Fasthosts are a really good hosting company to choose when you need larger storage capacity, but if you’re hosting a website with them using their lower end packages, you may find your PHP Memory Limit will be too low for an increasing number of the latest, most secure and best optimised themes and plugins.
What does this mean for your website and what are your options?
Fasthosts Packages
In some instances, you’d need a dedicated server / cloud server to get the required PHP memory limit, which I think is a bit excessive. But I guess if this is the way they keep their service quick and reliable for all users, users with small to medium sized website with low budgets will have to pay the price.
Fasthosts use packages, which is normal for most hosts, but each level of hosting has a different PHP memory limit and on the basic packages, this memory limit is too low for the latest WordPress based creations.
For example, you might be on their Ignite package for £2.50pm per month (a total of £30 per year). If you are on the Ignite package, your PHP memory limit would only be 64mb, which is very low. However, Fasthosts make no mention of these limits on their prices page.
I believe that if you enable boost on the Ignite package then the PHP memory limit will increase to 128MB and you should be able to install the theme.This comes at a cost of £1.20 including VAT at the time of writing.
This low PHP memory limit has been an issue since 2014
@andrewyee Unfortunately we have restricted access to the php.ini fileon each shared server with a set limit of 64MB to ensure speed. ^Liam
— Fasthosts Support (@FHTechTeam) January 14, 2014
Some users were saying back then that a 64mb limit was too low and ‘modern software demands higher.
Resellers get just 20MB on shared servers, not 64mb. Most modern software demands higher! @FHTechTeam @andrewyee @fasthosts #fasthosts
— John Phillips (@JohnPhillipsCom) April 10, 2014
Four years is a long time in the digital world.
When To Use Fasthosts
I would recommend using Fasthosts only if you have a large site and you’ll be using a dedicated server as I know they are quite reliable and like their name, fast(hosts). If you have a small to medium sized website, then a hosting company like TSO Host would definitely be the best way to go as they offer better options even at their lowest price point; which is lower than Fasthosts.
The example used here is Fasthosts because I have experience of their services with several different clients. The most important thing to takeaway is that there are a lot of great hosts out there like Fasthosts, but you need to evaluate them well to see if they’re the right fit for your business at the level you are now and plan to be in five years’ time.