Nowadays, PHP has become the main language used by many webmasters around the world. As the most popular dynamic web programming language, you can find many websites that use scripts written in that language for various purposes, from building websites to shopping system. In essence, with PHP you can do a large variety of programming. Now, in order to be able to use PHP scripts you have to use a web host that provides that feature. Although it is not difficult to find the right host, there are several aspects you should also think about.

Make sure that the hosting company supports your PHP scripts. It seems that some scripts currently available in the market can run well only with the latest PHP version. To solve this compatibility issue there are hosting providers who provide two PHP versions. You may need to customize or change some scripts which are intended for the older PHP version environment.

Next, bear in mind about the PHP modules which are required by your scripts to be installed. There are different modules available to perform different activities. If the hosting provider you are choosing does not list it, ask them about the modules which are required by the scripts you intend to use. If they do not provide the modules, you should make sure that you are at least allowed to install them later.

There are two different ways in making use of PHP on a server, running PHP in CGI mode and using it as an apache module. Both have different advantages and disadvantages. Running PHP as an apache mode means that the interpreter will be loaded as a part of Apache. The result is the execution of your PHP script will be faster. Unfortunately many web administrators claim that this type of installation also opens security holes. Especially without a safe mode, a user in the same server can see his or her neighbour. With a safe mode, you trade security for flexibility where you can not use many third party scripts, because many PHP functions are deactivated.

Running PHP in CGI mode signifies that some security issues have been resolved. Unfortunately every time a request comes up, a new instance has to be created. It means that besides having to use more resources, you will likely find your program run slower when running PHP in this mode. Some experts believe that this configuration constitutes the best way to use PHP in a shared hosting environment while the others think differently due to performance issue.

Nowadays many hosting companies provide Fantastico to allow customers to install many PHP scripts with some clicks of mouse. Before installing any script manually, you can take a look at the list of scripts provided. If you can not find the scripts you need, you have to use the one from another source. To make sure that the script is really compatible with your hosting environment you may try to compare the requirements of the script you want to install with the ones in the list.

PHP is the tool for you to have dynamic and interactive websites. One of the most useful features of PHP is that it can connect to MySQL and other popular database programs using its own open source libraries developed for the users by the users. But anyway always remember to use a PHP hosting provider that meets your requirements.