The Best CGI Access Hosting: Who’s The Best For Your Site? [Updated: 2021]

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CGI (Common Gateway Interface) was the original method of providing dynamic content on websites. CGI allows users to create programs in any language that the server can process. But not all hosts provide CGI access.

Modern alternatives to CGI are more efficient and more secure. If you need CGI, look for a host with strong security, since CGI is notably vulnerable to denial of service attacks.

See below for the details of CGI hosting. For those in a rush, here are our top 5 choices for the best CGI hosting:

  1. SiteGround – DDoS protection, fast servers, highly skilled technical support
  2. Bluehost
  3. HostPapa
  4. HostGator
  5. GreenGeeks

How Did We Choose the Best CGI Hosts?

We selected hosts with advanced security platforms, fast server response speeds, and highly knowledgeable technical support staff.

From this list, we selected those with high uptime histories, and high customer satisfaction rates, as measured by thousands of user reviews in our database.

CGI Access Hosting

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a method for Web servers to process and run executable scripts, or programs, and generate dynamic content for display in a user’s Web browser.

What It Is

CGI was designed as a way to allow a Web browser to run an executable script. Under normal circumstances, when a Web browser requests a webpage or file, the HTTP server hosting the website simply serves up the requested file for the Web browser to display or download. There are circumstances, however, when displaying or downloading a file is not the desired outcome.

For example, when filling out and submitting a form the goal is to have the contents of the form emailed to the website operator while providing the user confirmation that the form was submitted successfully. Neither operator or user would be served by the form being downloaded to the user’s computer.

This is where CGI comes into play. A site admin can specify a folder to contain all executable scripts. On many hosts, this folder is “cgi-bin.” When a Web browser requests a URL that points to one of these scripts, the HTTP server runs the script and returns the results, rather than simply serving up the script itself as it would an ordinary webpage.

Common Uses

As previously mentioned, a common use of CGI scripts is to submit form data. CGI scripts can be configured to collect the data, save it in a database, email it to the website operator and display an acknowledgment to the individual submitting the form.

CGI scripts can also be used in any number of additional scenarios, including signing a guestbook, submitting a query and submitting a form that returns a value, such as a translation form.

Compare CGI Access Hosting Plans

PEOPLE’S CHOICE: #1 HOST FOR cgi.access Apr 2021
#1
StartUp plan

$3.95 / mo

#2
Shared Basic plan

$2.75 / mo

#3
Entry VPS plan

$5 / mo

#4
Linux Hatchling plan

$2.75 / mo

#5
EcoSite Starter plan

$2.95 / mo

#6
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$2.95 / mo

#7
2 GB VPS plan

$59 / mo

#8
Basic VPS Hosting plan

$19.99 / mo

#9
Basic plan

$3.49 / mo

#10
Shared Web Hosting plan

$2.59 / mo

Languages

CGI scripts can be written in virtually any language, although scripting languages are among the more popular choices.

The Perl programming language is known for being the “duct-tape of the Internet.” It excels at text manipulation and database access. Well-established Web frameworks and the ability to embed it into Web servers make it a popular choice for CGI scripts.

PHP is another scripting language that is commonly used for Web-based programming. Its flexible nature makes it ideal for use in creating CGI scripts. In fact, PHP started its life when its creator, Rasmus Lerdorf, wrote a number of CGI scripts in the C language. As he continued to add features, his work eventually evolved into PHP.

Tcl, Python and Ruby are also commonly used.


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Alternatives

As Internet technologies have evolved and advanced, more complex alternatives to CGI have gained in popularity. In particular, using PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, Java or ASP to write complete Web applications that can duplicate, and go far beyond, the functionality of CGI scripts is a viable alternative.

Advantages of CGI

In spite of the rise of alternatives, CGI still has some inherent advantages. The fact that scripts can be created in virtually any language contributes to its ongoing popularity.

Its long history and wide use have also contributed to a plethora of pre-written scripts being available on the Internet. Many of these scripts, such as ones to submit an email form, can be easily edited and used, even by relative novices.

Disadvantages

CGI scripts are not without disadvantages, especially as it relates to the performance of a server. Poorly written scripts can get caught in endless loops, eating up system resources.

CGI scripts suffer from scalability limitations as well. Because the server has to spawn a new process each time a script is called, websites that process many requests in a short period of time can quickly be overwhelmed or slowed to a crawl.

For these reasons, many developers choose more robust alternatives for anything but the most basic application.

Points to Remember

CGI continues to be a viable way of submitting information and generating dynamic content by providing a method for a Web browser to run an executable script.

While CGi is simple-to-use, there are many alternatives that provide superior capabilities and performance.

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About WhoIsHostingThis Team

Our writing team comes from all over the world with diverse backgrounds in the arts and sciences. But what links them is their passion for the internet. All together they represent many decades of experience working in all facets of it – from programming and hardware creation to website design and marketing.

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Comments

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Timothy Jacobs

June 16, 2019

SiteGround just told me CGI had been removed “for security reasons”. You might want to reevaluate their inclusion on this list.

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Toni Allen

June 26, 2019

Thanks for the heads-up, Timothy — we’ll investigate and update the page to match.