1.2 Overview

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Lets look at the alternatives first.

Moodle Cloud

MoodleCloud is "Moodle hosting from the people that make Moodle" for "Educators, trainers or anyone who needs an online learning environment to teach a class or facilitate learning in any situation."

If you haven't worked with Moodle before, start here. They have a 45 day free trial and developed courses can be backed up and uploaded to a cloud server.

Paid options for MoodleCloud are reasonably priced. If you aren't very technical and are not interested in running a server. Moodlecloud is best for you.

A local install

Many new Moodle user start by installing on their local machine. It is a good way to know if Moodle suits you but it has one limitation. Only those on your network can access your Moodle installation. To reach students you need an internet connected webserver.

If you want to know if Moodle will be suitable for you, I would suggest MoodleCloud rather than a local server.

Shared Hosting

Most low priced hosting is built around low volume blogs and static pages. It may be suitable for class size Moodle installations (around 20 to 30 students) but performance will be limited. Backups can be a problem as the high CPU use often results in complaints from the hosting service or backup failure.

As you won't have control over the hosting environment, upgrades can also be a problem. New Moodle version may require software versions not currently installed.

Don't be tempted by one click installers such as Softacolous. If things go wrong, there will not be much support from experienced users. Experienced users don't use Softacolous.

Many Moodle installations run on shared hosting. Just don't expect too much in terms of performance or support on a $5 a month plan.

Cloud server

A  cloud server is about the same price as as shared hosting for much better performance. You have complete control over your machine and it is available on the web. It can be upgraded easily and as a standard install, help is available, As ir runs completely independently from your home machine,  there is no chance you can lose data or change settings.

On the down side - you have to learn to run a server. If that doesn't scare you, this blog is for you. It assumes you have never seen Linux before and so will go through the complete install of a secured LAMP stack.

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