Top PHP Hosting Providers in 2024

PHP hosting providers offer specialized hosting for web applications and sites developed using PHP programming language –  a popular server-side scripting language. It provides a technical environment for PHP scripts to work optimally. As a business, web developer, or hobbyist, you can choose between different types of PHP hosting, including shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting, depending on your requirements.

Even though you can create a PHP server yourself, you must know about the benefits of specialized PHP hosting providers, which include the following.

• Full compatibility with PHP scripts
• Ability to easily scale when needed
• Get support for the latest PHP version
• Server-specific performance and security optimizations
• Access to a vibrant community and support for easy resolutions

These benefits are challenging to replicate if you’re creating a PHP server yourself, as you can run into issues with compatibility and scalability. Security optimizations and server upkeep will also be expensive in the long run.

Geekflare has researched and chosen the best PHP hosting providers by comparing the available options with criteria such as ease of use, multiple PHP specifications support, customizability, affordability, uptime, updates, and PHP-based application support (such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.) We also considered PHP-focused features such as cache plugins, support for PHP frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, etc., and content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Drupal.

• DigitalOcean – Best for Developers
• A2 Hosting – Best for Budget-Friendly
• Kinsta – Best for High-traffic Sites
• Cloudways – Best for Multi-Cloud
• Runcloud – Best for Streamlining Server Management
• Platform.sh – Best for Enterprise-level Projects
• SiteGround – Best for Balanced Performance and Support
• Hostinger – Best for Basic Projects and Testing
• FastComet – Best for Advanced Features at Higher Tiers
• IONOS – Best for Scalability
• Bluehost – Best for Beginner-Friendly Shared Hosting
• Forge – Best for Laravel Applications
• Show moreShow less

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is the best PHP hosting option for developers working on custom PHP projects. It provides full control over server resources and settings.

The platform offers droplets (virtual machines) to host their PHP applications or dynamic websites. These are easily scalable and come with 99.99% SLA. Furthermore, it offers simple security tools, such as SSH keys, firewalls, and SSL/TLS. DigitalOcean is production-ready, making it perfect for developing and hosting PHP projects.

As for PHP version support, you get PHP 7.x (default) and 8.x. This also means you can easily install PHP-based applications, such as WordPress and Joomla.

DigitalOcean has data centers across 9 regions, including servers in Frankfurt, Bangalore, Toronto, New York City, and San Francisco.

DigitalOcean Features

• Supports managed databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Apache.
• Comes with basic security features such as firewall, SSH, and SSL/TLS.
• Quickly launch PHP apps with their App platform, a fully managed PaaS solution with easily scalable options.
• 99.99% uptime SLA for droplets and volumes block storage, ideal for mission-critical PHP applications.
• Excellent knowledge base for setting up and managing PHP sites.

DigitalOcean Pricing

DigitalOcean general-purpose droplet pricing starts at $4/month, where you get 1 vCPU, 512 MiB memory, 500 GB transfer, and 1 GB SSD space. Users can opt to change to CPU-optimized, Memory-optimized, or Storage-optimized plans per their needs. They can also set up daily backups at additional cost, which can cost 30% of the droplet cost (20% if you choose weekly backups).

Try DigitalOcean

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is a budget-friendly PHP hosting provider that supports a wide range of PHP versions, including PHP 4.4 to PHP 8.3 (which can easily be switched through cPanel). This makes A2 Hosting an ideal pick for PHP projects that rely on different PHP versions.

A2 Hosting also supports ideal tools for managing PHP websites, including support for Maria DB, phpMyAdmin, and MySQL. Its server fleet includes Michigan and Arizona in the USA, Singapore in Asia, and Amsterdam in Europe.

A2 Hosting Features

• Offers reliable servers with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and unlimited bandwidth for higher-priced plans.
• Provides free account migration.
• Excellent custom support available 24/7/365 via email, live chat, and phone.
• Comes with an easy-to-use cPanel control panel.
• Top-notch knowledge base to help you set up and manage your site.

