Experience the power of Vanilla's LAMP hosting:
Ensure a seamless and secure experience for your visitors. An SSL certificate is vital for SEO and trust, and even ensures correct link handling in apps like WhatsApp, which now defaults to HTTPS.
Access and manage all your website files securely from a single location using SFTP. Enjoy the ability to directly edit and upload content with a protected connection, providing you with full control.
Vanilla offers a one-time installation of a WordPress instance plus ongoing optimisation to keep your site running fast and secure. Promoted as a tool anyone can use.
From R118 / mo *
Get your website online quickly by connecting your domain name to our reliable LAMP hosting. Whether you already have a domain or need to register a new one. Register or transfer your domain today!
A dedicated LAMP login with secure SFTP access directly to a specific folder that conveniently contains all your managed websites, giving you organized and secure control over your website files.
The role of SSL certificates has significantly evolved. It wasn't always a fundamental requirement; initially, SSL was primarily used to secure websites during the transfer of sensitive data. However, today's web landscape has changed dramatically. Many modern applications, like WhatsApp, rely on HTTPS for proper link handling.
For web developers and advanced users who demand full control over their web applications, our LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) hosting is a personalised solution. Enjoy the freedom and create a customized web presence.
Search through our topics for answers to common questions.
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) hosting is ideal for those who want full control over their web applications, file uploads/downloads, and the specific PHP or database settings for their site. This service is great for web developers and advanced users looking to customise and manage their own web presence, offering more flexibility and features than standard hosting.
Vanilla’s Fast and flexible LAMP hosting includes 50GB hard disc space, one MySQL database, one domain with optional subdomains and unlimited bandwidth transfers. It’s available including an ssh/sftp service. Hosting on Vanilla servers costs R99 / month per user login, plus a once-off setup fee of R299.
You can access your website files using the LAMP login details provided in your welcome note with clients such as FileZilla or Cyberduck. If you encounter any difficulties, please refer to Vanilla's IT services for assistance.
To ensure the integrity of your website, we advise that the login details that are provided on your welcome note only be used by your web developer or by Vanilla's website engineering services.
Sorry, we offer personal service to ensure the integrity of our and your systems. cPanel and similar panels come with several drawbacks. First, their licensing costs scale steeply, especially for resellers. They also consume extra system resources, which can slow down smaller servers. The increased attack surface from multiple exposed services adds security risks. Custom server setups are difficult, with limited flexibility to change core components. Panels tend to lag in adopting modern technologies like Docker or HTTP/3. Backup systems can be inefficient and unreliable, particularly for large sites. Lastly, many essential features depend on third-party plugins, which may add cost or cause issues if unsupported. While useful for non-technical users, cPanel is often a poor fit for modern, scalable, or custom infrastructure needs.
No, you are not required to host your DNS with Vanilla. However, we highly recommend it. Hosting your DNS with us allows our support team to assist you more effectively without needing to rely on external third-party DNS providers.
Vanilla operates four reliable nameservers and has over 20 years of experience in domain name hosting, ensuring the stability and trustworthiness of your DNS management.
No it doesn’t. We will install any application on request at a standard hourly rate of R450.
At Vanilla, we discourage WordPress hosting on our shared server due to its vulnerability to hacking and ongoing plugin maintenance. Instead, we specialise in static website hosting or LAMP servers with SFTP login for secure and reliable performance. That said, we do offer support for PHP-based CMS platforms like WordPress for an additional fee. A Wordpress install of a LAMP instance costs R500 once-off and R129 per month to maintain your Wordpress and plugin updates. This price is inclusive of the standard LAMP fees.
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Vanilla guarantees 99.9% uptime. The 0.1% is our safety net for repairs and unforeseen issues.
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