Web Host Scripting. There’s both a cheap and expensive side to this. Though most newer webmasters will be looking for an automated web builder program, most will eventually have the need for advanced scripting compatibility. Believe it or not, there’s cheap and an expensive way to go about this, and we’re not talking about taking classes. We’re talking about scripting languages. Believe it or not, some languages are cheaper to know than others.

“But I thought all you needed to write code was a text editor!” Well, yes, that’s true in most cases. Where the extra cost comes in is getting a web host that’s capable of understanding the language your script is written in. Generally, the newer or rarer the language, the more it will cost you to get a compatible web hosting plan. To make things a little easier, we’ll compare some of the languages that take on similar jobs so you can get a feel for which are worth learning and which aren’t.

Perl vs. PHP:

We couldn’t resist putting this first. These are probably the two most commonly debated languages to date, Perl being the one which usually requires a more expensive web hosting plan. Both these languages are the most widely-used server-side scripting languages because they’re both pretty much capable of anything. The difference between the two comes down to syntax. Perl is supposed to be the “cleaner” of the two. Coders who are partial to Perl will argue the fact that all of their functions have the same format to them, whereas PHP doesn’t. What they don’t mention about PHP is that the language is actually more flexible. Most functions can be noted several different ways and allow the coder a little more lenience to minor syntax errors. In other words, it’s not as prone to get mad at you for little mistakes.

Perl’s argument to this is that this allows for programmers to get lazy, and their scripting generally gets more difficult to read and edit as more and more people touch it. This problem becomes extremely apparent in an open-source environment, where basically any developer can add-on to the program as they see fit, and even release their new modified version as an upgrade. Most open-source programs see this cycle over and over, and if the language isn’t clean then it usually ends up an unreadable mess even though it may still be functional.

MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

These two have a similar issue. First there’s MySQL, which boasts speed, wide-range support, and stability. Then there’s PostgreSQL, which is for the “more advanced”. Users of PostgreSQL like the fact that they can organize data in far more complex ways than MySQL, and essentially they are correct. But the problems for both arise when they are used in practice. PostgreSQL can organize huge amounts of data in ways that it can easily be used, and that’s great, but the time it takes to find and use the data may be annoying to some, and make it useless to others. On the other hand, MySQL can store, and find large amounts of data very quickly, but it’s very limited as to how it does it and often larger tables become messy at best.

The good news here is that each organization is taking steps to improve on their weaknesses. PostgreSQL is being taken apart every day to find anywhere they can improve on speed, while MySQL is adding new functions all the time. In a few years, it’s been said that these two languages will be basically equal.

So which is cheaper? MySQL by far (for now). MySQL support is available in most every web hosting plan. Also, any freeware scripts you may have downloaded for your own use probably use MySQL if they require access to a database. If you’ve ever had a web hosting plan before, think about how many times you’ve seen “phpMySQL” built into cPanel. But, have you ever seen “phpPgSQL”? Probably not.