Here in this post i am going to write about some best xenforo hosting companies that have been tried, tested and trusted by many of my clients. I have been working as a xenforo developer and on monthly contracts for forum maintenance with various boards with different stats. There are many hosts and service providers offering xenforo hosting services for different platforms. It is essential to look how specific software will act when placed on those servers. For example, some hosting companies are doing great with wordpress. But here we need to find out which host provides best xenforo hosting services because a good wordpress host might not know how to handle XenForo, so thats the point here. Lets move step by step and see what things you should consider before choosing a host.
How to choose a web host for XenForo
If this is your first time searching for a web host or best xenforo web hosting and do not know the technical details (that many of us do not) i would recommend read this section completely. Otherwise you can skip straight to the hosting companies that i think are best for xenforo.
First of all when we search for web hosting companies we see several paid ads at the top and then there are people who invested alot in SEO, then there are some people recommending best hosting companies. When we land at a hosts website a new confusion takes birth i.e Shared? VPS? Dedicated or Cloud? So there are 2 confusions that i am trying to solve in this post and help you choose best xenforo hosting.
1: Which type of Hosting?
Shared Hosting:
Shared hosting is best for new and entry level websites. In this type of hosting your website will reside along with several other websites and all of them share server resources. You will get a seperate Cpanel account and can upload files create databases etc. If you are starting a new website and it will not be getting many visitors initially give it a shot.
Virtual Private Server (VPS):
In VPS each website is allotted specific amount of space on the server. It still shares physical space with other websites on the server. But the resources and the space provided are fixed for your website and you will have more control over your server. This type is perfect for mid sized websites. If your xenforo forum has some thousand members and you do not want to get rid of headache involved in server management and other technical stuff go for this. This hosting is expensive when compared to shared hosting.
Dedicated Hosting:
In Dedicated hosting you rent a complete server for your website/websites. You care in complete control of your websites resources and the extensions. The resources of the server are completely your own and no one else shares that. Dedicated hosting is suitable for websites having high amount of traffic and userbase. But you need technical expertise or hire some server manager to install softwares, firewalls etc. Dedicated hosting is expensive.
Cloud Hosting:
Cloud Hosting is trending these days. It means many computers working together running applications and sharing combined computer resources. It makes sure your websites never goes down and you do not have to build infrastructure and resources. This one is scalable and you pay only for the amount of space you use. Suitable for any website.
2: Which Host to choose?
Whenever we search for a web host several factors are involved. These factors differ from person to person. A board admin who is looking forward to create a new community using XenForo normally have low budget and would like to spend as low as possible and that is perfect because this forum software does not show strange behaviors until you treat it badly or someone has modified the core files. On the other hand an established forum with members in thousands have to consider many factors like:
- Pricing.
- Support.
- Security.
- Speed.
- Disk Space.
- Technology.
- Bandwidth.
To discuss the details of each factor involved i have also compared serveral factors that raise the cost of hosting and the factors that should not be compromised.
1: Pricing:
A shared web hosting can ciost around $2 to $24 per month depending upon the amount of space you need and number of websites you can add. If you are planning to host a single website you can get a reliable shared hosting for xenforo in 3 usd for a reputed host.
A VPS can cost from $17 to $170 per month again depending upon the factors discussed above
A dedicated server costs $50 to $500 per month on average.
2: Support:
Whenever you choose a host consider those that you can reach out quickly whenever some issue arises. Online chat system should be very good and they should not put you in long queues waiting for turn. I have had great experience with the hosts who have implemented online chat systems because they resolve problems quickly. So this point should be considered.
3: Security:
When choosing from best xenforo hosting companies security should be considered. Make sure to read about the support they provide and how secure your websites and domains are when hosted on their servers. Forum databases sell very high in the black markets and attacks are very common.
4: Speed:
Speed being one of the primary SEO factor should be taken into account when choosing a host. A cheap host with alot of websites on a shared servers slows down forums and should be avoided. Try to make your online forum or website robust by choosing best host even if it costs a dollar higher.
5: Disk space:
Disk space is not an important factor if you are going to launch a new xenforo forum. Also you can add up more space later on. Initially try to get hosting that can accommodate your forum and all its content and as you grow buy more space.
6: Technology:
Windows or Linux hosting? Nginx or Apache? For xenforo Apache with Linux hosting is recommended and it has been used by many webmasters without complaints. So i would recommend this.
7: Bandwidth:
It is amount of data your website can process and transfer to your users in a time. It is measured in Giga bytes. Initially your forum would not be having much users so you can compromise on this. But if you have an established forum take it seriously you can use this post to calculate your bandwidth needs.
XenForo Hosting requirements
I think we have discussed alot about hosting and the common termonologies and think its getting boring now :). Lets move straight to what xenforo recommends and what are xenforo hosting requirements.
- PHP: 5.4.0+
- MySQL: 5.5+
- PHP extensions: MySQLi, GD (with JPEG support), PCRE, SPL, SimpleXML, DOM, JSON, iconv, ctype, cURL
These are requirments for xenforo hosting. Please note these are for xf2 version. I hope you know xenforo is written in PHP and hosting should support PHP 5.4+ means you can install PHP 7.2 for latest version (Your host would do all the work for you if you are using managed hosting). PHP extensions should be installed and enabled for the core functions to work.
Now that you have all the details and criteria to choose xenforo hosting for your forum you can go through all the hosts one by one by google search or buy from these hosting companies that i recommend becuase they are tried and tested. If you will buy using the below links you will get some discount from the host and i will get a small commission with your purchase.
Best XenForo hosting companies
If you have any issue with the above mentioned links or want to report those hosting companies, contact me. I will keep updating the list with new and better web hosts.
If you need professional xenforo development or installation services you can contact me.