I am currently hosting my site on my computer on WAMP, however I am looking to take it live. The problem is that it uses both CodeIgniter and PHP 5.3. It will not however, draw very much in the way of traffic to start. Is there some way I can get greater control of my server (so that I can use 5.3 and CI) without having to pay the expense of VPS? And which host would you recommended?
I don't have experience running Codeigniter on shared server hosting, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't upload CI and run it on any host as long as it meets the requirements.
Codeigniter 1.7.2 only requires PHP 4.3.2, but of course you'll want to find a host that at least has the option of running PHP 5. I'm not going to recommend any hosting companies, but if you need 5.3 then you can do a web search for PHP 5.3 hosting or ask companies what versions they are running.
A VPS is going to be more expensive, and might take some configuration on your part.
ovh provides a way to select the php version you want. The english page is a little bogus, so I give the french one: documentation.
So yes, they let you choose the php version you want, even php6 by just changing a value in an htaccess file. I have a running CI site there, and it runs very well.
SO I suppose this must exists elsewhere.
One of your better bets is DreamHost.
Here's a guide on how to install PHP 5.3 on dreamhost:
One.com is very cheap and runs PHP 5.3.3. They do have carrier servers - so it's great latency for nearly everyone. They have memory limitations since it's shared hosting and you can't install extensions, but except for that it's a great service, great uptime and with a very low monthly cost.