WS.WebTV Professional Video CMS: Hosting Requirements (PHP, MySQL, FFmpeg, etc.) | Web TV, Video Portal | WebTV Solutions

Hosting Requirements and References

Don't understand technical aspects about hostings/servers?
... No problem, we can help you.

Although below you'll find the full list of technical requirements for hosting WS.WebTV, if you don't understand these kind of technical aspects, we can help you choosing a hosting plan.

Do you understand technical aspects?
... Here are the requirements for installing WS.WebTV in your server + list of tried hosting plans

Any shared hosting, VPS or dedicated server with the following features:

• Active Web server (1) (accessible from a Web browser).
• PHP version 5.4 or greater (compatible with PHP 7.x)- PHP 5.5 or greater recommended - (with "mysqli", "gd" and "xml" extensions enabled - these extensions are normally enabled on most servers).
• MySQL version: 5 or greater, with InnoDB storage engine enabled.
• Varnish incompatibility: Since WS.WebTV relies on PHP sessions, it won't work fine if Varnish is enabled in your server.
• We do not recommend installing WS.WebTV on Windows hostings/servers based on IIS (Internet Information Services).

Additionally, your server must:
• Allow you to modify the following PHP settings (normally, from .user.ini, php.ini or .htaccess file), according to your needs:
    max_execution_time
    max_input_time
    upload_max_size
    post_max_size
• Have the PUT verb/method enabled.
• Have the PHP Multibyte String functions (mbstring) enabled for full UTF-8 support (these are normally enabled by default on most hosting).
• Have the PHP cURL functions enabled. This is required for several functions like uploading videos or images to AWS S3 (4), use the PayPal integration of the "Store" extension, launch asynchronous processes, etc.

Other feature-specific requirements:
• Apache mod_rewrite (.htaccess editing required) for advanced friendly URL support (standard friendly URLs are supported without any special requirement). Please note that we only provide rewrite rules for Apache based servers.
• The PHP OpenSSL extension (with AES-256-CBC cipher) is required for data encryption and for using the Amazon CloudFront signed URLs with the StreamClip extension.
• The PHP Exif functions are required by certain image-related features (like detecting image orientation, etc.).
• The PHP FTP functions are required if you want the WebTV to upload the video or image files to an extrenal server, by using FTP (4).
• The PHP option "allow_url_fopen" must be enabled in order for the WebTV to access remote files; for example, to download images from YouTube or Vimeo when using a specific feature of the "EmbedClip" extension.

Specific requirements for video compression (WS.WebTV 1.4.2+):
• The PHP function "shell_exec" must be enabled.
• FFmpeg 1.2 or higher with:
    » H.264 Video compression library: libx264.
    » AAC audio compression library; any of the following: libfaac, lifaad, libvo_aacenc, libfdk_aac, aac (internal AAC encoder included in recent versions of FFmpeg) or similar.
Note, regarding FFmpeg support: WS.WebTV includes general purpose compression profiles. We will not offer technical support for anything related with the adjustment of the compression profiles. The client will have access to the profiles and will be able to adjust them according to its needs and by checking the FFmpeg online documentation.

Generally speaking: Regarding servers with Linux + Plesk Onyx or cPanel&WHM 64+
For your reference, and to make it easier for you to find a hosting plan, it is worth mentioning that a "Cloud", "VPS" or "Dedicated" server with Linux 64-bit operating system (like "CentOS"), and a control panel like "Plesk Onyx" or "cPanel&WHM" version 64+ (with PHP-FPM and EasyApache 4) should should allow you to meet all minimum requirements in order to use all WS.WebTV features. Anyway, if your server meets the requirements detailed above then those control panels are not required, but we wanted to include this highlight due to the popularity of the aforementioned server configurations.

For more info, check out the installation tutorial.

References: List of tried hosting plans

Below you will find a list of hosting services where WS.WebTV has been installed (by us and by our clients) (2).

