I'm currently in the process of learning PHP, Perl, and SQL... and I would like to find a good host to practice and implement my programming. Are there any hosts out there that stand out of the crowd for developers? I don't need much bandwidth or space, and my budget is modest: $10-$20 per month.

Any suggestions?

I would prefer that the suggested hosts be ones that I can actually search for here at WHT and find satisfied customers/reviews.

Thanks! :)

Generally, any host may be able to suit your needs. If PHP, Perl, and SQL is all you need, then almost any host here will be able to meet your needs.

My experience with clients is that usually if they want it for development, they may also ask for SSH. This is something which you have to see if you need added to the list as it will then eliminate more hosts as many do not wish to provide SSH.

The next thing is that you will want a host that's flexible to your needs. As a developer, you may need a tweak, an additional setting in php config, or perhaps some server side settings or software. Most of the bigger boys may not be willing to do it as they have thousands of clients and they are not about to customise to each and everyone.

Keep those considerations in mind. Ultimately, the better you can define your needs, the better you can find the host.

Good luck

I have being trying hosting53.com for about a week now. They have excellent customer support and are willing to change the php settings and answer all your questions.

They charge just £4.99 a month for 200mb space and 3Gb transfer. Their server's are in servInt too.

Highly Recommended :)

Just an added note that being flexible but compromising security is another. Make sure that the host really knows what they are doing. If not, they may tweak it for some other clients and make your site less secure. (Entirely possible) Just make sure you ask them the right questions.

For development and testing of PHP/MySQL programming then there is really no better server than your own computer. Just set up Apache/PHP/MySQL. You can install a ready made package containing all of that and more called PHPDEV:

http://firepages.com.au

You can be up and running in just a few minutes.

If it's just for design purposes, then having your own box is usually the best route to go. No cost on your end and fully accessable. As well as the added bonus of not having to deal with 3rd party issues.

All you need is an old Pentium box or someone's throwaway machine and set it up that way. :) Of course, if you're lacking experience in setting up the box, it might be more benefical to bring in a tech guy to help you now and then instead of having to worry about making changes yourself.

Of course, if you need internet connectivity on that box, then maybe a host would be your least expensive route. Granted uptime isn't so much an issue, you don't want a cheapo host screwing things up during devtime and making this difficult. :)