So you've spent countless hours trying to find the best system to use for your new site. Maybe you were lucky and a friend turned you on to WordPress. Now comes the even bigger problem of figuring out where to host the site. While you need to be careful in making your decision, I hope this guide makes it easier for you.



Server requirements for WordPress
WordPress has very basic requirements. All you need is a server with at least PHP 4.3 and MySQL 4.0. WordPress recommends, and I agree with, that you have PHP 5.2, MySQL 4.1 or higher and Apache 2.2 or IIS 7. In the next release, MySQL 4.1.2 or higher will be required.

Support for the Apache web server is much better.

PHP4 development has been stopped, so at this point it is considered insecure. If you notice your server running PHP4 you will want to contact your host and ask about their plans to upgrade. In upcoming versions of WordPress they will be removing support for PHP4 as well, to introduce better functions to help the software run faster.

You will also want to be sure you're on a server with Apache 2.2. Both PHP and Apache agree that both run best when running PHP5 and Apache 2.2.

Who can cover these requirements?
The majority of hosts will cover the server software 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.

Many hosts who run this type of hardware still do a disservice to your site but overselling their servers. This causes your site to be slower than it should be. You can get around this by finding a host with a no overselling guarantee. Finding a host with a no overselling guarantee can greatly increase the probability that your site will run as quickly as it should.

Is your server as fast as it should be
If you are interested in finding out if your site is as fast as it could be, you can add this small bit of code to your site's footer.php file.



This code will show the number of MySQL queries made on each page, as well as how long it took the server to generate your HTML code. To make it more difficult for your visitors to see this data, you will not be able to see it by simply looking at your site. You will need to right click on your site and go to View Page Source, then find the output. If you are unsure how to edit files on your site you can view a flash tutorial on modifying WordPress files.

The number you want to see is .3-.5 seconds for most sites.

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

Some hosts now even have large knowledgebases and flash tutorial libraries that cover most WordPress topics. If you're a visual learner, flash tutorials provide walk-throughs of the exact steps needed to do what you need to do.

Looking for best cheap web hosting plans including Blog/Wordpress? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don't know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month's time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don't know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

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