One of the most important questions in launching a website is the hosting.
When moving to private hosting, I realized that I don’t need all features of the premium hosting plans, just a reliable hosting with basic tools to help me do my tasks easier, without too much investment. Also I wanted to continue using WordPress and reuse the content already created in my old website.
The requirements of WordPress from my hosting were pretty small:
- PHP 4.3 or greater
- MySQL 4.0 or greater
- The mod_rewrite Apache module
- What they don’t mention on website Required WordPress space: At least 10 Mbytes of space on server
The two most encountered flavors of hosting which I could use are:
- LAMP stacks – offering on Linux the Apache / MySQL /PHP suite, but also may include other additional tools, like statistics by example, AWStats , CPanel for management and other useful applications;
- they are cheaper, due to lack of costs associated with the software, the only investments being in hardware and quality work force.
- the Linux is known that needs a lot less resources than Windows and it is known to be more stable on the long run.
- this kind of hosting is more preferred by startups or companies who
- Windows Server based – offering ASP .Net, SQL databases and depending on the version of Server (for 2008 I mean) they offer IIS 7 with FastCGI support for PHP and the rest of the stack.
- they are usually more expensive due to the cost of licenses (but sometimes cut by new Microsoft licensing opportunities – see below)
- the main advantage is that much powerful apps can be created on windows using Azure, Silverlight, fast SQL databases etc.
- also allow using PHP/ MySQL based applications, which LAMP doesn’t do
What I didn’t find mentioned is the actual space required. But I did a small test by installing the free Vertrigo application, who created and setup very quickly a Apache server along PHP, MySQL and other tools, and created all necessary setup for running WordPress. Then I downloaded the latest WordPress version and proceeded to install it in the local website. The app installed and approx 30 articles with few pictures inside of them took me to 10 MBytes of space on disk. of course, after adding lots of plug-ins and templates I ended up to 24 MB, but still, keeping only what you need on server will keep you on the safe side of space required.
I liked very much that the WordPress developers spent some time for improving user experience in installing their tool, making it as easy possible. I followed their famous 5 minute tutorial and I learned how to install themes and plug-ins.
A very nice feature you might consider when using this application is the Import tool who allows you to move your already created content from one installation to another, keeping your content integrity – importing articles, images, tags, pages etc.
After spending some time in researching about types of hosting, asking friends, discussing with tech guys from different hosting companies, I ended up in choosing the MX-Host proposal.