A2 Pricing

A2 Hosting offers shared, managed WordPress, managed VPS hosting, and managed dedicated hosting server plans. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Try A2 Hosting

Kinsta

Kinsta is a premium managed PHP hosting provider capable of handling high-traffic sites. Its web application hosting is developer-friendly and supports 19 programming languages, including PHP (it supports every PHP version as everything is self-managed). They also offer managed WordPress hosting (strictly supports PHP 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3).

With Kinsta, you get a complete toolset, including support for Git, staging area, DevOps, and more. It also supports custom dockerfiles and is DevOps-automated (Kinsta handles environment setup and deployments). It is also SOC2 compliant. 

Under the hood, Kinsta uses Google Cloud infrastructure, which gives access to a large fleet of data centers worldwide. It supports 37 data centers for WordPress and 25 data centers for hosting applications. These data centers include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Delhi, London, Frankfurt, and Zurich. 

Kinsta Features

• DevOps automation handles machines’ initial setup, firewall setups, and more.
• Supports Git-based workflow with automatic deployments.
• Supports stateful applications with persistent storage.
• Easily troubleshoot issues using runtime logs.
• 99.99% SLA and enterprise-grade DDoS protection by Cloudflare.

Kinsta Pricing

Kinsta offers pay-as-you-go pricing with standard monthly plans that start at $20. Here, you get 0.5 CPU and 1 GB RAM. They also offer memory-optimized plans (starting from $35 monthly) and CPU-optimized plans (starting from $36 monthly). Apart from this, there’s a Hobby plan at $7 monthly that gives access to 0.3 CPU and 0.3 RAM. All plans come with 24/7/365 real-time chat support.

There are also other pricing elements, including:

• Bandwidth pricing that starts from $0.14/GB (external).
• Persistent storage starts at $3/month for 10 GB.

Kinsta also offers a free trial that provides $20 worth of credits.

Try Kinsta

Cloudways

Cloudways overcomes the lack of managed PHP hosting by cloud providers such as DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud, but at an additional cost.

Cloudways offers managed PHP service, so you don’t have to worry about updates, initial server setup, or maintenance. It handles them and also provides features such as auto healing (automatically restarting compromised apps), automated backups, and regular security patches.

It offers excellent workflow development features, including Git integration, 1-click cloning, SSH/SFTP access, staging URLs, and team collaboration. For scalability, you can use block storage to increase storage capabilities or vertically scale server resources (RAM and CPU) as per your needs. They offer support for PHP version 5.6 to the latest PHP version 8.2.

Cloudways provides plenty of server choices depending on the cloud provider. For example, you can choose from New York, London, San Francisco, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv, among others.

Cloudways Features

• It supports all major PHP CMSs, such as WordPress and Drupal, as well as frameworks like Laravel and Symfony.
• Top-notch security with dedicated firewall, SSL certificate, IP whitelisting, application isolation, database security, and 2FA login security.
• Resourceful knowledge base and 24/7 expert live chat support and ticketing system.
• Excellent performance with Cloudflare Enterprise, built-in breeze plugin, optimized stack, and SSD hosting.
• Offers high-performance optimized stack of Apache, NGINX, MySQL/MariaDB and PHP-FPM.

Cloudways Pricing

As Cloudways offers multi-cloud hosting options, the pricing differs depending on your choice of cloud provider. They have categorized pricing into two categories including: 

• Standard: For general-purpose workloads and applications.
• Premium: For demanding workload powered by scalable and AI Intel Xeon chips.

They offer a 3-day free trial with no credit card.

Try Cloudways

Runcloud

Runcloud provides an easy-to-use and powerful control panel for managing your next PHP project. It streamlines server management via a graphical interface. Like Cloudways, Runcloud is a multi-cloud solution provider where you can choose Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, Hetzner, Upload, Linode, and DigitalOcean.

Runcloud supports instantaneous one-click installers and also sets up the servers themselves. From there, you can take full control and create virtual PHP machines as required. It has an excellent monitoring system that notifies you if something needs urgent attention.

Runcloud’s data center offerings depend on your cloud choice. For example, you can choose from Toronto, Mexico City, Bangalore, or Singapore. 

Runcloud Features

• Supports atomic deployment using Git with zero downtime.
• Eases server management with automated server configuration and security updates.
• Work with your favorite PHP framework and tool, like Laravel, Yii Framework, Code Igniter, etc.
• Supports multiple PHP versions.
• It offers a staging area, the ability to clone web apps, and zero downtime deployment.

