Who to use for a web host?

[Doppel]

I'm in need of a host for a API. Cost needs to be low, but uptime has to be as high as possible.

This API will use either MS SQL + WCF or MySQL + PHP.

If this were several years ago I'd gravitate toward the open source option because it was certainly cheaper, but it seems like windows hosts are now ridiculously inexpensive. Godaddy with an MS SQL DB and asp.net for $4/month; winhost.com same thing for $4.99/month. Am I missing something--are there any gotchas? I'm surprised MS licensing allows it...

For familiarity's sake I'd prefer Microsoft, and if I can get a host for $5/month perhaps there is no reason not to.

Windows Azure would be nice, but likely too pricey for the moment.

Is there a go-to that is commonly advised for a cheap host--one that most people hold in high regard and is good to work with?

 

[Markbnj]

The default for me these days is EC2 on Amazon Web Services. You can get a micro for free to test the deployment, and then scale up as needed.

I have a centos box at Rochen for $12.95/mo., and they are very good imo. Best I've dealt with in terms of performance and support. But that seems above your price point.

 

[tfinch2]

Windows Azure would be nice, but likely too pricey for the moment.

Did you even look? Azure has some free options. 20 MB database with up to 500k requests a month is free.

 

[Doppel]

I did look briefly at azure and it wasn't outrageous but I really have no idea how much I will need to scale this (if at all !). If it works out the API will be heavy on requests but light on the data involved in each one, also very light on CPU as the requests are tiny database requests.

I think $10-15/month would be okay.

Hmm in fact ec2 or azure may be worth looking at. Either one would absolutely remove uptime from the picture and I can then claim at some future time some modicum of experience with either one .

 

[DaveSimmons]

One issue with EC2 is running a mail server -- when I looked earlier this year there were heavy restrictions on email traffic from instances. I haven't looked at Azure's policy.

If you don't care about mail service Amazon's a good choice.

http://myhosting.com/ has "pretty good" uptime and has been around for over a decade but if Azure will work for you that's probably better.

 

[Leros]

The default for me these days is EC2 on Amazon Web Services. You can get a micro for free to test the deployment, and then scale up as needed.

I have a centos box at Rochen for $12.95/mo., and they are very good imo. Best I've dealt with in terms of performance and support. But that seems above your price point.

EC2 is more expensive than other VPS providers if you need continuous uptime.

I've been pretty happy with Digital Ocean for my VPS needs.

 

[Train]

One issue with EC2 is running a mail server -- when I looked earlier this year there were heavy restrictions on email traffic from instances. I haven't looked at Azure's policy.

If you don't care about mail service Amazon's a good choice.

http://myhosting.com/ has "pretty good" uptime and has been around for over a decade but if Azure will work for you that's probably better.

Last I heard, Azure blocks running any type of mail server on a VM outright. Or maybe they just make it extremely difficult.

I imagine cloud offerings are ripe for abuse by spammers, easily spin up new servers under new IP's all damn day.

 

[Markbnj]

EC2 is more expensive than other VPS providers if you need continuous uptime.

I've been pretty happy with Digital Ocean for my VPS needs.

Yeah, the economics of scaling production hardware is not my specialty. From a development and early deployment standpoint Amazon has some nice tools, and you can get everything you need for free at the beginning.

We currently relay email notifications from AWS through gmail, but that's very low volume as we're in the alpha testing stages of our current system. Not sure what we're going to do at scale yet.

 

[Train]

Yeah, the economics of scaling production hardware is not my specialty. From a development and early deployment standpoint Amazon has some nice tools, and you can get everything you need for free at the beginning.

We currently relay email notifications from AWS through gmail, but that's very low volume as we're in the alpha testing stages of our current system. Not sure what we're going to do at scale yet.

Two options I've had good experiences with: MailGun and SendGrid

SendGrid is great if you only want to send mail.

MailGun can send mail, but is not as fully featured as SendGrid. MailGun's true power is in it's ability to handle incoming mail and parse them into API calls back to your app. Really nice if you want people to be able to upload files (think Evernote or Basecamp) just by attaching it to an email and sending it in. Or if you want to just respond to an email from a ticketing system instead of logging in to add a comment.

 

[Leros]

Two options I've had good experiences with: MailGun and SendGrid

SendGrid is great if you only want to send mail.

MailGun can send mail, but is not as fully featured as SendGrid. MailGun's true power is in it's ability to handle incoming mail and parse them into API calls back to your app. Really nice if you want people to be able to upload files (think Evernote or Basecamp) just by attaching it to an email and sending it in. Or if you want to just respond to an email from a ticketing system instead of logging in to add a comment.

I use MailGun and I'm liking it.

 

[Crusty]

Two options I've had good experiences with: MailGun and SendGrid

SendGrid is great if you only want to send mail.

MailGun can send mail, but is not as fully featured as SendGrid. MailGun's true power is in it's ability to handle incoming mail and parse them into API calls back to your app. Really nice if you want people to be able to upload files (think Evernote or Basecamp) just by attaching it to an email and sending it in. Or if you want to just respond to an email from a ticketing system instead of logging in to add a comment.

I'm very impressed with SendGrid. Very easy to setup for my Rails app and their control panel certainly has lots of info and tools.

 

[Leros]

Yeah, the economics of scaling production hardware is not my specialty. From a development and early deployment standpoint Amazon has some nice tools, and you can get everything you need for free at the beginning.

We currently relay email notifications from AWS through gmail, but that's very low volume as we're in the alpha testing stages of our current system. Not sure what we're going to do at scale yet.

I try not to use proprietary tools so that I can have flexibility when it comes to switching providers or using multiple providers for provider-level redundancy.

 

[Train]

I'm very impressed with SendGrid. Very easy to setup for my Rails app and their control panel certainly has lots of info and tools.

I especially like that it comes free (25k a month plan) with a Softlayer server.

 

[Markbnj]

Two options I've had good experiences with: MailGun and SendGrid

SendGrid is great if you only want to send mail.

MailGun can send mail, but is not as fully featured as SendGrid. MailGun's true power is in it's ability to handle incoming mail and parse them into API calls back to your app. Really nice if you want people to be able to upload files (think Evernote or Basecamp) just by attaching it to an email and sending it in. Or if you want to just respond to an email from a ticketing system instead of logging in to add a comment.

This is actually very timely info. Thanks.

 

[ringtail]

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