What you need before you start

Getting your auction website live on shared hosting requires four things to be in place before you touch the installer. If you have all four ready, the actual installation typically takes under an hour.

Choosing the right hosting

Not all shared hosting is created equal, and the right choice depends on your budget, technical comfort level, and expected traffic. Here's a realistic breakdown of the most common options:

Hostinger

Hostinger's Business or Cloud Starter plans are the most affordable option for getting started. Their hPanel interface is clean and beginner-friendly, PHP version switching is straightforward, and their one-click SSL setup via Let's Encrypt works reliably. The trade-off is performance: Hostinger's shared servers are resource-constrained, which works fine for a new platform with modest traffic but can become limiting once you're running concurrent live auctions with dozens of active bidders. Good for: validating your concept, first 6–12 months, low-traffic use cases.

SiteGround

SiteGround sits in the middle tier — more expensive than Hostinger but with noticeably better performance, cPanel-based hosting that most tutorials apply to, and support quality that's genuinely helpful when you run into issues. Their SuperCacher tool adds a caching layer that measurably improves load time for auction listing pages. Good for: launch-stage businesses, buyers who value strong support, Apache/cPanel familiarity.

DigitalOcean (Droplet)

A DigitalOcean Droplet is a VPS (Virtual Private Server), not shared hosting — but its basic Droplet is priced close to shared hosting while offering full root access and significantly better performance. The trade-off is setup complexity: you manage the server stack yourself (Ubuntu, Apache/Nginx, PHP, MySQL). If you're comfortable with a Linux terminal, DigitalOcean is the best option for growth. If you're not, stick to cPanel-based shared hosting for now. Good for: technical buyers, platforms with real growth ambitions, production environments beyond early stage.

Recommendation: Start with Hostinger or SiteGround for simplicity. If your platform grows to the point where shared hosting is a bottleneck — typically around 50+ concurrent users — migrate to a DigitalOcean Droplet. The migration is a copy-paste operation once you know what you're doing.

Setting up your database

Before uploading any files, create a MySQL database in your hosting control panel. In cPanel, the process is under the MySQL Databases section and takes about two minutes:

  1. Click Create New Database, give it a name like auctiondb. Note the full database name (your hosting prefix will be added automatically, e.g. username_auctiondb).
  2. Under MySQL Users, click Create New User. Give it a username and a strong password. Write both down — you'll need them in the installer.
  3. Under Add User to Database, select your new user and database, click Add. On the privileges screen, select All Privileges and click Make Changes.

You now have a blank database ready for the installer. Four pieces of information to note: database name (with prefix), database username (with prefix), database password, and database host (almost always localhost on shared hosting).

Uploading the files

Open your hosting's File Manager (in cPanel, it's in the Files section). Navigate to public_html — this is your web root, where your domain's files must live.

Upload the ZIP file you downloaded from your startmymarketplace.com account directly to public_html. Once uploaded, right-click it and choose Extract. After extraction, you should see the script's folders and files directly inside public_html — not inside a subdirectory. If the extraction created a folder like bidking-v2.0, move its contents up one level into public_html itself.

The result should look like: public_html/index.php, public_html/admin/, public_html/install/, public_html/assets/, and so on — with the main index.php at the root. BidKing runs only at the root of a domain or subdomain, not in a subfolder like yourdomain.com/auctions — the installer stops with an explanation if you try. If your main domain already hosts another site, create a subdomain such as auctions.yourdomain.com in your control panel and upload the files to that subdomain's root folder instead.

Running the installer

Navigate to your domain in a browser. Until the site is installed, every page redirects to /install/ — the BidKing installer wizard, a seven-step form that handles the technical setup automatically. If you see a directory listing instead, check that your files are in the correct location and that index.php is present in the document root.

The installer walks through these steps:

The installer writes your configuration file automatically. When it finishes, it closes itself — opening /install/ again takes you to the admin sign-in, so there is no installer file to delete by hand.

Configuring payment gateways

Log into the admin panel using the credentials you set during installation. Navigate to Settings → Payment Gateways. You'll see the gateways installed on your site. Switch on the ones your market uses; to add another, install its plugin first.

Setting up Razorpay

Log into your Razorpay Dashboard and go to Settings → API Keys. Generate a Key ID and Key Secret pair (do this in Test mode first). In BidKing's Razorpay settings, paste the Key ID into Public Key and the Key Secret into Secret Key. Select INR as the currency and enable the gateway. Save.

Setting up Stripe

In your Stripe Dashboard, find your Publishable Key and Secret Key under Developers → API Keys. Paste them into the Public Key and Secret Key fields in BidKing's Stripe settings. Start in test mode — Stripe provides test card numbers (4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date, any 3-digit CVV) for end-to-end testing without real money.

Test each gateway before going live by completing a full payment flow: top up a customer wallet with a test card, then check the payment appears in the admin panel and the coins land in the wallet. This catches configuration errors before real buyers encounter them.

Setting up email (SMTP)

Auction platforms are email-heavy: outbid notifications, auction closing alerts, winner confirmation, payment receipts. Reliable email delivery is essential to platform trust. Do not rely on PHP's built-in mail function — it frequently lands in spam and is unreliable on shared hosting.

In the admin panel, go to Settings → Email (SMTP). Configure one of the following:

After configuring SMTP, turn on Enable Email Sending, then use the Send test email button to verify a message arrives in your inbox and is not flagged as spam. The test goes out even while sending is off, so check the switch.

Creating your first auction

With infrastructure in place, run a complete end-to-end test before inviting real users. Every auction needs a category, so first create one under Auctions › Categories. Then go to Auctions › All Auctions, choose New auction and set up a test listing:

Open an incognito browser window and register a test bidder account using a secondary email address. Top up that account's wallet using a gateway in test mode, then place a bid. Return to your main browser — the bid shows on the listing within a few seconds, as the auction page checks for new bids on a short interval. When the countdown reaches zero, the winner is declared by a scheduled job, so your cron job must be running. Then, as the test bidder, claim the won item through the cart at the winning price and pay with a test card. If the entire cycle works, your platform is ready for real users.

Going live checklist

Before promoting your platform or creating real auctions, run through this checklist:

The installer handles the technical setup. If you hit a snag — permissions error, database connection issue, gateway not loading — ask us on WhatsApp at +91 93399 32830.

Common questions

Can I set up an auction website on shared hosting?

Yes. You need PHP 8.2 or newer, MySQL or MariaDB, the mysqli, json, curl, openssl and sodium extensions, and mod_rewrite on Apache or LiteSpeed. The installer's first step checks these and tells you what's missing.

Can I install the auction script in a subfolder?

No. BidKing runs only at the root of a domain or subdomain, such as auctions.yourdomain.com. The installer stops with an explanation if you open it from a subfolder.

Do I need a cron job?

Yes. Ending auctions and declaring winners run from a scheduled job, so set a cron job to run cron/dispatch.php every minute. Most shared hosts have a Cron Jobs page in the control panel.

Which payment gateways come with BidKing?

Ten are ready to use in every edition, including Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay. More gateways, including regional ones and crypto, are sold separately as add-ons.

BidKing — self-hosted PHP auction script One-time licence in three editions (Starter, Plus, Pro). English, penny, reverse and sealed-bid auctions, with 10 ready-to-use payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal and Razorpay.
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