IonCube Loader is a software tool, that is needed to run files that are encrypted with ionCube PHP Encoder. The latter is an app which is used to make PHP code human unreadable, in order to protect it from reverse engineering or not authorized usage. Many script-driven applications, particularly community forums, content management systems and e-commerce solutions are protected with ionCube PHP Encoder, therefore when you acquire a script and you find that ionCube is among the hosting environment prerequisites, you have to make sure that your website hosting server has the tool pre-installed. While it's not that hard to install it when you have your own server, it is almost impossible to do that on a shared hosting server since the PHP environment shall have to be precompiled and all clients on the server shall be affected.
IonCube in Cloud Hosting
IonCube Loader is available with all cloud hosting packages which we provide, so when you require it in order to install and run a script app which requires it, you can activate it with a click from the Advanced section of the Hepsia Control Panel. Due to the fact that you're able to switch the PHP version that is active for your account from the same section, you'll have to enable the instrument for any new version which you set. If you are more experienced, you're able to use 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 whole account. This way you will be able to operate both new and older script apps for multiple sites within the same account - something that you can't do with a lot of other web hosting suppliers on the market.