In this post, I will highlight some of the best XenForo hosting companies that have been tried, tested, and trusted by many of my clients. As a seasoned XenForo developer, I also manage various boards on monthly contracts for forum maintenance, each with different statistics.
Many hosts and service providers offer XenForo hosting services on different platforms. However, it’s crucial to consider how specific software performs on those servers. For instance, while some hosting companies excel with WordPress, they might not have the expertise to handle XenForo effectively. Therefore, our focus is to identify the hosts that provide the best XenForo hosting services. A top-notch WordPress host may not necessarily be the best choice for XenForo, and that’s a key point to remember.
Let’s dive in and discuss the important factors to consider when choosing a host for your XenForo forum.
Choosing the best hosting for Xenforo
If this is your first time searching for a web host or the best XenForo hosting and you’re not familiar with the technical details (which many of us aren’t), I highly recommend reading this section thoroughly. It will provide you with valuable insights and help you make an informed decision. However, if you’re already knowledgeable about hosting requirements and want to get straight to the recommendations, feel free to skip ahead to the list of hosting companies that I believe are the best for XenForo.
When searching for hosting companies, you’ll often see paid ads at the top, followed by SEO-optimized recommendations. Once you visit a host’s website, another confusion arises: should you choose Shared, VPS, Dedicated, or Cloud hosting? In this post, I’ll address these two main confusions and help you choose the best XenForo hosting.
1: Choosing the Right Type of Xenforo Hosting
Xenforo Shared hosting is ideal for new and entry-level xenforo forums. In this setup, your forum shares server resources with several other forums. You’ll receive a separate cPanel account, allowing you to upload files, create databases, and manage your community. If you’re launching a new xenforo forum that won’t have many visitors initially, shared hosting is a great option to consider
In Xenforo VPS hosting, each client is allocated a specific amount of space on the server, sharing physical space with other clients but having fixed resources and space dedicated to your forum. This provides more control over your server. VPS hosting is perfect for mid-sized forums. If your XenForo forum has thousands of members and you want to avoid the hassle of server management and other technical details, Managed VPS hosting is a great choice. However, it is more expensive compared to shared hosting.
In dedicated hosting for xenforo, you rent an entire server exclusively for your forum. This means you have complete control over all server resources and extensions, with no sharing involved. Dedicated hosting is ideal for forums with high traffic and a large user base. However, you will need technical expertise or the services of a server manager to handle software installations, firewalls, and other server management tasks. While dedicated hosting provides superior performance and control, it comes at a higher cost.
Cloud hosting is becoming increasingly popular. It involves multiple computers working together to run applications and share combined resources. This setup ensures that your xenforo forum never goes down, as resources can be allocated as needed without requiring you to build and maintain the infrastructure. Cloud hosting is scalable, meaning you pay only for the amount of space and resources you use. This flexibility makes it suitable for websites of any size.
2: Choosing the best Xenforo hosting provider
When searching for a xenforo host, various factors come into play, each differing based on individual needs. A board admin planning to create a new community using XenForo typically has a limited budget and aims to minimize costs. This is feasible because XenForo generally performs reliably unless mishandled or its core files are modified.
In contrast, administrators of established forums with thousands of members must consider numerous factors when finding best host for xenforo. To discuss the details of each factor involved, I have compared several cost-raising factors in hosting and those that should not be compromised.
1: Pricing
- Shared web hosting typically ranges from $2 to $10 per month for basic plans, while more feature-rich options can go up to $24 per month. Hosting a single XenForo website on shared hosting can cost around $3 per month with a reputable provider.
- VPS hosting prices generally start from $20 to $80 per month for standard configurations. More advanced VPS setups with higher resources can cost up to $170 per month or more.
- Dedicated servers are more expensive, with prices starting from $80 to $150 per month for basic configurations. More powerful dedicated servers with extensive resources and management options can range from $150 to $500 per month or higher.
Note: These prices can vary based on the xenforo hosting provider, server specifications, additional services included, and current market conditions.
2: Support
Whenever you choose a host consider those that you can reach out quickly whenever some issue arises. Online chat system should be very good and they should not put you in long queues waiting for turn. I have had great experience with the hosts who have implemented online chat systems because they resolve problems quickly. So this point should be considered.
3: Security:
When choosing from best xenforo hosting companies security should be considered. Make sure to read about the support they provide and how secure your websites and domains are when hosted on their servers. Forum databases sell very high in the black markets and attacks are very common.
4: Speed:
Speed being one of the primary SEO factor should be taken into account when choosing a host. A cheap host with alot of websites on a shared servers slows down forums and should be avoided. Try to make your online forum or website robust by choosing best host even if it costs a dollar higher.
5: Disk space:
Disk space is not an important factor if you are going to launch a new xenforo forum. Also you can add up more space later on. Initially try to get hosting that can accommodate your forum and all its content and as you grow buy more space.
6: Technology:
Windows or Linux Xenforo hosting? Nginx or Apache? For Xenforo Apache or Nginx with Linux hosting is recommended and it has been used by many webmasters without complaints. So i would recommend this.
7: Bandwidth:
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data your website can transfer to users within a given time, typically measured in gigabytes. Initially, if your forum has few users, you can compromise on bandwidth. However, for established forums with higher traffic, accurately calculating bandwidth needs is crucial. You can use resources like this post to determine and manage your bandwidth requirements effectively.
XenForo Hosting requirements
I think we’ve covered a lot about hosting and common terminologies, and it might be getting a bit boring now :). Let’s move straight to what XenForo recommends and what are xenforo hosting requirements for Xenforo v2.2+.
- PHP 7.0 or newer (PHP 8.2 recommended)
- MySQL 5.5 and newer (Also compatible with MariaDB/Percona etc.)
- PHP extensions: MySQLi, GD (with JPEG support), PCRE, SPL, SimpleXML, DOM, JSON, iconv, ctype, cURL
- Enhanced Search requires at least Elasticsearch 2.0.
Now that you have enough information about hosting, below are the companies that I recommend. Please note that the paragraph below contains affiliate links. You can go through each host one by one via Google search or make a purchase directly from these recommended hosting providers. Using the links below may grant you a discount from the host, and I will receive a small commission with your purchase.
Recommended Xenforo hosting companies
If you have any issue with the above mentioned links or want to report those hosting companies, contact me. I will keep updating the list with new and better web hosts.
If you need professional xenforo development or installation services you can contact me.