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How to find the Joomla host for you

You’ve finally decided you wanted to make a site, then realized you need to spend days, maybe even weeks to find a system to run it. Or maybe you just stumbled on to Joomla. Next up is a possibly even bigger issue. You have to pick a host. This guide will walk you through this decision, which while easier than you may think, does need to be made carefully.

All you need is a server with at least PHP 4.3.10, MySQL 3.23 and Apache 1.3 or IIS . Joomla recommends, and I agree with, that you have PHP 5.2+, MySQL 4.1+ and Apache 2.2 or IIS 7.

I’ve always found that support for the Apache web server is better. For that reason I recommend avoiding IIS as a web server. This is more commonly known as Windows hosting. Permalinks will not work on Windows hosting.

While you can run Joomla on a server with PHP4, it is no longer supported by the PHP project so is considered insecure. In upcoming versions of Joomla they will be removing support for PHP4 as well, to introduce better functions to help the software run faster.

Both PHP and Apache agree that both run best when running PHP5 and Apache 2.2.

What hosts meet these requirements?
The software, however, is but a very small portion of what needs to be covered. Any host should be using enterprise-grade hardware on it’s servers. This includes at least 2 CPUs with 4 cores each (8 cores total), hard drives in RAID10 configuration and 8 GB of RAM. RAID10 hard drives offer not only the fastest speeds but the greatest redundancy in the case of hardware failure.

While this may be good for the hosts bottom line, it’s bad for your site.. A host with a no overselling guarantee can help assure a faster site for you.

Is your server as fast as it should be
If you’re curious as to whether your server is as fast as it should be we recommend running your site through the Joomla performance grader. After it runs you will want to scroll all the way down to the “Grades” section. This will tell you how long your site took to generate your HTML code. The number you want to see is .3-.5 seconds for most sites. I’ve seen sites that took 5 seconds to load on big name overseller webhosts take under .3 seconds to load, with no other changes, at BuyHTTP Joomla hosting.

Bonuses you can be on the lookout for
To get the most of your experience you will want to look for a hosting company that has experience with Joomla, so if you run into an issue you can ask them for help instead of hoping someone on a forum somewhere can help.

You can also look for hosts that have large knowledgebases and libraries of flash tutorials covering Joomla. Using these methods you can teach yourself how to accomplish tasks and not even have to submit support tickets. If you’re a visual learner, flash tutorials provide walk-throughs of the exact steps needed to do what you need to do.

These users have likely never had to use a backup before. The majority of hosts just setup the default backup system that comes with the control panel. From there most just leave the backup on the server. This is a disaster waiting to happen, and makes recovering a single lost file a nightmare. You will want to look for a host that keeps backups in a separate datacenter, and I recommend a host that has what’s known as continuous data protection (CDP). This creates backups of your site several times a day and allows you to restore your site, down to a single file at a time, with several restore points to choose from. When you mess up your templates index.php file you don’t want to have to download a week-old cPanel backup, extract it, find your file and upload it. If all you want to do is click a few buttons, CDP is for you.

Is there a host that has all of these items?
If you’re very experienced with Joomla, then you won’t look as hard for the extended support. A number of hosts touch on at least a few of the points above. Two of the more important things I’ve mentioned are the no overselling guarantee and the continuous data protection backups. Those are two of the harder things to find.

One company that does have all of these points covered is BuyHTTP. They have been a Joomla web host for several years. BuyHTTP also offers the no overselling guarantee with the enterprise-grade servers, the large knowledgebase and many flash tutorials covering Joomla.

About the Author

Clay writes about WordPress security and WordPress hosting.

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