Runcloud Pricing

Runcloud comes with 3 plans: Basic, Pro, and Business.

All plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee (no questions asked).

Try Runcloud

Platform.sh

Platform.sh is a PHP hosting solution for enterprise-level projects. It offers a complete development delivery solution that helps you handle complexity with standardization. It does this by providing Platform as a Service (PaaS), which features a way to build DevOps standardization on top of a unified development workflow.

PHP developers can kickstart their development with templates that handle automatic infrastructure provisions. The platform also supports Git-based workflow to help push changes faster. Additionally, teams get a DDEV local development environment and access to CLI and API.

Platform.sh also offers enterprise-grade WordPress with support for Git-powered workflow, integrated Composer support, and best-in-class PHP tooling.

It has a global presence with servers from AWS, GCP, and Azure. You can host your PHP sites in the US-West, Canada, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, and Australia.

Platform.sh Features

• Provides complete security features, like DDoS protection, read-only file system, automated TLS certificates, multi-factor authentication, keyless SSH, and web application firewall, among others.
• Offers Observability to monitor and optimize resource usage.
• Supports auto-scaling scalable architecture.
• Intelligent use of multiple availability zones for optimized network latency and associated costs, resulting in a 99.99% SLA guarantee.
• Adds 15 services like PostgreSQL, MariaDB, etc. with YAML.

Platform.sh Pricing

Platform.sh offers 3 plans: Professional, Enterprise, and Elite. Out of these 3, Professional plans offer a 30-day trial with no credit card requirement.

Try Platform.sh

SiteGround

SiteGround provides a perfect mix of performance and support for busy organizations. With this platform, you can make your PHP projects load 30% faster. On the support side, they offer 24/7/365 customer service through live chat, ticketing, and phone.

Its ultra-fast PHP setup has low memory usage and the ability to handle larger volumes of queries with ease. Additionally, they offer other performance-focused features including the use of Google Cloud infrastructure, website caching, free 1-click CDN and high-performing MySQL.

SiteGround offers PHP support for versions 7.4 to 8.3xx per site. So, if you are hosting multiple PHP projects, you can choose the PHP version accordingly. They also have excellent scalability options with both shared and cloud hosting plans.

The hosting solution has 11 data centers across the globe. You can select from Dallas, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Sydney, and Singapore, among others, to host your PHP-powered site or app.

SiteGround Features

• Plenty of performance features, including free 1-click CDN, optimized PHP and MySQL, caching and use of Google Cloud infrastructure.
• Saves time with website management tools, including 1-click software installs, free collaborator access, easy domain management, etc.
• Offers Managed WordPress hosting with performance optimization (code minification, image optimization, etc.), improved security via SiteGround Security plugin, and automated updates.
• Highly secure PHP hosting environment with free SSL, Smart AI anti-bot system, geo-distributed daily backups, and WAF.
• Comes with reliable email service with automatic email transfer using the email migration tool.

SiteGround Pricing

SiteGround offers 3 web hosting shared plans. These include StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. If you need dedicated resources, then check out their cloud hosting plans.

For PHP projects, we suggest getting GrowBig and GoGeek, as both come with 30% faster PHP performance.

All plans include a 30-day money-back guarantee, a free domain, a free SSL, free email, unlimited databases, and a free CDN.

Try SiteGround

Hostinger

Hostinger is perfect for PHP developers to host and test their projects. It offers a cheap yet effective hosting service, which supports different versions of PHP (PHP 7.3 and above). However, you can use older versions, starting from 5.2, for testing purposes (by editing the .htaccess file).

Hostinger offers many PHP-specific features, from support for popular PHP frameworks, such as Laravel, to MySQL database support.

As for data centers, Hostinger offers 10 data center locations, including France, India, the USA, Brazil, and the Netherlands.

Hostinger Features

• Provides security features including free SSL, privacy protection, and malware scanner.
• Excellent performance out of the box with NVMe storage, in-house CDN, LiteSpeed web server, and ObjectCache.
• Handles traffic surges with a free 24-hour plan boost and the ability to change to better hosting plans if required.
• Offers automatic migration tool, handled by dedicated migration team.
• Provides Hostinger website builder for faster development.