Testing methodology:
In order for us to include a service/plan as "OK" in the followinf list we:
- Install WS.WebTV following the standard procedure.
- Use the diagnostics tool to check if all PHP basic settings and extensions are OK.
- Try creating a Standard Clip and uploading a 794MB video file (it must succeed).
- If FFmpeg is available in the server, or if we succeeded in installing it, then we try creating an Auto-Encoding Clip and processing it (it must succeed). If the previous test fails, the service/plan may still be "OK" but the FFmpeg column will display "No". If the test succeeds, the "FFmpeg" column will display "Yes".

Featured hosting services/plans

Disclaimer: The following references have been "featured" because they have worked fine with WS.WebTV. Additionally, we may be enrolled in a referral/affiliation/exchange program with the corresponding company. In the case of been enrolled in an affiliate program, we may earn a sales commission from them. Note that, other than the previous, WebTV Solutions is not related in any other way with hosting companies and the service selection decision is totally up to you.

Provider	Tested Plan	FFmpeg	Notes
EUKHost (UK)
EUKHost (UK)	VPS, Linux (Plesk): "vLite", "Starter", "Standard", "Enterprise"	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: "Enterprise" Jan. 2018 / "Standard" Jun. 2017
	Dedicado, Linux (WHM/cPanel)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jan. 2019.
	Dedicated, Linux (Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: N/A
FutureHosting (USA)
FutureHosting (USA)	VPS, Linux	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Aug. 2016
GlowHost (USA)
GlowHost (USA)	"Elastic Sites", Linux (cPanel): "Start Up", "Buckle Up", "Turnt Up"	Yes	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTES: - We recommend changing the WebTV temporary video upload location (ask for more info). - According to the provider, the following plans should work fine: Shared (Personal & Professional Only), Reseller, Elastic Sites, Semi Dedicated, Cloud VDS, Enterprise Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Servers. Last verification: Jul. 2018
HostUpon (USA)
HostUpon (USA)	Shared, Linux "Premium Unlimited"	Yes	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: The server storage system is slow. Last verification: Jan. 2016
Installffmpeg.com (India)
Installffmpeg.com (India)	Shared, Linux (cPanel) "Advanced"	Yes	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTES: ModSecurity must be disabled (from cPanel). Last verification: Jul. 2018
Limestone Networks (USA)
Limestone Networks (USA)	Dedicated, Linux (cPanel) "Xeon E3-1270"	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Dec. 2015
Liquid Web (USA)
Liquid Web (USA)	Dedicated, Linux "Managed"	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: In order to upload big video files, the client had to contact the hosting company tech support, to adjust some PHP limits, as well as increasing the server's temporary folder size (originally set at 485MB). After hosting company assistance, no problems have been reported so far. Last verification: May. 2014

