Hosting is discussed at the beginning of every website build. We can recommend a hosting provider; however, clients are more than welcome to explore other options as well. Before they can research hosting providers, it’s important they know the WordPress requirements.

To run WordPress your host needs a couple of things: 

1. PHP version 5.2.4 or greater

2. MySQL version 5.0 or greater

The following items are not required; however, their absence may result in decreased functionality:

1. Apache HTTPD Webserver

• mod_rewrite module enabled (for non-ugly URLs and 301 redirections)

2. PHP safe_mode disabled (required for automated upgrades and other features)

3. Desired PHP extensions enabled:

• php_curl – For making HTTP requests to external hosts (including reading RSS feeds)
• php_gd2 – For image manipulation features
• php_mbstring – For manipulation of text needed by some plugins and features

4. Write permissions for the web server user to the web root, or at a bare minimum the /wp-content folder (and all its sub-folders)

 If you are interested in learning more about the WordPress platform requirements, email me at alicia@checkerboard.com!