Hostinger Pricing

Hostinger offers 3 hosting packages: Premium, Business, and Cloud Startup.

All plans come with free unlimited SSL, free pre-built templates, 1 free email, free automatic website migration, and managed WordPress hosting features, such as WordPress auto-updates and WordPress acceleration. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Try Hostinger

FastComet

FastComet provides many advanced features, such as malware scanner, restore manager, node.js support, performance boost, WordPress LSCWP Cache, and LiteSpeed Enterprise, to cater to demanding PHP projects. 

However, to access them, you need one of its higher-tiered hosting packages. FastComet supports PHP 5.6 to PHP 8.3 versions (easily change the PHP version using the FastComet PHP selector).

FastComet offers 12 high-performance data centers worldwide, including servers in Europe (London, Frankfurt, etc.), Australia, Asia (Chennai, Singapore, Sydney, etc.), and America (Dallas, Chicago, Miami, etc.) 

For performance, FastComet utilizes a LiteSpeed Enterprise web server capable of offering fast performance compared to Apache (84x faster) and NGINX (12x faster). The server uses a fast AMD EYPC processor in addition to NVMe SSDs, offering 7x faster queries and file access.

FastComet Features

• 100% network uptime, powered by 12K Mbps public network.
• Offers top-notch website security with WAF, IP Reputation Guard, Account Isolation, and Imunify360.
• 99.99% uptime commitment with downtime compensation for up to 10% of the monthly fee.
• Provides free website/server migrations, free SSL certificate, and free CDN from Cloudflare.
• Up to 30 daily offsite backups with unlimited full or incremental restores.

FastComet Pricing

FastComet offers 4 plans: Starter, Essential, Plus and Extra.

All plans include essential features, such as free SSL, spam protection, DDoS protection, free backup, cPanel, and Softaculous. You also get a 45-day money-back guarantee.

Note: Each plan price is 80% initially. The duration can vary between 1-month, 3-month, 1 year or 2 years. You need to carefully check it during sign up.

Try FastComet

IONOS

ONOS web hosting plans are ideal for fast-growing PHP projects. The platform offers instant resource scalability, such as memory, RAM or parallel processing, handling increased traffic with ease. It provides a cheap solution to improve performance ($2/month per level).

Users can choose from multiple IONOS data center locations, including Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Las Vegas, Lenexa, Newark, and Logrono. All servers (ISO 270001 certified) are optimized for lightning-fast loading time using HTTP/2 network protocol, multiplexing, and header compression, resulting in a 1.23-second average page load speed.

IONOS also offers paid PHP extended support. Through this, old PHP versions get security checks and updates to ensure that existing apps and scripts are stable. Currently, they offer extended support for PHP v4.0 to 7.4. They also support newer PHP 8.x versions (free).

IONOS features

• Offers free wildcard certificate to ensure traffic exchange is safe.
• Provides daily website backup and recovery on all plans (for up to 6 days).
• Minimal downtime with geo-redundant infrastructure, ensuring 99.99% uptime.
• Supports all PHP-powered CMS and web apps, including WordPress, Drupal, phpMyAdmin, etc.
• Offers free email, free domain and free SSL on all plans.

IONOS Pricing

IONOS offers 4 plans: Essential, Starter, Plus, and Ultimate. All plans include a free domain, free SSL, professional email, unmetered bandwidth, daily backup, and recovery. You also get a no-question-asked 30-day money-back guarantee with each plan.

Try IONOS

Bluehost

Bluehost is a beginner-friendly shared hosting platform that provides features such as an easy-to-use interface, AI site creation tools, a free migration tool, managed PHP update, and WordPress staging. It is also affordable, giving beginners the best way to explore the potential of their PHP projects.

For shared hosting, Bluehost supports only the latest PHP version, 8.1 and above, for maximum website security. However, if you aim to use their cloud/VPS hosting, the PHP version is not limited.

Bluehost provides plenty of server options, including 2 servers in Utah (USA) and 1 each in London (UK), Shanghai (China), and Mumbai (India).

