11 Best Perl Hosting Providers (Feb. 2024)

Larry Wall is probably not the first name that comes to mind when discussing Washington State’s most prominent residents. But he is a living legend in his own right among the programming community.

Born in the fall of 1954 in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Washington, Larry is the brains behind Perl, the programming language used by at least 2.4% of software developers worldwide. That’s a huge percentage, given that there are about 26.3 million software developers today.

So, if you’re a part of the developer community or even a web administrator looking for the best Perl hosting providers, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get right into it.

I’ll start with cheap Perl hosting, something any developer will appreciate when working on a personal project. Developers aside, small or medium-sized businesses can also benefit from cheap hosting for Perl applications, given that business is all about keeping expenditures low and profit margins high.

IONOS opens the countdown as one of the best cheap web hosting providers out there.

To start, you’ll need to configure it by inserting a code into a text file, saving it with the .pl extension, and uploading it to your server. From there, you can access the Perl script via your browser. IONOS’ shining achievement is how it balances price to value.

You’re not likely to find another web host with this level of performance for only $1 a month.

HostArmada is an affordable Perl hosting provider with powerful web server technologies. For starters, all of its shared hosting plans support Perl. NGINX powers the first two plans (Start Dock and Web Warp), while the third option (Speed Reaper) runs on LiteSpeed.

This host comes with Perl pre-installed, so you can head straight into running your project without worrying about playing around with the server’s settings.

InMotion Hosting offers cheap shared hosting plans that support Perl. The only catch is that you’ll need to manually install it from your cPanel. InMotion also offers one of the best customer support in the web hosting realm. Rest assured with this host, if you need help setting up Perl, you’re in the right hands.

ScalaHosting has Perl pre-installed on its Linux and Windows managed WordPress hosting accounts, so you don’t have to worry about configuring everything from scratch.

As the name implies, this host is not only affordable but also highly scalable. That makes it the ideal choice if you’re working on a project that could potentially receive a surge in traffic. The scalability gives it the legroom to adjust to fluctuating traffic demands.

A2 Hosting offers lightning-fast speeds for all of its hosting plans. It even allows you to boost the already-fast servers with Turbo-boost technologies available through its higher-tier hosting plans.

Perl comes pre-installed with this host, and even better, you’ll find tons of useful Perl hosting guides and other helpful resources you need to get the most out of your hosting environment.

Shared hosting is great if you’re looking for inexpensive web hosting plans. But if you don’t mind spending a little extra to get more powerful resources, VPS Perl hosting is the way to go. Let’s look at some of the best web hosting providers under this category.

VPS hosting plans from IONOS are a true embodiment of the benefits of using VPSes. Here, you’ll have more control over your hosting environment, choose your preferred datacenter location and operating system, and reap a high uptime guarantee of 99.9%.

Every VPS server also comes with NVMe SSD storage for faster speeds and better overall performance, exactly what your Perl website or web application needs to thrive.

Back again at A2 Hosting, you’ll reap the benefits of an ultra-fast hosting environment. Naturally, all A2 Hosting plans are incredibly fast, starting from shared up to dedicated servers.

Using Perl on a VPS server from A2 Hosting means even better performance. In addition, you’re at liberty to choose between two hosting plans, managed and unmanaged VPS hosting, depending on the level of control you want over the server infrastructure.

InterServer offers cloud VPS plans that support Perl. As with many other hosts I’ve covered so far, you’ll need to install this programming via the cPanel. The best part of hosting your Perl website or application with InterServer is that you’ll experience the advantages of a VPS hosting environment even with considerably limited resources.

For instance, its base Linux VPS hosting plan offers only one CPU core and two gigabytes of memory. I know that seems quite on the lower end, but it perfectly fits a small project without spending extra on resources you don’t need.

It’s virtually impossible to leave out Bluehost in any conversation about affordable web hosting. Even better, this popular host also runs Perl, but there’s a catch. You can’t run it on its shared hosting plans — you’ll need to choose a VPS or dedicated server and then install Perl on your end. That said, no matter the type of hosting, Bluehost stays affordable all around.

