a price of $25 per month where as for hosting single domain you may be paying nearly $5 per month. But here don't go by simple calculation, reseller accounts have more features and is a good idea to move to next level of your business. There are some accounts which provide add on domains with a primary domain in a single account.
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