Bluehost Features

• Optimizes website delivery with free Cloudflare CDN and Agro routing.
• It comes with AI tools that let you kick-start site development.
• Offers updated PHP and MySQL for improved TTFB scores.
• 24/7 customer support via chat and phone.
• Provides robust security with free SSL, WAF, and backups.

Bluehost Pricing

Bluehost offers 4 shared web hosting packages. These include Basic, Choice Plus, Online Store, and Pro.

Try Bluehost

Forge

Forge provides Laravel-focused PHP hosting with a multi-cloud setup option. The hosting service is built by Laravel framework creators, hence ensuring top-notch performance, optimization, and support for Laravel projects.

The platform utilizes cutting-edge technologies, including PHP, Nginx, Postgres, MySQL, Redis, etc., and you’re free to host on your own cloud choice, including Akamai, Amazon, Vultr, Hetzner, and others. This means you get plenty of server choices depending on your cloud choice. They also offer a per-site PHP version (with no limitation on the PHP code version).

Additionally, Forge supports Laravel-based features, including Octane, which speeds up site delivery to Sentry and helps monitor and debug Laravel applications.

Forge Features

• Supports Git for an easy push-to-deploy option.
• Comes with all-round security options, including free SSL certificates, SSH key authentication, database backups, user isolation, and a proper server monitoring tool.
• Ability to use cloud provider features, including load balancers, cache servers, and worker servers.
• Comes with powerful API to automate Forge features.
• Easily share the server’s management dashboard with co-workers (only available on the Business plan).

Forge Pricing

Forge offers 3 pricing plans: Hobby, Growth, and Business. They offer a 5-day free trial on each plan.

Try Forge

Comparison Table of Best PHP Hosting Providers 2024

The table below compares the best PHP hosting providers based on their starting price, supported PHP versions, backup frequency, and server locations.

Benefits of Using Specialized PHP Hosting Provider

Compatibility, performance, cost-effectiveness, and security are some of the many benefits of using a specialized PHP hosting provider, as discussed below.

• Compatibility: A specialized PHP hosting server ensures that all PHP scripts (different versions) work, along with other integrations needed to run the PHP app/website.
• Top-notch Performance: Offers hosting environments aimed at high performance and speed. This makes web apps perform without lag or delay, ensuring fast loading speeds.
• Cost-effective: Offers a cost-effective solution compared to self-hosted solutions.
• Streamlined Updates: Get security and functionality patches faster and more efficiently. It also helps you get the latest PHP version support.
• Security: Specialized PHP hosting providers are also secure as they offer enterprise-grade firewalls, 2FA, SSL support, and malware detection tools, among other security features.
• Excellent Support: Get support from experts who can resolve issues faster. It helps provide 100% uptime with little to no troubleshooting.
• Helpful Community: Join a vibrant community powered by the hosting provider. The community helps resolve minor issues quickly.

How to Choose a PHP Hosting Provider

There are 6 main criteria to consider when choosing a PHP hosting provider, as discussed below.

• Type of hosting: Narrow down which type of hosting you need. The types of hosting are listed below.
  • Shared → for small blogs or informational sites.
  • VPS → for custom PHP apps and websites.
  • Cloud → for startups with dynamic requirements.
  • Dedicated → for high-performance PHP apps.
• PHP Version Compatibility, Database Support, and Server Configurations: Ensure the hosting provider offers the PHP version required to run your application. Additionally, check that it supports databases such as MySQL and your preferred server configuration (Apache or NGINX).
• Security: The PHP Hosting provider must offer adequate security measures to protect your web app or website. It should provide a robust firewall, SSL certificate support, 2FA support, malware detection tools, and automated security audits. It must also include protection against common PHP threats such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and DDoS attacks.
• Performance and Speed: Consider the hosting platform’s performance features, including its infrastructure (SSD usage, network speed, load-balancing options) and access to performance features such as a content delivery network (CDN).
• Customer Support: The PHP hosting provider must have reliable customer support, either through live chat, email, phone, or a ticketing system. 
• Budget: The hosting provider must have plans that suit your requirements and budget. This should include scalability and other associated costs with hosting your PHP app/website.

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