how many custom options a product can have

Question

I am creating a configurable product, i need to add some 52 custom options to that product.

But i am unable to add 23rd option. 22 options and their values are created fine but as soon as I start to create 23rd custom option and save product. It gives message "The product is saved." but 23rd custom option is not there.

EDIT--

I have mix of text, area, checkboxes and radio buttons as product options. I can add text or area as another product option but cannot add another checkbox type. There are already 5 checkboxes types of product options

Answer 1

Please check your PHP settings and test to increase max_input_vars.

For php.ini

max_input_vars = 10000

For .htaccess

php_value max_input_vars 10000

For suhosin also add

suhosin.request.max_vars = 10000
suhosin.post.max_vars = 10000

Answer 2

Custom options don't make a product configurable, these are simply options for a simple product. Configurable product is a set of simple products so you create simple products e.g. Shirt Size S, Shirt Size M, and Shirt size L which all have their own prices which could be same or different and quantity etc. Now a configurable product will hold these products and let end user select sizes. There are certain conditions for creating a configurable product like the attribute that you're creating config product on should be global further read here http://bit.ly/2sMhkvi

Now how many custom options can you add to a simple product is a subjective question, technically as many as you need but obviously you don't want to add 100's because that will be very bad UI. Why your options aren't showing after a certain number could be because of your server resources e.g. php memory issue.