Choosing the Right Hosting for Your PHP Applications

Introduction

Selecting the perfect platform for hosting your PHP and Laravel applications can often be a challenging task. With a plethora of hosting providers, each offering a myriad of services, the decision-making process can be overwhelming, especially for first-timers.

For instance, if you’re a freelance web developer looking to host a small blog, your choice of hosting will likely differ from that of a large corporation with a high-traffic website.

Typically, I prefer to go with the popular choices that other developers are using. This approach ensures that if I encounter any issues, I can easily seek help from the community rather than struggling with an obscure hosting platform.

To gain insights into what the PHP and Laravel community prefers, I conducted a poll on Twitter, asking about their preferred hosting provider for PHP projects. The poll received an impressive 1292 votes!

In this post, we’ll delve into the poll results and explore the most popular hosting providers.

The Results

The poll results were as follows:

• Digital Ocean - 40.6%

• AWS - 25.9%

• Hetzner - 16.6%

• Other - 16.9%

1. Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean emerged as the most popular hosting provider for PHP applications, garnering 40.6% of the votes.

I personally use Digital Ocean for hosting my Laravel projects and am quite satisfied with the service. I utilize their “Droplet” app servers and “Spaces” object storage for storing assets like images and videos.

One of the primary reasons I chose Digital Ocean was its simplicity compared to AWS. As someone who enjoys coding and building cool features more than dealing with DevOps and infrastructure, I found Digital Ocean easy to set up and get started.

Moreover, using a tool like Laravel Forge to provision and manage the servers makes the process even simpler.

If you’re a developer starting out in the PHP world and looking to hire PHP developer, I’d probably recommend Digital Ocean. Of course, as your project grows and you need access to more advanced features, you may want to consider AWS. But for a large number of PHP and Laravel projects, Digital Ocean is an excellent choice.

2. AWS

AWS was the second most popular hosting provider for PHP applications, with 25.9% of the votes.

AWS is a robust platform with a vast range of features. It’s suitable for hosting anything from a small Laravel blog to large enterprise applications that require complex infrastructure.

While I’ve used AWS in the past, I found it quite overwhelming due to its extensive features. However, there are numerous tutorials available that can help you get started with AWS.

Pairing AWS with Laravel Forge can provide a powerful setup for your PHP and Laravel apps. You can access the infrastructure and DevOps features of AWS while enjoying the simplicity of Forge to manage your servers.

3. Hetzner

Hetzner, a German hosting provider, was the third most popular choice for PHP applications, with 16.6% of the votes.

Hetzner offers a variety of hosting options and has been in the hosting world since 1997. Although I’ve never used Hetzner myself, I’ve worked on Laravel projects for clients who use Hetzner for their hosting and found it quite efficient.

From discussions with other developers, Hetzner seems to be a great option for hosting PHP and Laravel apps. Compared to some other providers, you can often get more performant servers at lower prices.

4. Vultr

Vultr was another frequently mentioned hosting platform in the poll’s comments.

Vultr is a cloud hosting provider that offers a variety of hosting options. They have 31 worldwide locations, providing a wide range of options for hosting your applications.

Although I’ve never used Vultr for hosting real-life applications, I found it quite user-friendly during a trial run.

5. Akamai (previously Linode)

Akamai, formerly known as Linode, was another popular hosting provider mentioned in the poll comments.

Akamai is a cloud hosting provider that offers a variety of hosting options. They have numerous worldwide locations, allowing you to host your applications closest to your users.

6. Other

A few other hosting providers for Laravel and PHP applications were also mentioned in the poll comments. These included Siteground, Heroku, Contabo, and Upcloud.

Conclusion

Choosing the right hosting provider for your PHP and Laravel applications is crucial, whether you’re a beginner or looking to hire a PHP developer. This guide provides insights into the most popular hosting providers, helping you make an informed decision. Happy hosting!