I’m trying to find the right hosting service and the right kind of plan that meets the requirements for a site listed in the Backlight docs. It’s been a challenge to find an affordable plan that supports SQLite and the PDO library.
And I’m unclear on whether Backlight creates a Wordpress site - on the “buy” page it says that it will run anywhere Wordpress runs. So does this mean it generates a Wordpress site? Some hosting services separate their Wordpress plans from regular plans.
I’ve been looking at IONOS based on the recommendation of another user on this forum. They do say I can get SQLite/PDO on their Wordpress plans, though I do have to install it through their Wordpress panel.
I’m very confused about what the requirements really are. I know other Backlight users have not had to deal explicitly with issues like Wordpress or SQLite/PDO. Am I missing something?
Any clarification about Wordpress dependencies I should know about and/or recommendations for hosting services AND specific plans on those services would be greatly appreciated. I’ve run across services that offer SQLite/PDO but at very expensive price points.
Hi Bob, the confusion with Wordpress isn’t that Backlight requires a Wordpress plan as such. But that if a hosting plan supports installing Wordpress by the user, then it should be compatible with Backlight.
SQLite and PDO are standard PHP modules. It may be hard to find a plan that supports them because they’re considered standard and therefore aren’t itemised in the plan details… This usually only becomes a problem if a host either takes specific steps to remove support for those modules, are inadvertently breaks support through misconfiguring their servers.
It has been quite a while since we’ve come across a support case where the absence of these modules was an issue.
Ben
That’s very interesting - my current hosting service told me I’d have to change to a very expensive VPS plan for SQLite. Dreamhost told me I’d have to use their plan where I have to setup and manage all aspects of the server. IONOS told me I would have to install SQLite/PDO myself.
Not sure if they just don’t understand SQLite/PDO or are trying to scam me into an expensive and needless upgrade. My mistake was probably to even ask if they met the requirements specified on the “buy” page of Backlight.
Does the statement on the “buy” page that Backlight will run anywhere Wordpress can run mean that it’s the user’s ability to install software that runs on the server (like Wordpress) that is important?
WordPress is so commonplace – just about any cheap, shared hosting plan should support it – its a sensible baseline for setting software requirements. That is all. Any hosting plan capable of running WordPress, should also be capable of running Backlight. So if a host claims WordPress support, then you’re probably fine to install Backlight there as well, or instead.
These days, most hosts outsource their support, so likely you’re talking to phone jockeys in foreign countries who don’t know anything about the hosting plan apart from what’s in their script. Generally not very helpful. But yes, in my experience, they will also say whatever they can to trick you into a more expensive plan.
I have been using IONOS/1&1 for over 20 years and I think you encountered a rep that had no idea what he/she was talking about. By “install”, they may have meant that you would have to go into the control panel and enable those modules, but that is a really simple process.
just to add to what Matt wrote, there is a WordPress module for Backlight. It will generate a WrodPress theme that can match the design of your Backlight site.
You could also use WordPress as the basis of your site and use Backlight to create the WP theme and publish your image albums.