b2evolution can run on almost any web server featuring PHP & MySQL.

More specifically, b2evolution runs on the LAMP platform. This means your web server (or web hosting account) should be featured with the following software: Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP.

For all practical purposes, b2evolution will run on the vast majority of current web hosting offers. See our web hosting section for a list of compatible web hosting offers.

Software Requirements

Your web server / web hosting account should have the following software versions:

• Linux: any modern distribution will work.
  • On shared hosting accounts, you should not even need to worry about this.
  • For dedicated servers, we like to use Debian but RedHat, CentOS and others will work just as well.
  • Note: it is possible to run b2evolution on Windows, especially for development. This is not an officially supported platform though and we do not recommend it for production servers, especially regarding performance & security.
  • Note: running on Mac OS X works fine, especially with a package like MAMP.
• Apache: version 2.0 or above.
  • Note: it is possible to run b2evolution on Lighttpd or NginX but these are not officially supported configurations and will likely require manual configuration as these servers will not read our .htaccess File.
• MySQL: version 5.1+ for b2evolution v6 or version 5.3.3+ for b2evolution v7. (or MariaDB)
  • InnoDB MUST be enabled (All decent web hosts offer InnoDB)
  • Note: At this point we do not believe that database abstraction is a practical proposition.
• PHP:
  • Minimum version for b2evolution v6.10.6+: PHP 5.6+ (which means PHP 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4 are also fully supported).
  • Absolute minimum amount of RAM required for PHP: 48M. But you will have issues if ou try to manipulate large images. We recommend a minimum of 256M and 384M if possible. The exact value depends on the size of the images you will upload and will try to resize and/or crop automatically with b2evolution. (Not a problem with most web hosts).
  • It should be possible to dynamically extend the run time of PHP scripts in some cases like auto-upgrade. (Not a problem with most web hosts)
  • It is highly recommended that the "mbstrings" extension is installed. (Not a problem with most web hosts)
  • Graphics related functions require the PHP GD module. (Not a problem with most web hosts)
  • XML-RPC related functions and XHTML validation require the PHP XML Reader module. (Not a problem with most web hosts)
  • For best performance it is also recommended to use caching. In PHP 7 we recommend to enable APCu.
  • The cURL extension is required for advanced features like Webmentions and will be required for more in the future (oAuth...)

Hosting Provider Issues

Please note some hosting providers act paranoid when hosting PHP applications. In many situations, they degrade PHP itself to the point of removing essential features such as file access, sockets (for connection to external sites), uploading files, sending emails or other features. Some hosts also severely limit the amount of RAM and execution time they allow PHP to use.

Some features of b2evolution may not work on such webhosts. b2evolution may even not be able to run at all.

If your hosting provider is a paranoid, we suggest you switch to another one. (Or you'll probably have to use software with less functionality than b2evo). Check our list of Tested Hosts.

Browsers

b2evolution is developed and tested using recent & standards compliant web browsers. We will try to accommodate for a few quirks here & there but we will not spend a lot of precious development time on the following categories of problems:

• Older versions of Internet Explorer which are not standards compliant
• Alpha & Beta versions of FireFox that typically come with a fair share of display bugs