What Is Magento Hosting?

Magento Hosting

Magento Hosting is an extremely popular ecommerce solution, so it’s perfectly understandable that people are looking for hosting packages which are optimized accordingly. Just as specialized blog hosting companies, forum hosting companies and others have managed to create subniches as far as hosting is concerned, “Magento hosting” will be a term more and more people will be using.

There are quite a few cpanel reseller hosting companies, for example, with hosting packages which have been optimized for Magento and if that’s the case, you will probably find a descriptive sales page on their website which does all of the explaining. If the hosting company does not have a link to a Magento hosting package on its homepage, you can still determine if it could represent a Magento hosting solution by:

Analyzing Magento’s System Requirements

First of all, you need to go with a Linux box, this much is certain. Magento supports Apache 1.3.x, Apache 2.0.x as well as Apache 2.2.x, so most hosts would “qualify” from this perspective. Now as far as PHP is concerned, there are certain things that you need to keep in mind.

Magento is compatible with PHP 5.2 (go with a memory limit of 128 Mb at the very least) but be sure to make sure that Safe_mode is off. There are also certain required extensions which you need to remember about: simplexml, hash, PDO_MySQL, DOM, mcrypt, curl, SOAP, GD and iconv.

Your server needs to be able to run cronjobs and it also needs to be able to override options as far as the .htaccess file is concerned. And finally, when it comes to SSL, you need to know that it doesn’t support self-signed certificates.

Which Hosts Qualify?

Most companies which offer Linux hosting (i.e. cpanel shared hosting, cpanel reseller hosting, unlimited domain hosting , etc.) solutions will be able to cater to your needs, but it’s extremely important to make sure that your package supports Magento before making the payment. If you’re not 100% sure, contact the sales department of each host and ask them.

A lot of companies have a live online support interface, so you’ll be able to find someone who can answer this question right away and without even picking up the phone. If an online support interface is not available, you can simply email them or (if you need a response ASAP) give them a call. Most good cpanel reseller hosting companies as well as unlimited domain hosting companies offer 24×7  support, so getting in touch with someone should not be complicated at all.

It’s extremely important to choose only companies with whom you’re 100% comfortable. On the one hand, it is true that cheap web hosting packages are always tempting, but when it comes to Magento hosting, going with providers that have proven themselves time and time again is definitely the best long-term solution.

After all, would you rather save a few dollars here and there but face the risk of your site being offline a lot? The consequences are more than obvious: less traffic, ultimately fewer sales, you’d probably end up losing considerably more money than you’ve managed to save by going with the cheapest option. Better to spend a little bit of extra money but know that you’re working with true professionals.

Magento Hosting Mistakes?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of mistakes associated with Magento hosting which could cost you. Leaving the previously mentioned mistake aside (always going with the cheaper option), there are quite a few other things which could cause problems.

First of all, not monitoring your site on a daily basis is definitely not a recommended practice. You never know what could go wrong, so keeping an eye on things will definitely not hurt. Maybe your hosting companies will upgrade one thing or another and that will interfere with Magento, you just never know. As soon as you notice a problem, contact your host ASAP and don’t forget to mention that you’re running Magento. A good Magento Web hosting support representative will be able to determine the cause of the problem quickly and will make the necessary changes within moments.

Don’t forget to be careful when installing other applications on your server. There are instances where certain scripts or applications can interfere with Magento. It’s not uncommon to modify your settings in order to be able to run a certain application, only to realize that the new settings caused problems with Magento afterwards. Anyone makes mistakes and, once again, that’s why always monitoring things is recommended. If you follow these simple guidelines, finding a great Magento Web hosting company and running a profitable Magento website will be a piece of cake.