PHP & MySQL are two components that, when used together, create a dynamic, interactive site. Just a few years ago,there was a time when hosting was expensive. Now the days of expensive web hosting has gone. Let's see why. First let's see what is hosting.It is all about storage on a hard disk and bandwidth for your data. Till a few years ago, hard disk storage was small. Now-a-days hard disk drives come in a typical 400 GB to 500 GB capacity ranges. Even the smallest ones for home computer usage come in over 100 GB sizes. So the low price of the hardisk is a major reason.A few of these 400 GB to 500 GB range hard disk drives in a typical Linux powered web server with 4 Intel Xeon Central Processing Units gives more than enough processing power and storage capacity to host hundreds of websites on one server, all of them running happily.
You have a recipe for hosting a real working dynamic website at very low costs. What was once a premium combination is now very standard and very cheap and very affordable. It is not uncommon to find hosting plans as cheap as just 99 cents per month, which come complete with all features including PHP and MySQL and enough storage + bandwidth.There is, thus, no reason for anyone who wants to host anything from a personal homepage or a home business / small business wanting a dynamic website for their online business, to go only for simple HTML websites. No. That has gone for a long time.
Now shared web hosting has become very feasible for every kind of use and application. After few years of development, hosting become available with even better capacities and more powerful features. It makes complete sense to use the power of PHP and MySQL when it is well within everyone's reach.