Choosing hosting and partners
This section is for owners, managers and procurement staff who must choose where an Exponential site runs and who builds and supports it. Exponential is free software, so you are free to choose any host and any partner; these pages help you choose well, with questions to ask and the facts to check.
Note
The project publishes no prices and no ranking of hosts or partners, and these pages invent none. Comparisons are qualitative and based on the project's own documentation. Contracts are your own; the contract page is not legal advice.
Contents
What this section covers
- Choosing hosting, and the hosting models compared in business terms.
- Choosing an implementation or support partner, and the questions to ask.
- Working with 7x, the company that leads Exponential, and with the project and its community.
- What a contract and a service level agreement (SLA) should cover.
- Switching to Exponential from an older version or another platform.
The pages
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Choosing hosting | What your site needs from a host, and how to decide |
| Hosting models compared | Shared, VPS, dedicated, managed, containers: trade-offs for a business |
| Choosing a partner | What kinds of partners exist and how to select one |
| Questions to ask a partner | A copy-ready list for interviews and requests for proposal |
| Working with 7x and the project | Who 7x and the Exponential Foundation are, support channels, issue trackers, sponsoring |
| Contracts and SLA basics | What to cover in a hosting or support contract |
| Switching to Exponential | Migration paths from older versions, eZ Platform and Ibexa, and other hosts |
A suggested order
- Choosing hosting, then Hosting models compared.
- Choosing a partner and Questions to ask a partner.
- Working with 7x and the project.
- Contracts and SLA basics before you sign.
- Switching to Exponential if you are moving an existing site.
Score the candidates with the Vendor evaluation scorecard.
Why the choice is yours
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| The GPL lets you run the software anywhere and hire any company to work on it | Licensing explained for buyers |
| Exponential runs on almost any operating system with PHP 8.0 or later (PHP 7.4 usable without support) | Operating system support |
| Six databases are supported, SQLite 3 first, needing no server | Database support |
| Apache, nginx, LiteSpeed, Caddy, IIS and others work, or the bundled Velocity | README.md, "How Exponential is served" |
| The code and its full history are public | Develop with Git |
Because nothing ties the software to one supplier, you can change host or partner later (Moving a site between hosts). Make sure your contracts keep that freedom.
Neighboring sections
- Costs: what hosting and services cost, and the return.
- Reliability: what to expect from a well-run site.
- Security and data protection: what to ask a host and partner about data.
- Templates: project brief, requirements, scorecard.
- Governments have their own section: Governments: start here.
Related pages
- Choosing hosting, database and operating system
- Hosting companies: start here
- Partners: start here
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
Become an Exponential Partner
Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster.