PHP versions on shared hosting in Belgium

Since the PHP build version became so important with Zend Framework, I made a list of some (on the Belgian market) prominent hosting companies and the PHP version they offer on their shared hosting.

It does not pretend to be a complete list, but rather an alphabetical list of hosting providers I bump or bumped in to once in a while. The PHP version listed is mentioned on their site or, if not on their site, retrieved through their support.

PHP version Mentioned on site
www.alfahosting.be 5.2.8 (*) No
www.combell.be 5.1.2 Yes
www.eops.be 5.2.6 Yes
www.hostbasket.be 5.2.3 No
www.level27.be 5.2.4 (*)
No
www.nucleus.be 5.2.4 No
www.one.com 5.2.8 No
www.openminds.be 5.2.8 (*) No
www.priorweb.be 5.2.8 No
www.uniweb.be 5.2.4 No
www.weble.be 5.2.6 (*) Yes

(*) they offered to install any version required.

As you can see, Combell is worst for PHP developers. There currently is also no way to get any higher version with them. It is a sad thing.

Besides them, only Weble mentioned (luckily a proper) full version number on their site. Although customers that tend to find the complete PHP version number important are probably a (growing) minority, it can make a sale.

Also, I’m surprised by the cheapest one, One. It’s the only “big” one that offers a recent version.

Please, don’t hesitate to add any others to the list.

Virtual server fun

Linode virtual servers

Whether you’re looking for a sandbox environment or your own server farm, virtual server solutions like Linode.com or Slicehost offer a great solution.

I’ve been using Linode for 2 months now and I use it primarily as a test environment to increase my Linux knowledge (which I must admit, is very basic). With Ubuntu server installed and apt-get, even my grandmother can get it up & running.

The cool thing about their setup is that you can reinstall any of the main Linux-distro’s with a single click over and over again. Together with their DNS manager that is all you need to start hosting anything.

The downside of services like these is that you have to take care of everything yourself, including backup’s. So for business critical needs, I still trust the world’s most flexible hosting company.

Before I ordered an account, I’ve quickly compared Linode to some competitors (mainly SliceHost) but I couldn’t find a reason to choose for either one of them so I just decided to go for Linode 360 because they had a slightly better offer.

Linode now has a referral system, so if you ever think of getting an account, you may always be so kind to give me a $20 discount: http://www.linode.com/?r=408d1cd9a3c5a16fc3a5202370869dfb8bc78fee