Joomla!® 24-Hour Trainer

CHOOSING A GOOD JOOMLA! WEB HOST

Now that you've purchased at least one domain name, it's time to pick out some hosting for your website. There are a zillion web hosting companies out there. Some are very cheap. Some offer hosting with your domain name registration. Some offer a free domain name with hosting. Which is best? It depends, but not as much as you might assume.

As you learned in Lesson 1, Joomla is software, which always has specific requirements to run correctly. When you purchase a program for your computer, you need to check if it's for Mac or Windows, as well as whether you have enough RAM and disk space to run it. Web hosting is no different. You need to pick a web host to support Joomla's requirements.

Fortunately, this is easier than it used to be. If you visit resources.joomla.org/directory/support-services/hosting.html, you will see a list of web hosts who have been reviewed by Joomla for inclusion in the directory, including some basic security requirements and permissions. I would suggest you select a host from this list for your site.

Note that many hosting companies not in the directory will tell you they support Joomla. No matter how cheap they are, I would not choose any company that is not on the list. That's because sometimes a host will have problems with Joomla, which can take time to resolve, particularly for those without a strong technical background.

It's All About Backups

When you build a site in Joomla on a web host, you need to make sure that ...