2D tilebased server options?

Hey guys, i searched the forum and found alot of info about servers and i know sort a like questions have been asked, but i need to be sure about this and what the best option realy is.

Anyways, i’m a new developer and i’m making a 2d tiles based strategy game. There will be about 30 players per game and a player can be active in mutliple game at once. For this i need a server to store locations, login, units even some important map values. So many variables will be send back and forth. It also has to be able to run multiplatforn, android and web.

I read about server software like photon and smartfox, which you have to pay for.

On the other hand there is a PHP MySQL options.

Both options seem alright to me, but whats the best one? I’m a student, it really needs to be low budget. I have experience with PHP and MySQL. not so much with C#, which im still learning.

This is the background info, my questions are:

Whats the best option(safety, costs etc)
Where do i get started(How do i connect php to C# does anyone know a good tutorial.)

I hope to get a good answer, and i love good tutorials.

Thanks in advance

I can’t use .Net at android and ios right?

yes u can

If you want to save the data in SQL database there is a plugin you can use to access it directly from unity

I am not sure what is the best option I guess it depends on how much data you send and how many times you update it…

Anyway I would really like to hear more about your game, if you dont mind
Can I contact you somehow? (Skype or somthing)
Maybe I can also help you with the server thing

Thanks for both answers.

@iNoMore

accessing a database directly from unity is a big risk.

my skype is
redlum7, you can contact me there if you want