CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi, I have gotten at least 3 calls from prospective users, who have tried and failed to install CiviCRM themselves on their ~$4/month shared hosting plan (GoDaddy, etc) and want to hire me to do it.  As an experienced user and installer, I understand that often, shared hosting plans are an inappropriate hosting environment that will likely result in a disappointed user.  However, a lengthy discussion usually evolves where the prospective user claims that there is "nothing here http://civicrm.org/aboutcivicrm saying that it SHOULDn't work!"   In all 3 cases, the user has the firm belief that CiviCRM should perform quickly and install efficiently in such a cheap shared hosting environment, despite the realities of the situation.    

In contrast, during unofficial IRC discussions with the CiviCRM team, senior developers have stated that a CiviCRM user should be ready to spend at least $50/mo on hosting, and consider a VPS plan.

Has the senior development community put any thought into publishing hosting statements that the layman can understand more easily?  Such as in addition to statements about PHP versions and PHP memory allocation,  publishing a statement such as "Shared hosting is usually not an ideal environment for CiviCRM."  (not naming companies, but just generally in regards to the results and restrictions shared hosting) on this page: http://civicrm.org/aboutcivicrm

Just wondering?

thank you lobo.  I think this is something that will benefit everyone in the long term