Hosting requirements?

I'm getting ready to build my 1st website for my games. Can anybody tell me what the minimum requirements are? I have a domain name registered, but I'm not quite sure what I need out of a host to make sure that I can A) put my games up & B) make money from ads, sponsorship, sales, etc.

I read somewhere that tumblr is a good free option, but I haven't actually seen any games on it. What about using tumblr as a placeholder for my info while I look for a real host? Would I be able to just pop in, use it for a few days, & then easily transfer the name to a new site?

Why not use somthing like GameJolt? Perhaps create your own website and have a link that points to Gamejolt directly.

Or if you are into donations and such you can use itch.io?

Hey that's a good idea.

I'll probably need an actual website sooner or later, though...I do a lot of experiments. Is there anything I should look out for while shopping for a host for my site?

I don't know much about the subject itself.

However, I found pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2424725,00.asp this. While it is an old article, you can check out the general information of how they compare things and read the comments then use that information to apply to current companies?

They give 5 GB free bandwidth: http://vlexofree.com/

5 gigabytes / 2 megabytes = 2500 plays a month.

You can increase that to 25,000 plays a month if you host your game on dropbox, as I do.

Here's an example of how I do it: http://usiga.vlexofree.com/game1.php

Hostgator is a mediocre low cost web host, you could also try them.

Currently using media temple for my primary website though.

ryackov 5gb? Wow. That's pretty awful. No offense. :/ Not with competitors like 000Webhost (http://www.000webhost.com/). Used them a couple years. The only reason they took my site down was because I had botting tools for some old game up there. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink"> Otherwise they had served me well as an excellent free host, and you can't beat 100GB per month bandwidth.

If you're looking for a paid host, I've never used a better service than Byethost (who I buy through their reseller https://ifastnet.com/). They provide amazing tech support, consistent up-time, and plenty for your $$$, when I went on a hosting comparison spree. They also have a free hosting plan, and helped me downgrade from VPS to just regular ol' hosting a little while back.

And last I heard they still haven't been bought out by the hellish EIG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_ ... onal_Group) who are renown for buying out hosts and turning them into money farms to support their investors rather than customers. I'm not putting that any lighter.

It's not that bad, not many webhosts offer PHP. Besides, I use them in conjunction with drop box, so each visit consumes only 10 kilobytes, very manageable.

ryackov not many? Both Byet and 000Webhost offer PHP in addition to that large bandwidth, even x10 offers PHP with their free package.

I mean, granted, using Dropbox hosting is a great idea, but I'll still stick to my opinion that 5GB bandwidth is nothin'. I'd rather signup under one of these if I had the choice and simply not have to worry. :p

Noob question: what's the deal with PHP? Is it important to games?

ryackov not many? Both Byet and 000Webhost offer PHP in addition to that large bandwidth, even x10 offers PHP with their free package.

I mean, granted, using Dropbox hosting is a great idea, but I'll still stick to my opinion that 5GB bandwidth is nothin'. I'd rather signup under one of these if I had the choice and simply not have to worry. :p

000Webhost literally only offers PHP.

And many free webhosts tend to be dishonest, throttling you once you approach a cap.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother posting questions.....

Noob question: what's the deal with PHP? Is it important to games?

Sorry for missing your question.

PHP helps with website design. I use it for my website to insert links at the bottom of a page, it's better than iframes. Some tutorials on scirra even mention php to store high scores.

I only suggested vlexofree because I had a good experience with the administration they have. It's very high quality for a free website. Pair it with a short domain and cloudflare (free CDN), and you'd have half decent bandwidth.

Noob question: what's the deal with PHP? Is it important to games?

I'll try and give the Cliff Notes answer for this -

First off I don't know what ryackov meant when he said not many hosts support PHP, I've never seen a host that doesn't; there's the odd one the wont let you use some PHP functions, but these are just guys in their garage; any decent webhost has PHP.

As to what PHP is, well there's two types of websites, static and dynamic; static sites are exclusively written in HTML, and dynamic sites use PHP. The most common use of PHP is to either retrieve or submit information to a database server; and the most prevalent example of this e-mail forms.

As for whether you need it, you will, but I wouldn't bother looking for it, everywhere will offer it.