This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bikash
This guide offers an in-depth review of the current best web hosting for developers, based on your own specific needs in terms of resources, prices, and supported languages/technologies.
Over the years, web hosting has been made easier in order to fit the needs of people with little to no coding experience.
While this is a good thing overall, web developers often need a more complex environment and a platform that would allow them to directly control all important aspects of their hosting packages.
What Is Developer-Friendly Hosting?
As you already know, there are literally thousands of different hosting companies, offering various plans and services.
As a web developer, your needs aren’t the same as those of a small business or a blogger.
Let’s identify and review your hosting needs.
A coder would need a hosting offer which:
- Allows the hosting and execution of code written in languages you work with. PHP is a popular language that comes as standard on most hosts, but if you are using Python or Node.js, you have to take it into account. Shared hosting plans won’t allow you to execute server-side Node.js, Java Server Pages or Python.
- Is reliable: Web development is their job, and they need the right tools to create amazing applications.
- Offers scalability: As a developer needs to work with different clients and technologies, a scalable hosting plan will allow developers to adjust their environment to their current tasks.
- Is reasonably priced: Hosting can quickly become pricey, so developers need to carefully select their provider in order to keep their monthly hosting expenses under control.
Front-End or Back-End Development?
What kind of website you have plays a pretty big role in what kind of hosting you could benefit from to test out your code. Websites can ultimately be divided into two types: static and dynamic.
A static website only consists of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that represent the physical pages of a website. So when you visit the homepage of a static website, you are viewing the actual homepage file. It’s pretty straightforward and was how most sites were initially built during the nascent years of the World Wide Web.
A dynamic website has HTML files, of course, but also makes use of server technologies such as PHP to dynamically build a webpage when a user visits the page. What’s happening behind the scenes when a user goes to a web address is that the server is finding different bits and pieces of information that it then writes into a cohesive webpage, which is what the user sees. Dynamic websites deal with more flexible data and can utilize things like databases.
Shared hosting is a type of web hosting service in which many websites are sharing the same server resources. Shared hosting plans are usually the cheapest, and also the most limited.
Shared hosting would be a good option for beginners and aspiring PHP developers. However, if you’re looking to use another server-side language than PHP, shared hosting isn’t the greatest solution for you.
Pros of shared hosting:
- Cheap (Offers start at $0.99/month!)
- Easy to use for beginners
Cons of shared web hosting:
- No SSH access/No possibility to install anything on the server
- Limited performance and speed
Hostinger
With prices from $0.99/month, Hostinger is currently the cheapest hosting on the market. The company offers a basic but solid service with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and free weekly/daily backups.
Hostinger’s starter plan doesn’t include a free domain name and is limited to 10 GB storage and 100 GB bandwidth, with no support for server-side languages apart from PHP.
- PHP (Versions 5.2 to 7.2)
- MySQL
- PhpMyAdmin
- GIT
- Custom control panel (but no CPanel)
- Possibility to edit several php.ini options
Bluehost
Bluehost is an American hosting company founded in 2003 and based in Utah. It hosts over 20 million sites and is one of the biggest and most popular hosting service providers worldwide. For developers, Bluehost’s strong point is its support of many server-side programming languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, and Perl. Unfortunately, you’ll need a Bluehost VPS or a private server to install Node.js.
Bluehost offers shared, VPS, and dedicated server hosting. Plans start at $3.59 month and include a free domain name for the first year.
- PHP 7.2
- MySQL databases
- PostgreSQL
- PhpMyAdmin
- Free SSL
- Python
- Perl 5
- Ruby/Ruby on Rails
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is a company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In business since 2001, they offer a wide range of hosting services. Their shared hosting offer is one of the most interesting plans to host small, low traffic websites.
A2 also offers windows hosting.
Best Cloud Hosting For Developers
Cloud hosting is a way of storing data across multiple computers and accessing that data via a network connection like the Internet. As a whole, the cloud behaves like a single physical computer, with endless processing power and storage space.
The main interest of cloud hosting is the possibility to access the server via SSH, and the ability to install whatever technology you need. For example, if you created an amazing Node.js app, you can install Node.js support on your hosting and smoothly run your app.
Cloud hosting pros:
- Cheaper than a dedicated server
- Possibility to install anything on your server
- Great performance
Cloud hosting cons:
- More pricey than shared hosting
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a New York-based cloud infrastructure provider with data centers worldwide.
Unlike most internet hosting providers, DigitalOcean clearly focuses on web hosting for developers, with all packages featuring a 99.9% uptime guarantee, extreme scalability, and SSH access allowing you to install what they need on their domain.
HostGator Cloud
HostGator is one of the most well-known web hosting companies, keeping millions of websites on its servers for over 25 years. HostGator offers various web hosting plans, ranging from shared to dedicated. But it’s definitely their cloud hosting that offers great value for money.
Conclusion
As a web developer, choosing the perfect hosting plan to showcase your coding skills isn’t an easy task due to the number of different providers to choose from. In my opinion, the core aspect of choosing a web host is to clearly identify and review your needs in terms of resources, performance, and server management.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bikash
Bikash | Sciencx (2021-08-11T16:25:58+00:00) Best Web Hosting For Developers. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2021/08/11/best-web-hosting-for-developers/
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