Hosting for Magento
Hosting for Magento means placing a website management system with wide functionality on the server. Today, this CMS is one of the leaders in its field. It is written in PHP and uses relational databases. Most often, Magento is used as a platform for creating online stores. There are both paid and free versions of this software, which are not supported by the developer but are expanded by its community.
Benefits of Magento
Hosted Magento has a responsive design, which will save time browsing the store from any device, but this is just a nice bonus compared to other advantages of this engine:
- Lots of built-in features. Out-of-the-box functionality more than covers the capabilities of any eCommerce platform. This includes multilingualism, multicurrency, cost calculation taking into account discounts and coupons, a system of various reports and analytics, and a number of other standard functions related to the product card and the purchase process that are inherent in any modern store.
- Several shops in one. Web hosting with Magento allows you to create several different stores at once, and then manage them from one common admin panel. This is a significant advantage in the eyes of big business.
- Wide range of pricing options. It is worth noting this point separately because almost the entire range of actions with prices is available out of the box. It can be temporary changes in prices, loyalty programs for regular customers, various promotions on goods, and much more that will make your store more popular and increase sales.
- Access level policy. Another step towards large clients is a pre-installed access rights differentiation system that allows you to configure access with different levels of rules for developers, accountants, managers, etc.
- SEO optimization. In addition to the usual features like XML sitemap and meta tags, Magento allows you to optimize every store page.
- Code availability. The wide functionality of the engine is complemented by PHP and HTML code, which is open for editing, which will make the store setup even more detailed.
- Detailed analytics. Another sign of a focus on serious business is detailed reports on the behavior of visitors and events related to products so that the manager can analyze every detail and optimize all processes for maximum benefit.
What is hosting?
We are sometimes approached with the following question: "We have a website on your Magento host. The site has stopped showing! What should I do?" As a result, we have to explain that Magento is a content management system, and this has nothing to do with hosting. In such cases, we usually recommend looking at the DNS records of the domain and using them to find out who the hosting service provider is. So what is website hosting?
Hosting for Magento is a service for placing information on a server, which is usually located on the Internet. Hosting is also called the installation of client equipment in the provider's area with its connection to high-speed communication channels with high bandwidth.
Magento hosting solution must have the appropriate software to process requests for files. The main hosting services are mail space, DNS, file storage on the server, and database storage, as well as support functions for related services. However, hosting for files, e-mail, and databases is not always included in the complex service, sometimes it will have to be purchased separately.
When choosing a Magento hosting provider you need to pay attention to the operating system, whether it is suitable for your software, the amount of disk space provided for storing your files on the server, the amount of traffic per month, the number of databases, domains, and websites that you can place on one account. Also pay attention to the number of mailboxes that you can host on the server and the amount of their disk space, the number of possible FTP users, the size of RAM and processes for simultaneous use by one user, the throughput of information exchange channels, etc. Some providers limit only disk space, which makes it much easier for users to work with their websites.
Terms often used by Magento hosting providers:
- MySQL is a free database management system (DBMS). It is owned by Oracle Corporation, which was obtained together with Sun Microsystems, which develops websites and applications. MySQL exists for building small websites and applications.
- PHP is a hypertext preprocessor (originally called Personal Home Page Tools). Tool for creating web pages. A programming language that is used to develop applications. The leader among programming languages, supported by most hosting providers, used to create dynamic websites. However, this project is not compatible with the GNU GPL.
- VPS (Virtual Private Server). This service provides a kind of Virtual Server for the user. Here the user will be able to create versions of libraries themself or change those that already exist. It is possible to change any files on the server, even files in the root and service directories.
How to choose the right hosting for Magento?
Magento web hosting is considered an important factor that will affect the performance of the website. For an online store, good performance is vital, because a comfortable user experience directly depends on it. From a customer's point of view, product pages must load as quickly as possible.
The security of the website on Magento also depends on the hosting. You need to choose it based on the goals of the business and the current tasks that have to be solved. The problem of choosing the best hosting for Magento is approached not only by developers but also by business owners because they are directly interested in improving the user experience for their customers.
The quality of web hosting for Magento depends on the following technical aspects:
- Performance. It directly depends on the power of the processor and the ability to simultaneously process different tasks. If the processor is loaded no more than 50%, there is a sufficient margin of safety for force majeure.
- Bandwidth. This is the name of the limit of transmitted information per unit of time. The minimum allowable rate is one hundred megabits per second. But in this case, the more, the better. You should always be ready to increase the influx of users.
- RAM. Magento 2 hosting requirements increase as technology advances and more powerful devices become available. If earlier RAM with a capacity of 2 GB was considered the norm for hosting, now this may turn out to be critically small.
- The disk where the data is stored. Previously, in the absence of an alternative, hostings massively used the usual hard drives, but now they are being massively replaced with faster SSDs. A significant disadvantage of SSD is “sudden death”. When the disk runs out of resources, all data is lost, so you have to create backups periodically.
- Uninterrupted work. Another factor that determines the availability of the website. Agree, it's great when your website is available to visitors at any time. The indicator of uninterrupted operation of the website is called uptime. This metric is a percentage of how long the server has been up.
- Safety and reliability. The selected Magento hosting provider must have developed DDoS protection algorithms. Since each attack is unique, prompt professional technical support is important, which quickly identifies and manually fights DDoS.
How to transfer Magento from one hosting to another?
To transfer to another Magento hosting provider, you first need to create a backup copy. Not all directories can be added to the archive to make it less voluminous. Not all directories contain valuable data. The smaller the Magento archive, the faster and more convenient it will be to work with it in the future. After that, a database dump is created (directly through the console or in other ways). Then a new server is prepared, on which a directory tree, a database, and its user are created.
At the next stage of transferring Magento to hosting, the dump and archive are moved to the future server. To do this, use the FTP protocol or other options. There are many ways to transfer files, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The Magento directory is unpacked into a new folder on the server. All required attributes are checked and set. Then the database dump is imported. This can be done directly through the console or in other ways. The variability is quite large, and this often confuses beginners, who find it difficult to choose the most convenient and suitable method for themselves.
Now, to install CMS on the best Magento hosting, you need to update the database connection settings in the file with the XML extension. The email address is also updated in a special table if you need to change the domain name. If you did not remove the extra directories from the archive at the very beginning, then you can do this at the end.
The finishing touch is the execution of a complex command to reindex data. If everything was done correctly, the procedure for transferring Magento to a new hosting can be considered complete. If the website does not open or does not work correctly, you need to carefully check all of the above steps to find an error. The reasons may be different, but experienced professionals from Brander usually find them quickly. We are ready to provide various services related to Magento. This CMS is quite complicated for beginners, but our experts will help you figure it out and fully reveal all the advantages of this tool for doing business.
