Shared hosting

Friendica is easy to install on any dedicated or virtual private server, but even easier and cheaper to set up on a shared host - provided certain requirements are met. Installation should then be roughly as simple as installing Wordpress or Drupal on such a site.

Many less technically minded site owners will remain largely unware of the actual details. But technically speaking, acounts must be able to run background PHP processes and scheduled tasks (e.g. cron), even though there are addons to emulate genuine cron jobs if this feature is lacking. The PHP command-line executable must have register_argc_argv enabled, and mod-rewrite with .htaccess control must be allowed for the web server. More complete details can be found here: https://github.com/friendica/friendica/blob/master/INSTALL.txt

Service providers confirmed as meeting these requirements are:

• 1984 (confirmed by users, edit to .htconfig.php required*)
• bluehost (confirmed by one user)
• Dreamhost (tested by many users)
• Goneo (confirmed by the German computer magazine c't)
• Hosteurope.de (confirmed by one user)
• OVH.COM (appears to work with edit to .htaccess**)
• Uberspace (tested by many users)
• Valcato (one user, reports that updates must be non-SSL***)
• theWebalyst.com (reported by hosting provider)
• asmallorange.com (reported by hosting provider)
• www.web-hosting.com (reported by one user)
• DomainFactory (reported, requires PHP path config and rewritebase *****)
• x10hosting  "does not allow for ssl certificates.  Good prices though for their premium service, pending on how you are willing to purchase it."

There are undoubtedly many others, since the required features are fairly widespread.

If you are a service provider and able to offer the prerequisites, please perform a test installation and then write to us. We will include you in the list. If you are a Friendica user yourself and have successfully installed the software on a shared host, let us know the provider's details. In both cases, we would welcome any additional notes you might wish to pass on to other users.

Specific installation instructions for some shared hosts can be found on this site's Resources page - or on the German and Spanish resource sites you can reach from there.

According to users, shared hosting accounts with the following providers may be unsuitable**** for Friendica. Please write to us if succeed in installing Friendica with such an account or if you represent the service provider and disagree with this assessment:

• 1&1 (failure by one user)
• WebhostOne.de (failure by one user, incompatibility reportedly confirmed by provider)
• Hostgator (failure by one user)

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* Path for command-line PHP path needs to be changed to /usr/share/php

** Add lines: SetEnv PHP_VER 5_3 and SetEnv REGISTER_GLOBALS 0

*** Less technically minded users may find this complex (GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true git pull).

**** Note that this incompatibility list only refers to shared hosting accounts. Virtual Private Server accounts are almost always compatible.

***** 'RewriteBase /' has to be uncommented in '.htaccess' and '.htconfig' has to be adjusted:

$a->config['php_path'] = '/usr/local/bin/php5-54STABLE-CLI -d register_argc_argv=On';