What Web Hosting Features are needed for WordPress
There are a number of little ‘nitty gritty’ factors you should watch out for when signing up for hosting. For instance those Free Domain Name registrations – how free actually are they? In other words what conditions are attached to that offer – if any.
While some may actually deliver what they offer – that is Free Domain Names – others while providing the domain name to you actually keep control of the Domain Name, not permitting you to move that particular domain name off their servers.
When looking at web hosting, its crucial for you to understand exactly where your web hoster’s services end and WordPress begins. In other words is support for your WordPress software included in your hosting package.
WordPress is considered a ‘third party application’ by many host providers, this simply means they will not provide any technical support in relation to WordPress. But, when WordPress support is provided by a host service it will be provided at a cost. The best way to find out whether your prospective host does, or does not, provide WordPress technical support ASK!
But do that before you sign up, asking also naturally what it will cost you. All is not lost though if your desired host does not provide WordPress support as you will be able to find plenty of support in the wonderful WordPress Support Forums at http://wordpress.org/support.
Exactly what are the basic hosting services that you can expect to be provided to you?
Hard Drive Space
Bandwidth (transfer)
Domain e-mail with Web mail access
File Transfer procedure (FTP) access
MySQL databases
PHP
Wide-ranging web site statistics
VIP TIP: You need to know before signing up whether the host actually provides the minimum requirements needed to run the software on the hosting account – they are; PHP V4.3 (or greater) and MySQL V4 (or greater).
The easiest way to find this out is simply is to log on and check out their FAQ. If they don’t have one simply grab the contact details and send them an email asking.
