IonCube Loader is a tool, that is necessary to run files that are encoded with ionCube PHP Encoder. The latter is an app designed to make PHP code human unreadable, in order to protect it from reverse engineering or illegal usage. A lot of script-driven applications, particularly message boards, content management systems and e-commerce solutions are protected with ionCube PHP Encoder, therefore when you buy a script and you find that ionCube is on the list of hosting environment requirements, you should ensure that your hosting server has the instrument pre-installed. Although it's not that difficult to install it if you have your own server, it's close to impossible to do that on a shared web hosting server since the PHP environment shall have to be precompiled and all of the clients on the server shall be affected.
IonCube in Cloud Hosting
IonCube Loader is available with all cloud hosting plans which we offer, so if you need it to set up and run a script app that needs it, you can activate it with a click in the Advanced section of the Hepsia Control Panel. Because you are able to change the PHP version that's active for your account in the same section, you will have to enable the tool for each new version that you set. If you're more skillful, you'll be able to take advantage of a php.ini file in a domain or subdomain folder and set both the PHP version as well as the status of ionCube Loader for that particular website only, without affecting the entire account. This way you are able to operate both new and older script apps for multiple websites in the same account - something that you can't do with lots of other hosting service providers available on the market.