Other hosting services/plans

Provider	Tested Plan	FFmpeg	Notes
1&1 (USA/Spain)
1&1 (USA/Spain)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Although the max_input_time value can be set to a high number, there is an upload time limitation of 10 minutes imposed by the server.
	Dedicated, Linux "Server L 2 Managed"	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation, etc.: (3) • This provider, on managed servers, imposes configuration restrictions which limit the size of the uploaded files. For example, users have reported problems uploading files bigger than 500MB. • Since SSH is not available on managed servers from this provider, it is not possible to install FFmpeg.
	Dedicated, Linux "Server L4" (Linux, CentOS 6 + Plesk 12.5 64-bit)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Oct. 2016
	Dedicated, Linux "1and1 Cloud Server XXL" (4vCores, 8GB RAM, 160GB + CentOS7/Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jul. 2017
10Gbps.io (UK)
10Gbps.io (UK)	Dedicated, Linux "1U" (1x Intel Quad-Core Xeon E3-12303, 16GB RAM + cPanel/WHM)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Aug. 2016
1freehosting.com (USA?)
1freehosting.com (USA?)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended / Won't work.
Abansys / Hostytec (Spain)
Abansys / Hostytec (Spain)	Cloud, Linux "Servidor Cloud 2GB"	Yes 6	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Problem uploading files bigger than 200MB.
	Cloud, Linux "Servidor Cloud 4GB"	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Feb. 2016
Active24 (Czech Rep.)
Active24 (Czech Rep.)	VPS, Linux "VMS Standard"	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
Afrihost (Africa)
Afrihost (Africa)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) • 60 seconds upload time limitation (max_input_time), per file. • 30 seconds max execution time limitation (max_execution_time). • 2MB upload file size limitation (upload_max_filesize), per file.
Amazon EC2 (USA)
Amazon EC2 (USA)	Dedicated, "m4.large" instance (Xeon E5-2676 v3 + CentOS 7 64bit Linux + cPanel/WHM)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: The server's temporary folder (/tmp) has a predefined size constraint (approx.. 450MB). This limit will condition the maximum size of the files uploaded to the server (which can't never be bigger than the available space on that folder, at any given moment). The solution to the previous would be to remove the size constraint of that folder. Last verification: Jun. 2017
amen.fr (France)
amen.fr (France)	Shared, Linux "Advanced"	No	(!) Not recommended / Won't work fine. Big file upload issues. Very slow.
AptHost (USA)
AptHost (USA)	Shared, Linux "APT-SH 10, FFmpeg"	No*	(OK) No problems reported so far *FFmpeg: The version offered by this provider is too old (0.6). FFmpeg 1.2 or higher is required for WS.WebTV. Last verification: Mar. 2014
Aruba.it (Italia)
Aruba.it (Italia)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitations: (3) • 60 seconds upload time limitation (max_input_time), per file. This implies that, with a 1Mbps upload Internet connection speed, you will barely be able to upload a 5MB file. • 30MB upload file size limitation (post_max_size), per file.
Atlantic.net (USA)
Atlantic.net (USA)	VPS, Linux (zPanel)	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Feb. 2014
Bluehost (USA)
Bluehost (USA)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Might not work correctly
	VPS, Linux "Ultimate" (WHM/cPanel)	Sí 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jan. 2018
BounceWeb (USA)
BounceWeb (USA)	Shared, Linux "Unlimited/FFmpeg"	Yes	(!) Not recommended. This service has important memory usage restrictions, which cause frequent internal server errors (Error 500).
CDmon (Spain)
CDmon (Spain)	Virtual, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitations: (3) • 30 seconds upload time limitation (even after modifying max_input_time value of PHP). Files which takes longer than 30 seconds to upload will fail. • 10 seconds execution time limitation (max_execution_time). This will be a problem if you plan to upload videos to external servers or if you need to perform long batch actions, etc.
D4FR (France)
D4FR (France)	Shared, Linux "PERSO"	No	(!) Not recommended. This service has important usage restrictions, including impossibility to adjust PHP settings, problems with PHP sessions, etc. Last verification: Mar. 2019
dedicados.com.mx (Mexico)
dedicados.com.mx (Mexico)	VPS, Linux	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Mar. 2014
Dinahosting (Spain)
Dinahosting (Spain)	Shared, Windows	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) 20MB-per-file upload limit (POST), imposed by Dinahosting, on shared hosting plans.
	Dedicated, Linux	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jan. 2014
DreamHost (USA)
DreamHost (USA)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitations: (3) • 500 seconds (8.3min) upload time limitation (max_input_time), per file. • 64MB upload file size limitation (post_max_size), per file.
	VPS, Linux	Sí 6	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitations: (3) • 32MB upload file size limitation, per file.
EUKHost (UK)
EUKHost (UK)	Shared, Linux (cPanel Web Hosting)	No	(!) Not recommended / Won't work fine: • PHP FTP functions are disabled; therefore the WebTV will not be able to upload files to external servers (using FTP). • Can't enter HTML in textfield because of strict server security settings.
EUserv (Germany)
EUserv (Germany)	Dedicado, Linux (Prime64 M32 v5)	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
FDC Servers (USA)
FDC Servers (USA)	Dedicated, Linux ("Bargain Server" 2/3)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far
First Online (Malaysia)
First Online (Malaysia)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended / Won't work.
Gigas (Spain/USA)
Gigas (Spain/USA)	VPS, Linux (Cloud VPS: nova, pro and élite, Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far
GoDaddy (USA)
GoDaddy (USA)	Shared, Windows/IIS 7	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) We were not able to upload files greater than 14MB.
	Shared, Linux (4GH Ultimate)	No	(!) Not recommended. Won't work fine. FTP connection from PHP ( ftp_connect() ) is limited; therefore the WebTV will not be able to upload files to an external server. NOTE: The previous limitations does not appear to be on VPS or dedicated servers.
