Your project works perfectly on XAMPP. You can log in, navigate, add records, and export PDFs. But when a recruiter or interviewer asks “can I see it running?” — you have to say no, because it only exists on your laptop. A live URL changes everything.

“Live demo: https://hospital-demo.infinityfree.net” on a CV turns a description into evidence. A recruiter who can click and see your system running in 30 seconds is significantly more impressed than one reading “I built a hospital management system in PHP.” This guide gets you from XAMPP to live server in one afternoon.

Step 1 — Choose Your Free Hosting

For student portfolio projects, you do not need paid hosting. These options are genuinely free with no credit card required and support PHP + MySQL — exactly what Codezips projects need:

This tutorial uses InfinityFree — it is the most reliable free option for PHP/MySQL projects, has cPanel, and your site stays up 24/7. Sign up at infinityfree.com (no credit card required). After creating an account and a hosting account, you get access to a cPanel dashboard.

Step 2 — Prepare Your Project Files for Upload

Before uploading anything, do four things to your project files on your local machine:

2a — Remove your database credentials from the connection file

Your XAMPP config probably has username: root and password: (empty). The live server will have different credentials. You need to update the config file after you create the live database. For now, note where your credentials are stored.

<?php
// config/dbconnection.php
// XAMPP values (local):      → Live server values (you will fill these in Step 5)
$host     = 'localhost';      // stays 'localhost' on most hosts
$dbname   = 'hospital_db';    // → your InfinityFree database name
$username = 'root';           // → your InfinityFree DB username
$password = '';              // → your InfinityFree DB password

$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $username, $password, $dbname);
if (!$conn) {
    die('Connection failed: ' . mysqli_connect_error());
}
?>

2b — Export your database from phpMyAdmin

1. Open XAMPP → click phpMyAdmin (or go to localhost/phpmyadmin)
2. Click your project database in the left panel (e.g. hospital_db)
3. Click the Export tab at the top
4. Format: SQL — leave all other settings as default
5. Click Export — this downloads a .sql file to your computer. Save it as database_export.sql

2c — Create a ZIP of your project files

Select your entire project folder (e.g. hospital_management/) and compress it to a .zip file. This makes uploading much faster than transferring files individually — especially useful for projects with many files.

Step 3 — Upload Your Files via FileZilla (FTP)

FileZilla is a free FTP client. Download it from filezilla-project.org. Your InfinityFree hosting account shows your FTP credentials in the cPanel dashboard under “FTP Accounts.”

1. Open FileZilla. In the top bar: Host = your FTP hostname from InfinityFree (e.g. ftpupload.net), Username and Password = from your hosting dashboard, Port = 21. Click Quickconnect.
2. In the right panel (remote server), navigate to the htdocs or public_html folder — this is where your website files must go.
3. In the left panel (your computer), navigate to your project folder.
4. Select your project ZIP file on the left, drag it to public_html on the right. Wait for the upload to complete (progress shows in the bottom panel).
5. After uploading, right-click the ZIP in the right panel and look for an Extract option — or use cPanel File Manager to extract it (login to cPanel → File Manager → navigate to public_html → right-click the zip → Extract).

Step 4 — Create and Migrate Your Database

This is the most important step. On InfinityFree you need to: (1) create a new database, (2) create a database user, (3) import your SQL file.

1. In InfinityFree cPanel, click MySQL Databases
2. Under “Create New Database,” enter a name (e.g. hospital) — note that InfinityFree prefixes it with your account ID automatically, giving you something like epiz_12345678_hospital
3. Under “Create New User,” enter a username and password — note these down carefully
4. Under “Add User to Database,” add your new user to your new database with All Privileges
5. Now open phpMyAdmin from the cPanel dashboard
6. Select your new database in the left panel
7. Click the Import tab
8. Choose your database_export.sql file and click Import
9. Wait — you should see a green success message when done

Write down your live database credentials — you need them in the next step:

Host:     localhost  (almost always localhost — confirm in your cPanel)
DB Name:  epiz_12345678_hospital  (the full prefixed name InfinityFree gave you)
Username: epiz_12345678_youruser  (also prefixed)
Password: [the password you created in Step 4]

Step 5 — Update Your Config File on the Live Server

Now update the dbconnection.php on the live server with your live database credentials. Use FileZilla or cPanel File Manager to open and edit the file directly on the server.

<?php
// LIVE SERVER config — replace these with your InfinityFree database details
$host     = 'localhost';
$dbname   = 'epiz_12345678_hospital';  // ← your full DB name from cPanel
$username = 'epiz_12345678_youruser';  // ← your DB username
$password = 'YourSecurePassword123';   // ← your DB password

$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $username, $password, $dbname);
if (!$conn) {
    die('Connection failed: ' . mysqli_connect_error());
}
?>

Also check your file paths

On XAMPP your paths might start with C:/xampp/htdocs/project/. On a live server, absolute paths use /home/username/public_html/project/. Always use __DIR__ or relative paths in your PHP includes to avoid path issues:

// Bad — hardcoded path that breaks on live server:
require_once 'C:/xampp/htdocs/hospital/config/dbconnection.php';

// Good — relative path from current file:
require_once '../config/dbconnection.php';

// Best — absolute path using __DIR__ (works everywhere):
require_once __DIR__ . '/../config/dbconnection.php';

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Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated April 2026. InfinityFree hosting details verified April 2026. FileZilla 3.67 used for screenshots. Database migration steps tested on InfinityFree + phpMyAdmin.