As a general rule, if possible, absolutely no shared hosting environments. For best live chat experience, if you must deploy on a shared enviornment, get a hosting package with the most resources available. The resources needed by the software is directly related to few factors:

• Website Traffic - Website traffic plays an important factor in server resource usage. The chat icon loads on the webpage and that chat icon is fetched from the server. If you receive over 5,000 unique visitors a day, a server with 2Gigs or more RAM is recommended.
• Anticipated Live Chat Usage - Each live chat session requires server communication during the chat session. The more chat sessions at the same time will require more server resources. A typical modest dedicated server environment with at least 2Gigs of RAM should be able to handle 5-30 chat sessions at the same time, or even more.
• Operators Online - A typical modest dedicated server environment with at least 2Gigs of memory should be able to handle 10-20 operators online at the same time, or even more.

• Server Requirements

  • Server OS
  • UNIX, Mac or Windows

  • Web Server
  • Any web server with PHP and MySQL enabled

  • PHP
  • PHP >= 5.4 or 7.x (tested up to 7.4.5)

  • Database
  • MySQL >= 4.1 or MariaDB

The software files are around 22Megs of disc space. However, the database disc space needed for the system will depend on your website traffic and chat volume. Also, a year duration of chat activity will use less disc space then 5 years of chat activity. As a safe measure and for many years of software usage, at least 25Gigs disc space for websites that receive 100-5000 visitors a day. The more disc space, the better, and safer to avoid situations.

It all depends on the server resource available. The more server resources (RAM, CPU, disc space), the more chats the software can handle. Also, the web server must be configured properly, including the MySQL configuration. There has been verified systems with over 500 chats a day and few systems have reported over 1,000 chats a day. If your server has the resources, then the software can handle more chats without issues.

A purchase of the Enterprise Self-Hosted is required to remove the "powered by PHP Live!" link back. The Enterprise Self-Hosted includes the "Debrand" key needed to remove the link. The "powered by PHP Live!" link back cannot be removed on the Starter (also known as Standard) Self-Hosted.

The software does not expire. There is no locking mechanism or other types of automatic deactivation of features or locking to a domain. The same downloaded software copy can be installed on a test server, production server or other server environments.

PHP framework is not required. PHP Live! does not use a PHP framework.

Yes. PHP Live! is a complete standalone live chat software that functions 100% on your server, your network, your domain. All the data is stored in your MySQL database.

Yes. The option to switch your account to the Enterprise Download can be done at anytime from the client area. Starter to Enterprise account switch is , the difference in price.

There has been sometimes over 10 new versions in a year. But typically 3-6 new versions are released each year.

General tech support will always be available, free of charge. However, some incidents that require extensive troubleshooting will require a purchase of Escalated Tech Support Service. Escalated Tech Support are situations of possible server configuration and other issues that could not be fixed with common solutions. Escalated Tech Support Service is $150 (up to 3 hours) for most situations, per incident. Tech support will determine if Escalated Tech Support will be required based on the situation. Before any type of troubleshooting begins, your PHP Live! system must be the latest version. Upgrading your PHP Live! system is the first step in the troubleshooting process. Please reference the Knowledge Base for most common solutions.

Yes, the Free Download Version is available.