	Managed VPS, Linux	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: It was necessary to compile FFmpeg from its source files/packages (additional service). Last verification: Jun. 2017
GreenGeeks (USA)
GreenGeeks (USA)	Shared, Linux (EcoSite Premium)	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) 64MB-per-file upload limit (POST).
Heart Internet (UK)
Heart Internet (UK)	Shared, Linux (Home Pro)	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Approx. 128MB-per-file upload limit (POST). Last verification: Apr. 2017
	Shared, Linux (Business Pro)	No	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Nov. 2017
	VPS, Linux (Base)	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
HostGator (USA)
HostGator (USA)	Shared, Linux "Baby"	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) 64MB-per-file upload limit (POST), imposed by HostGator on the tested hosting plan. Hosting plan limits: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/cpanel/php-settings-that-cannot-be-changed
	VPS, Linux "Snappy 8000" (WHM/cPanel)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far
HostMonster (USA)
HostMonster (USA)	VPS, Linux "Standard"	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: It will be necessary to increase the size of /tmp folder and to create a cron job for deleteing old /tmp/fcgid.tmp.* files.
Inetweb (Chile)
Inetweb (Chile)	Shared, Linux "Plan 1000"	No	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jul. 2013
InMotion (USA)
InMotion (USA)	VPS, Linux "VPS-#000HA-S"	No*	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation + FFmpeg execution issues Problem uploading big files. *FFmpeg: Although FFmpeg is included, it could not be executed successfully through PHP: the same encoding commands worked fine on shell/SSH but not through PHP's shell_exec() due to memory allocation issues and more.
LCN (UK)
LCN (UK)	Shared, Linux "Multisite"	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Limits on shared hosting plans: Execution time limit (60s), input time limit (50s), file size upload limit (32MB).
myhosting.com
myhosting.com	VPS, Linux "LAMP VPS"	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
NetworkPanda (UK)
NetworkPanda (UK)	Shared, Linux "Reseller Medium", "Reseller Plus"	No*	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Problem uploading files bigger than 64MB. *FFmpeg: The version offered by this provider is too old (0.6.5). FFmpeg 1.2 or higher is required for WS.WebTV.
Network Solutions (USA)
Network Solutions (USA)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Might not work correctly
Nominalia (Spain)
Nominalia (Spain)	Shared, Linux	No	• When using the FTP upload feature for external video storage, it is necessary to use the FTP Active mode in order to upload video files correctly. • Some clients have had sporadic problems regarding size limitations of the video files beign uploaded; however, on recent tests it has been possible to upload successfully video files larger than 50MB. In case problems arise, a manual-upload workaround can be used to overcome any limitation with problematic files. • 100,000 MySQL queries per hour limit.
	Dedicated, Windows	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
Online (France)
Online (France)	Dedicated, Linux "Dedibox ENT" (Xeon E5 2620 v4 + Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: May. 2017
	Dedicated, Linux "Dedibox LT" (Xeon E5 1245 v5 + Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: May. 2017
OVH (Canada)
OVH (Canada)	Dedicated, Linux "SP-32" (Xeon E3, CentOS 6 - 64bit + WHM/cPanel)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far
OVH (Spain)
OVH (Spain)	Dedicated, Linux (Xeon E3, Core i5 / CentOS)	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
PowWeb (USA)
PowWeb (USA)	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) • 60 second script (PHP, etc.) execution limit -link-: The direct consecuence of the limit is that any video file that takes more than 60 seconds to upload, will not be stored. • 75,000 MySQL queries per hour limit.
RackSpace (USA)
RackSpace (USA)	Dedicated, Windows	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
	Dedicated, Linux	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
RedCoruna (Spain)
RedCoruna (Spain)	Dedicated, Linux	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
	VPS, Linux	No	(!) Not recommended. Server configuration problems. The server configuration prevents the application to upload big file size even after setting correctly PHP values.
register.com (USA)
register.com (USA)	Shared, Linux "Essential"	No	(!) Not recommended. Won't work. MySQL's InnoDB engine is not supprted; therefore, it won't be possible to install WS.WebTV in this hosting plan.
SiteGround (US/PA/EU)
SiteGround (US/PA/EU)	Linux "Cloud Hosting"	– 5	(!) Not recommended. Won't work fine. It was necessary to contact tech support in order to allow big file size upload using POST/PUT. Additionally, the WebTV had problems uploading big files to Amazon S3 or external servers due to server errors. Among other issues caused by the server configuration which could not be solved by the company.
SmartHosting (UK)
SmartHosting (UK)	VPS, Linux "Smart VPS Cloud 04"	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far NOTE: It was necessary to contact tech support in order to enable allow_url_fopen in PHP.
SOFTeR CLOUD (Romania)
SOFTeR CLOUD (Romania)	Linux "Softercloud"	No	(OK) No problems reported so far
Strato Alojamiento (Spain)
Strato Alojamiento (Spain)	Dedicated, Windows	– 5	(OK) No problems reported so far
	Shared, Linux	No	(!) Might not work correctly
SuperNova (USA)
SuperNova (USA)	Shared, Linux "Photon"	No	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jun. 2014
TMDHosting (US)
TMDHosting (US)	Shared, Linux "Cloud Hosting"	No	(!) Not recommended. File upload limitation: (3) Problem uploading big files. Last verification: Dec. 2017
UK2.NET (UK)
UK2.NET (UK)	Shared, Linux "Business"	No	(!) Not recommended. The video player stats registration behavior is considered "malware" by the hosting company!. Last verification: Feb. 2018
UPC Romania (Romania)
UPC Romania (Romania)	Shared, Linux	No	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: Jan. 2013
ValenHost (Spain)
ValenHost (Spain)	VPS, Linux "VPS 3" (Plesk)	Yes 6	(OK) No problems reported so far Last verification: May. 2016

