Drupal is a very beloved CMS (content management system). People like to use it because it’s both free and easy to use. It allows you to easily manage and publish content on your site, all from a centralized online interface. Because of this popularity you are likely to find many Drupal hosting companies.

But while searching for the right Drupal hosting company for your site you need to be careful, just like you would for any other web hosting search. You will want to look not only at the package size the host is offering, but their online reputation as well as their knowledge of Drupal. This is expecially crucial if you are a newer user, since you’ll be able to ask the host questions about the system.

The single most essential aspect is that since Drupal is written in PHP, you will need a hosting package that supports PHP. Fortunately almost every package out there does, so that shouldn’t be a problem. As far as web server type, you can use either IIS (known as Windows hosting) or Apache. Keep in mind that search engine friendly URLs typically work better in an Apache environment. Drupal also stores all of it’s data in a database, so your potential host will need to support either MySQL or PostgreSQL. It’s also recommended to look for a control panel, like cPanel. The control panel will make managing your files, database, emails and more much easier.

There are also a few different types of accounts you will find for your Drupal site. The most economical and basic is known as shared hosting. These packages are normally under $20/month and a great way to get your site started. With shared hosting you are sharing the server with other users, so it’s not a great choice for most established and busier site, or where uptime and performance is critical, like with an ecommerce site.

The other two types of hosting are intended for higher traffic or mission-critical sites like stores. Those choices are VPS hosting and dedicated servers. They work almost identically, with one major difference. With a dedicated server you are the only person on your server. You are free to do basically anything you want to do, as long as it isn’t against the hosts terms. You get very similar flexibility with VPS hosting, but while sharing a few with a few other users. Even though you’re sharing a server you get your own dedicated hosting environment and generally get dedicated resources to use as well. VPS hosting will also help you save money compared to a dedicated server.

When looking for Drupal hosting you don’t want to just think about what your site needs right now, but what it might need in the future. Finding a host that offers all of these options will allow you to create a great relationship with the host while using the package that your site needs.

Dallas writes about Drupal hosting and other related topics.