Subscribe to Feed Subscribe by Email

Looking for a job? Check out the CMSWire Job Board.

Installing an Open Source CMS Can Be Fantastico

Finding good hosting can always be a pain if you don’t know where to go. But there is one thing you should know — when you’re in the search for a hosting company, there is something that you need to look for, particularly if you want to install a CMS.

That thing is Fantastico De Luxe. Does your hosting company offer Fantastico?

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is a component of cPanel that facilitates the installation of a wide variety of open source CMS applications, as well as ecommerce solutions, web site builders and more.

For those of you who don’t know what cPanel is, it’s a web hosting control panel interface. It allows access to statistical data, email accounts, ftp accounts, databases and allows for access to things like Fantastico.

Fantastico is a php based web application that integrates with cPanel and gives you the ability to install popular open source applications. With Fantastico, installation procedures take only seconds and can be performed by novices without the need of setting up MySQL databases, importing structure, chmoding files and without the need of other tasks usually associated with installations. It houses the scripts for these procedures and does all this for you.

The biggest thing you have to be aware of when you do find a hosting company that provides Fantastico is whether they update their scripts or not. This can best be determined by simply contacting their customer service and asking questions — which you should do anyway. Let’s face it, the last thing an online business owner needs is hosting issues.

Two Quality Hosting Companies

There are two hosting companies that I would recommend, whether you will utilize Fantastico or not: SiteGround and HostGator:

• SiteGround: Good pricing and ratings across the net as a #1 hosting company for CMS apps like Joomla and WordPress
• HostGator: Great pricing and hosting options for businesses to host multiple sites on one account at one low price.

What if you are hosting on your own server and don’t have cPanel or Fantastico installed? It can be purchased and the company will help with installation.

Scripts That Can Be Carried on Fantastico:

Here is a list of some of the scripts that can be carried on Fantastico. A complete list would be determined either by your hosting company or during the time of your purchase.

• Discussion Boards: phpBB2, SMF
• eCommerce: CubeCart, osCommerce, ZenCart
• Portals: phpNuke, PostNuke, phpWCMS, Mambo, SiteFrame, Typo3, Xoops, Joomla, Drupal, Geeklog
• Blogs: b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine Free, WordPress
• Wikis: phpWiki, Tiki Wiki

If you’re not hosting with Fantastico you may be putting way more work into open source CMS installations than you need to. Take it from someone who has gone that route, it can be an eye opener.

I spent endless hours with my first Joomla installation doing it manually only find out that my hosting company was horrible at customer service and would not aid in the installation what so ever.

So stop wasting time and get with a hosting company that offers Fantastico. We’re sure you will be pleased with the ease of use and how quickly you can get a site up and running.

Comments