Legend
(1) The Web server must be associated with a domain name. WS.WebTV Professional won't work in "localhost".
(2) The table is supplied as a reference. The list is parcial and not exclusive, as we have only be able to try/install our solution on a limited number of providers; additionally, most of the table information was provided by clients. Current technical conditions of the hosting services may have changed to date (to better or worst). There can be additional limitations that have not been reported so far. We do not guarantee that the supplied information is free from errors.
(3) Manual file upload workaround available for uploading bigger files.
(4) This is only applicable for WS.WebTV Professional.
(5) The server did not have FFmpeg installed. Although the previous, normally, FFmpeg can be installed in any dedicated server and most VPS. Check with the hosting company.
(6) It was possible to successfully install FFmpeg (static build) in the server.

General considerations regarding hosting

As a general rule, you get what you pay for. Cheap shared hosting plans, normally, will impose greater restritions and limits than VPS and dedicated ones; also, it is very unlikely that the speed of a shared hosting plan could match the speed of a VPS or dedicated one.
Depending on your expectations regarding number of visitors and traffic, it is very important to choose a hosting solution that best suits your needs (Shared / VPS / Dedicated or, even, CDN in combination with any of the previous ones).
VPS = Virtual Private Server. A halfway hosting solution between shared and dedicated server.
CDN = Content Delivery Network.