Python/Django hosting on "normal" hosting plans

[Tim Chase]

> My questions are:
> 
>   - can most everyday vanilla linux web hosts run a django site ?
> 
>   - can most everyday vanilla linux web hosts run python web scripts?

Depends on your definition of "most everyday vanilla linux web 
hosts".  :)

The bottom-of-the-barrel hosts will often (but not always) offer 
Python CGI.  Django "can" run in a CGI (google for "django 
cgi"[0]), but it's an unpleasant experience because the entire 
Django framework gets reloaded for *every* request. 
Doable/tolerable for a private development/family page, but it 
will likely flounder under the slightest load.

This is like strapping a jet engine (Django) on a bicycle (CGI). 
  [1]  Doable, but more for the macho-factor of "I got it 
working" rather than the practical aspects.

Your lowest-end hosting services won't offer mod_python or WSGI 
(either Apache with mod_wsgi, or others like lighttpd with a wsgi 
interface) though WSGI is becoming more popular.  There are still 
some shared-hosting solutions that facilitate using Django[2] 
pretty well.  They're not super-cheap, but they're affordable. 
The canonical catalog of Django-friendly & Django-capable hosting 
services can be found at [3].  If you're just starting out with 
Django, it might help to pay a bit more for one of the click-n-go 
hosts, while others you'll have to do some of the heavy lifting 
(installing Django, as well as possibly other components, 
assembling your wsgi startup script, etc) yourself.

Hope this helps,

-tkc


[0]
http://www.google.com/search?q=django%20cgi

[1]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFv1Yu-KxZ8

[2]
http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/browse_thread/thread/cfaf8c04f3dfb56e/

[3]
http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DjangoFriendlyWebHosts