using mod_fcgid instead of mod_php

mod_php:

• a bit faster, than mod_fcgid
• runs under httpd process
• have access to apache api ( de.php.net/manual/en/ref.apache.php )
• bad for shared hosting, since all domains run under the same user

mod_fcgid:

• scripts runs under the user you want (good for shared hosting)
• enhanced security
• can run more than just php
• you can rund multiple php versions i.e. php4, php5, php5.1, php5.2, php 5.3

On my shared hosting platform I use FastCGI to run PHP through rather than calling it directly. They run PHP via CGI by default rather than as a module so for me it was just a matter of adding the following to my .htaccess file:

 AddHandler application/myphp .php
 Action application/myphp /cgi-bin/myphp.fcgi

Next I had to create the myphp.fcgi script in my cgi-bin directory containing:

#!/bin/sh

# This ensures PHP doesn't try to run it's own
# process manager.
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=0

# Replace this shell image with a PHP
# image.
exec /path/to/php -c /path/to/my/php.ini

This runs flawlessly for me and my hosting environment is running within a cluster of almost a dozen servers behind a hardware load balancer.