Looking for a dynamic host

Webweaving
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I’ve looked at the resources list on here and the hosts it lists, but I am looking for more detailed reviews/recommendations. I like neocities, but I am looking for a host that allows php or some way to dynamically add content in an html file (eg. inserting a navigation across all pages). I’ve only done static coding, so apologies if I am getting things confused.

Anyways I was wondering which dynamic hosts you all use and why? Ones you really like, ones you suggest I avoid?

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The only active free dynamic website hosting service I am aware of is InfinityFree, and I was the one who added it to the 32-Bit Cafe resource list. My tumbleblog, which is powered by the PHP blogging engine Chyrp Lite (which I had also added to the resource list), and my fanlisting collective were originally hosted on InfinityFree. There used to be 000webhost that also provided dynamic hosting, but it has closed.

My review of InfinityFree is that it is decent for beginners of PHP, MySQL and dynamic hosting as it allows for trying out these technologies for free, with the added bonus of supporting the use of custom domain names without needing to spend extra money. I did get my start in learning to use PHP and .htaccess from InfinityFree.

However, as you may expect from a free host, InfinityFree’s free hosting has limitations; namely, InfinityFree places their own security measures on their free websites to ensure only regular browsers can access these websites. While it is understandable to apply these security measures on free websites to prevent abuse, it can be a dealbreaker depending on your needs.

In my case, the thing that frustrated me the most about InfinityFree’s security system on their free websites blocks feed readers from reading feeds from their websites. Chyrp Lite has the option to provide blog feeds, but I had to use Feedburner to proxy my tumbleblog’s feeds to get around InfinityFree’s security system.

Since late July, I have migrated all my websites, both static and dynamic, to Hostinger, specifically its Premium web hosting plan, and I am very satisfied with it. Hostinger’s Premium web hosting is jam-packed with many features, including the ability to create up to 100 websites, 100 GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited MySQL databases, free email accounts, unlimited FTP accounts, built-in Git support, etc., while being offered an affordable price, especially if you registered for one of their year-long plans.

Even better, Hostinger offers regional pricing available for many countries, which is a godsend for people like me who live in one of the available countries with weaker currencies than US Dollars. I live in Malaysia and signed up for Hostinger’s 48 months Premium web hosting plan on the hostinger.my domain, and it is absolutely worth it.

Worth noting that Hostinger uses LiteSpeed web server, which is a drop-in replacement for Apache, so Hostinger supports .htaccess, and I use .htaccess to configure my websites’ behaviour too.

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I also really like Hostinger, but rather than repeat the technical benefits, I’ll mention that I like their control panel quite a bit. It is pretty straightforward to navigate. Mainly what I like most about it, and why I left what is a pretty good host too, Dreamhost is that hostinger isn’t cluttering the start page with specials and offers. While I quite liked Dreamhost, this started to wear on me that I was having offers thrown at me after signing up for a paid hosting plan. I know it is part of the business, but it was off putting.

Finally, I’ll recommend you stay away from NameCheap’s shared hosting tier. While it is basically cPanel (a popular web hosting control panel often licensed by hosting companies) NameCheap has rather deliberately removed the ability to generate free SSL certificates from it, something that is available by default in an installation of cPanel.

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I’ve been using Nearly Free Speech for a few reasons:

  1. They have a pay-for-what-you-use pricing plan. Instead of a monthly fee, you deposit money into your account as needed. This covers hosting and domain registrations.
  2. They use Apache2 on FreeBSD, so they’re reliable, and they support PHP and MySQL. You can also use server-side includes (SSI) and modify your .htaccess file.
  3. They give you access to your directory using SSH and SFTP, so you can build locally and push with rsync.
  4. They’re very much for people who speak UNIX, and they’re relatively cheap because they expect users to be able to read FAQs and search their forum and they charge extra for tech support from their own staff.
  5. While they won’t boot Nazis off their platform unless the stuff they post is illegal under US law, they’ll take money from Nazis and donate it to anti-Nazi organizations. They call it “Morons Funding the Fight Against Morons”.
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Thank you @Leilukin @zepp and @starbreaker! These were all very helpful answers!

I appreciate the info of why you added infinityfree to the resources Leilukin, and including that their security messing with RSS readers is why you switched. I’ll have to look into hostinger too since that was not one I came across

Thanks in particular for the warning against namecheep Zepp! Odd that they would remove the free ssl certificates :frowning:

I looked a lot into NFS so I appreciate the relevant summary Starbreaker. I like that they’ve been a host since 2002 and their frank stance on things, but I am not yet someone who speaks unix :pensive: (this does not remove it from my considerations, just a hesitancy on my part)

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Oh yeah, thank you for bringing up Hostinger’s control panel, since they use their own custom control panel named hPanel, with the goal of simplifying and streamlining website and web hosting management, and I agree that their control panel is pretty straightforward to navigate.

You’re welcome. I didn’t add Hostinger to the resource list because it doesn’t have a free plan, and 32-Bit Cafe’s resource list only lists web hosting services that are available for free or at least offering free plans.

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I do not intend to derail this topic but for years it’s been weird to me that serverside stuff like PHP is not offered by many smallweb-adjacent hosts. I’d never even heard of a static site generator until I took an interest in Neocities and the like.

Why leave it out? It makes building websites so much easier, it gives you so many more options - and realistically it won’t tax the servers appreciably more than entirely static content. Probably less, with all the big fat JS stuff that could be handled by tiny helpings of PHP.

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I figure that if a host offered PHP, people might then want database access and they might not know about or be content with SQLite. There might be security and liability issues to consider, too.

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I don’t mind the tangent ^^ infact it gives me a little perspective on php, it’s nice to know it shouldn’t be much more resource intensive than static

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We can easily add a new section. It’ll be good to have recommendations for paid options as well!

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low-cost works, too! i think the goal was just to have it be attainable hosting to the layperson or someone who’s just getting started in the hobby. so not really wanting to pay $15+/mo for hosting alone.

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We should maintain a list of recommended low cost hosts that offer shared and VPS hosting for people who don’t mind paying. I understand there’s a particular group “EIG” and their subsidiaries that has a general “avoid” consensus across the net.

I think @bytemoth has a list on their website we could start with.

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Thank you for your suggestion. I have added a paid webhost section to the 32-Bit Cafe resource list.

I noticed that 32-Bit Cafe’s “Creating Your Own Website” tutorial has a small list of paid webhosts, so I added the hosting services listed there as well.

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thank you for doing that!!!

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