It’s true that every hosting plan under the skies is compatible with PHP, but you can reap additional benefits by finding the packages that are specifically optimized to work better with the language. PHP is at the core of the web development world, and you absolutely need to use it to make it big here.

What to look into?

First, reach out to the provider’s support team and talk to the humans there. These are the folks who you’ll need help from when the problems start. You gotta get to know them before you tie the knot.

Second, make sure your provider enables the use of various versions like PHP 5 and PHP 7. It’s always better to be able to make use of different versions, as opposed to being stuck with a single one.

Third, look for the companies who enable SSH access and PHP-specific knowledgebase. True, you aren’t going to read all of that stuff on day one, but on day two a robust help section can come handy.

And since you’re going to do lots of server-side voodoo, make sure that the package comes with Plesk or cPanel. Because struggling with a user-unfriendly panel stings.