All VPS hosting plans at Hostinger support Perl, but that’s not the only thing I love about this host. If you’re looking for more resources and features without digging into your wallet too deeply, this host is what you need. I’m talking about weekly backups, dedicated IP addresses, AI-powered assistants, malware scanners, and full root access.

HostGator‘s VPS hosting plans also support Perl. But you’ll need to choose the fully managed VPS hosting option to have this programming language pre-installed. Otherwise, if you opt for the semi-managed option, the second alternative, you’ll need to install Perl manually.

Because these VPS plans run on CentOS, they will give you full root access, unlimited MySQL databases, and the freedom to choose your own control panel.

Perl hosting is a web hosting service that supports the Perl programming language. This language offers more than just flexibility and powerful text processing capabilities; it thrives in automation, web development, and bioinformatics.

When you choose Perl hosting, you’re selecting a web host that provides the necessary server environment to run Perl scripts. This is an important aspect to consider, given that not all hosting services support Perl out of the box.

With a Perl hosting service, the web host installs the Perl interpreter, the software used to read, interpret, and execute Perl code. The host then configures this interpreter on its servers, allowing you to easily run your Perl-based applications or scripts.

Because Perl is mostly known for its versatility and text manipulation capabilities, it comes in handy in various programming tasks. When Larry Wall developed this language back in 1987, programmers mostly used it for its strength in string processing and scripting.

Today, Perl language is widely used in web development, network programming, system administration, and even bioinformatics, as noted earlier.

Let’s break it down a little bit further.

Keep in mind that the above use cases are just examples and not necessarily the full scope of Perl’s capabilities. Since it’s open-source, this language keeps improving, update by update.

Looking at how Perl works is the best way to understand what type of hosting you need.

To begin with, Perl itself does not have specific out-of-the-world server resource requirements. Think of it as a standard car that can carry a basic load from one point to another. The load’s weight will determine how fast the car will move or whether it will be able to move at all.

Back to Perl hosting, the right host will depend largely on the nature and complexity of the Perl scripts or applications you are running, not Perl itself.

In most cases, the resource requirements for running small scripts are quite minimal. Take CGI scripts, for instance. Even a basic shared hosting environment with standard memory (RAM) and CPU allocations can easily get the job done.

But more complex Perl applications, especially those that handle large amounts of data or manage heavy traffic, require more resources. This may include more RAM, higher CPU capabilities, and possibly even increased disk space for data storage.

Why am I telling you this? I want you to understand the importance of first figuring out the requirements of your Perl application or website before choosing the right host. If you’re still confused, I’ll explain a bit more.

As I noted earlier, some hosts come with Perl pre-installed, while others may require you to handle the installation process. Keep that in mind also when choosing the right Perl hosting solution.

Since Perl is a programming language, not a server resource, the cost of Perl hosting will depend on the type of hosting you choose. In other words, it’s unlikely that hosting companies will charge extra simply because they offer Perl hosting services.

Instead, they’ll charge you based on the resources you need to host your Perl website or application. That said, shared hosting, the cheapest type of hosting, usually goes for less than a cup of coffee per month. Then you have VPS hosting, which costs a little bit more but not too much, and finally, dedicated server hosting, the most expensive option.

Cloud hosting can be cheap or expensive; it all depends on the amount of resources used in a particular billing cycle. That’s because most cloud hosts offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

You have plenty of options to choose from if you’re looking for free Perl hosting. Sites like HelioHost, Host-ed, and HostFree all offer free hosting. But don’t get excited; more than half of the time, free web hosting isn’t usually worth it, even for setting up a testing environment.

Most of these free hosts come with many restrictions. Some will spam your website or control panel with ads, offer very limited resources, no customer support, and above all, poor security.

You’re better off choosing premium web hosting with free trials or one that offers a money-back guarantee. That way, you can get premium features and resources risk-free. Shared hosting is also a cheap way to experience Perl hosting without sacrificing quality.

Finding the right Perl hosting provider is like finding a pearl in an oyster. It takes a lot of fishing around and diving deep into the depths of the web hosting sea. Fortunately, you don’t have to go through that anymore. With the Perl hosting providers I’ve covered here, you can go straight into running your website or application.

For some hosts, though, you may need a few tweaks here and there to configure the environment. But that shouldn’t be a problem if you know a thing or two about this programming language.