Shared hosting is powered by a control panel like cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, etc. that have been around before services like Heroku started to appear.
They're similar in intent, but very different in practice. To deploy on a PaaS you make certain assumptions in your web application so it can be started simultaneously in several servers and have ephemeral storage. This means stuff like storing image uploads might not work as you intend, as you might need to use external services like S3 to store uploads. Shared hosting is more traditional, giving you access to a filesystem where you can store uploads without relying on external services like S3.
The disadvantage of shared hosting it's not easy to scale horizontally as a PaaS. Scale horizontally is using multiple servers for your web app. Scale vertically is like increasing your server's RAM.
Orangehost is a very good option. There is even Wappler tutorials on it. Very cheap and fantastic support. My main work projects are on HostPapa but I have recently moved my personal projects to OrangeHost. I am very happy with OrangeHost and they even support Node.js which is a bonus. And I always know how much I am paying.
haha this pretty much sums it up. Thanks @apple I needed that in my misery haha.
Ok.. so
DO = no good.
Heroku = no good.
Orangehost = maybe good?
The easiest to set up seems to be OrangeHost, but I'm 100% judging that on the fact that it's the only solution I've found where there is a solid step by step guide. The reason I didn't go with OrangeHost is because of what you pointed out about scaling. From what I can tell OrangeHost is mainly for static sites, WP and the likes. Not sure it's suitable to run a Saas type product on?
This is a misconception. OrangeHost is a very viable option. Starting at $2 a month but can scale up depending on your needs. I currently have five projects hosted on OrangeHost for $2/month (on one account) and no issues at all.
Thanks @brad. Without being too nosy, can I ask what type of projects those are?
At a few bucks a month, I might as well try it I guess. I'm too old to have any hair left, but if I did I would have ripped it all out already after all this.
Pretty much your standard PHP sites with MySQL Databases. I do have a Node.js test project that uses and tests such things as WebSockets. But to be honest the only reason I am not moving my main work projects which are quite large to them is my work projects are required to be hosted on servers located in Canada as we do government work. Otherwise, I would move them to OrangeHost in a minute.
Haha, I probably still have you beat. I think only Brian and Ben have me beat on here when it comes to age.
Well if it's good for Ottawa it's good for me I guess. I will try and set up OrangeHost later on and see if that's my lucky ticket. I'm not building a new google here, I just need it to be able to support 100-200 users who searches a database which I populate through a few different API's
Haha, yes, when compared to Ben and Brian, I still have a few more years before I'm a real grown up.
OrangeHost is hosted in New Jersey I believe. HostPapa has hosting in Canada. That is why I am stuck with HostPapa with my work projects. Unfortunately HostPapa does not support Node.js on shared hosting.
But if OrangeHost had Canadian hosting I would switch for sure for my work projects.
Great to see another Canadian here! Im from Williams Lake, BC.
Thats realiy lightweight, well within the scope of pretty much any server.
Scaling to multiserver setups are typically in the tens or even 100,000+ users with heavy traffic
It's a very niche offering aimed at a certain industry and a certain group within that industry. I don't think there's even 100.000 of them in the whole market. And nevertheless, if this project were to amass 100k users, I don't need a multi server set up anyway, I will be on a beach before I get even close to those numbers.
In my case I have some droplets (a few Nodejs with nginx and a few php with apache) on digital ocean and all seems good.
In fact, more than good.
But all of them with regular sftp...
It's true that there is a new learning curve that will take you some time, so just be patience.
If you're starting with php and mysql this is a great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOTkZdOXdjE
In the video description you'll find some more info.
Was enough for me on the old days when I was pretty lost.
Also, all seems to be linux based, so a very standar logic, that means chatgpt can give some answers if you need it. (For example, if you're using a droplet with ubuntu: how to create a new user for sftp on ubuntu?)
Don't forget that this community will help you too!
