A while ago I created a discussion on static sites and you gave some extended insights on options available 👍
Often you need to expand the functionality of the site, and that's where you write some server-side code. Where do you host it?
I'm aware of options like Heroku, Vercel, AWS, Google Cloud and Digital Ocean. Which one do you prefer and why do you like it?
Oldest comments (41)
I host it in Vultr VPS. It is relatively stable and I didn't encounter any downtime. I tried using Namecheap and Google Cloud, but they are either more expensive or have additional, incurring charges, which they did not mention them when you open an account. For example: Google Cloud charges me some 3 dollars when I have to use their DNS service.
For better night sleep, it's always a good practice to choose something in the lines of 'free forever' or guarantees static fee in some other way 😃😃
I never had to pay for Google DNS, even before I had a new Google account.
And Google Cloud Run is a very-cheap-for-some-reasons pay-as-you-go. I know I am very small, though.
My only favorite is Digital Ocean. It's cheap and highly configurable to any of my expectations. Dismantle the configuration anytime to save money.
What's the learning curve on it? 👀
Very few clicks, clean user interface, like adding or dismantle CPU, memory, or storage just a few clicks away. Unlike AWS or Azure, you have no idea what's going on the screen. Like you need to have certified to use their products.
No wonder AWS and Azure is often skill requirements in job posts 😃😃
That's their usual monopoly strategy. They just make things look harder to use. It's pretty the same product as Digital Ocean.
I still stuck in my eyes that DigitalOcean lowest tier is 5 USD / mo. But AWS LightSail starts at 3.5 USD / mo.
If it is only SSH into the remote VM, I bet any providers would be the same. Therefore, I currently use GCP's Compute Engine, because I have free credits for one year, to run Docker compose.
Yes, I also realize that DigitalOcean give access to varieties of prebuilt images, not just some Dockerized things as well.
5 USD still affordable and cheap to me. When I love a product, I'll stay with it for a very long time.
For people proficient enough to manage their own servers, my preferred choice is an own VPS. Mine is hosted at contabo.com, but there are tons of providers in that price range. I also set up monitoring and stuff. For quick-start projects I'd probably go with Vercel or nodechef.
My favorite is GCP hosted fully-managed Docker platform -- Google Cloud Run. However, it allows only stateless Docker, that maybe connected to GCP's services.
But, when I need it stateful, I use Google Compute Engine. Though, I believe AWS Lightsail is amongst the cheapest, even cheaper than DigitalOcean. I used it to host Docker compose.
As long as I still have free credits for GCP (for one year), at least...
I am bit of old school I guess.
For PHP stuff I do like the shared hosting thing or anything with WHM/cPanel. It's very convenient and I don't want to manage the server.
For non PHP I do run my own thing with linode/digital ocean + Debian or Ubuntu 18.04.
Personally I have my linode instance for tinkering(Running DnD/meme bots for discord) and am satisfied with it.
I did try Heroku & OpenShift but it was way back(2014 I guess ?) and I don't think I used them for a day.
Not really tried AWS or GC or Azure extensively so no comments on either of them.
Most Economic Way: A2Hosting
Otherwise AWS Elastic Beanstalk is best.
The amount of AWS products is mind-blowing. 🌌
Currently I'm mostly using Heroku too 😉
Planning to look more into Vercel and Firebase 👍
Haha Mazda
^ high quality comment
Vultr, it has been quite stable (we don't have too many servers to know), widely available in many locations, cheap, simple UI, strong enough API.
If I have to choose an alternative then digital ocean seems like a good one with many ready to use services so I don't have to maintain my own.
My favorite above everything is OVH... super cheap, profesional...