Magento Hosting Requirements

Magento needs a Linux x86-64 server with PHP, MySQL or MariaDB, OpenSearch, a web server, Composer, a trusted TLS certificate and a one-minute cron job, all at versions tested for your release. Windows and macOS are not supported for running a store, and Adobe does not accept self-signed certificates.

• Operating system: a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL or a compatible clone, on x86-64.
• Shell access: SSH for Composer and bin/magento; a file manager alone cannot install or upgrade the store.
• System tools: bash, gzip, lsof, the mysql client, mysqldump, nice, php, sed and tar, which Magento calls during operations.
• Mail: an SMTP server or mail transfer agent for order and password emails.
• TLS: TLS 1.2 or later, because PayPal and repo.magento.com refuse older connections.

Magento Open Source requires 27 PHP extensions, including bcmath, intl, soap, sodium, xsl, gd, zip, sockets and pdo_mysql, plus a raised memory_limit. Missing extensions make Composer refuse the install, which is the quickest way to find a host that cannot run the store.

php -v
php -m | grep -Ei 'bcmath|intl|soap|sodium|xsl|gd|zip|sockets|pdo_mysql|opcache|pcntl'
php -i | grep memory_limit
composer --version
nginx -v
mysql --version

Adobe recommends OPcache for performance and needs pcntl before indexers can run in parallel mode. Ask the host to run these commands for you if you do not yet have SSH; the output answers more than any feature list.

Not for a live store: shared accounts lack OpenSearch, restrict long-running processes and usually cap PHP memory well below what Magento’s indexers and Composer need. A store may install and then fail quietly, with products missing from search and category pages.

The one-minute cron is the other blocker. Magento writes its own entry with bin/magento cron:install, which runs bin/magento cron:run every minute; indexers, emails, sitemaps and queue consumers all depend on it. The crontab examples guide shows how to confirm the entry and read its log. If you only need a cheap place to learn Magento, the Magento on cPanel guide explains what works on a panel account and what does not.