Is there a hosting that is best suited for Symfony deployment?

Question

Hi all, I'm going to put a new application I created the last few weeks in production. Is there a hosting company that is best for Symfony or doesn't that matter at all? Or are there hosting companies you recommend or don't recommend in my case?

It's a very small application written in php (Symfony 1.4) and a db mysql with phpmyadmin.

I ask this question because I would like to put this web app. on a shared server (very low cost) and don't have the ability to change php.ini files in that case.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When looking for a server, there is no "best" host. Each one has its own differences. I personally would recommend Dreamhost, because it is wildly used and has some great features. Other people would disagree, because mostly it is a matter of preference.

Most shared hosts allow you to put a php.ini in your home directory, and that can serve for your php.ini.

Answer 2

Like Colum, I think the hosting company doesn't really matters.

However for Symfony I would recommend a dedicated hosting since you may need to change PHP and Apache configuration (since Symfony 1.x uses a .htaccess, and sometimes you need to make aliases to something like .../sf/data and .../sf/web directories to be able to use some Javascript and CSS code from Symfony)

This page may be as well be helpful : http://trac.symfony-project.org/wiki/HostsSupportingSymfony

Answer 3

Kenneth, my company runs a Symfony 1.1 dev server on a shared hosting solution. It mostly just depends on what the host is willing to give you. There isn't a specific need for a dedicated solution, though our production servers ARE dedicated primarily because my company sends thousands of emails daily and it was the only option the host would allow with that scenario. When money is tight and you're first getting started, I'd personally start small and work up.

A word of warning--Symfony is by far the most bloated framework that I've ever seen. It takes 15 different steps on my company's site to render a page, and that results in crazy processing and delivery times for pages. So for starters a shared solution may work for you, but as you add users, it will likely bog down quite a bit. We're so unhappy with Symfony that after our latest release my team was deployed to re-write our solution to get rid of Symofony. Fun times!

Answer 4

I think ServerGrove is an excellent choice when it comes to Symfony. 80% of their very helpful blog posts are also about Symfony. These guys use Symfony and know it very well.