With the rapid development of the Internet, hosting services have mushroomed and the competition among them is fiercer! Users tend to buy hosting that is affordable, has good security, high speed, good service, and so on. As for developers, guys, even girls working with computers year-round, what kind of hosting is really suitable for them, and whether regular hosting has good support for developers?
Skip the general articles about free hosting, cheap hosting, just see which hosting developers should use! I’m going to analyze the following aspects:
- What kind of web or app that hosting can be used for?
- What are the advantages of that hosting for coders?
- What are the downsides or limitations of the free plan?
I also divide hosting into 2 types: server hosting (VPS) and static hosting.
And here are the hot names you should not ignore:
Server Hosting (VPS)
Amazon Web Service - AWS
Amazon Web Service is one of the most popular and widely used cloud platforms today. AWS provides a variety of databases for different types of applications and websites. So feel free to choose the tools you need.
The biggest advantage of AWS is its security capabilities with up to 230 features and compliance, administration, and security services. For developers, AWS has a full toolkit with a variety of services to build, test, deploy code, ...
Amazon has a free 1 year Cloud VPS package, including many development services for Web Apps, VPS, Email Services ... In addition, AWS provides some free services that never expire.
However, this free package limits bandwidth (storage capacity, usage time, ...) depending on different services.
After 1 year, if you want to continue with AWS, you only have to pay for the services you use.
Azure - Microsoft Cloud Hosting service
Microsoft is not only good at creating computer software and Windows, but they also provide a cloud hosting service called Azure. Azure Cloud Hosting supports multiple operating systems, frameworks, databases, programming languages, and devices.
Azure has 4 support tools for developers: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, SDKs, Visual Studio Subscriptions. Or you can develop and deploy Azure with addons for tools like Eclipse, IntelliJ, and Maven.
Take advantage of Azure hosting as you can create any application or web with this hosting.
If you sign up for Free Trial Cloud VPS, you will have 1 month of trial for this hosting service. Especially, when you sign up for Visual Studio Dev Essential, you will get 1 year of free Azure (with some other tools) and $200 Credits for the first month. This free plan includes all the services that are always free and about 24 premium services. After the expiration, your account will not be deducted for renewal so rest assured!
Read more about how to install and use Microsoft Azure hosting.
Google Cloud Service
Google Cloud has good productivity thanks to the adoption of new and innovative technology and is even updated weekly. In particular, you can access information from anywhere in the world through Web-based applications of Google Cloud. Youtube, Chrome, Google Apps, Google Maps, Google Search, ... are the applications that use this cloud service.
For developers, Google Cloud has a tool called Google Cloud developer tools to help write, deploy and debug applications using this hosting.
You will get $300 free credits right after signing up for Google Cloud for the first time. However, you also have limited traffic and bandwidth when using the free package.
Static Hosting
Github Page
Github Page is the place to host static web pages from the Github repository for web apps.
Pros: easy sync between your repository and Github Page. So when you use this hosting, each time you update the repository, the changes are synced to your GitHub Page right away.
However, Github Page only allows running static HTML pages. As for other languages such as PHP or using database, you have to find other ways to run.
The free package of Github Page has some disadvantages such as:
- Source code is limited to 1G
- You cannot post pages larger than 1 GB
- Bandwidth limit 100GB / month
- Limited to 10 builds per hour
Netlify
Netlify is a free hosting for web apps, which connects and gets source code from the repository on GitHub. This hosting allows building high-speed loading static pages and integrates with the tools you need in the JAMstack ecosystem.
Netlify also has tools for developers such as:
- Netlify Build: Build, deploy and manage projects with Git workflow.
- Netlify Dev: Build and test apps on local machines.
- Netlify Edge: A new type of application delivery network that is custom-designed for fast sites and modern workflows.
In addition, Netlify is equipped with advanced features such as deploy previews, pain-free site updates, and rollbacks (which Github does not yet have).
The advantage of this free hosting is that it is easy to register thanks to the integrated DNS management system and SSL certificates.
You can use Netlify for free for lifetime with 100GB of free bandwidth.
Vercel
Vercel is an ideal place to deploy frontend projects, especially teamwork projects, as it supports deploy previews for each code change (by integrating with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket). Vercel's flexibility and extensibility are a big plus.
Vercel has a lifetime free plan with 100GB of free bandwidth and unlimited websites and APIs. But with this package, you can only deploy from the Github, GitLab, and Bitbucket personal accounts.
Surge
Surge is a static hosting for frontend development so you can deploy and host web app projects. The advantage of Surge is that it is easy to install and use, can publish code quickly, and only takes a few commands to deploy. Besides, you can add your personal domain to the project, share the project with others.
Surge can be used for free for a lifetime for countless publications. But if you want to use it for unlimited projects or have features like custom SSL, switch from HTTP to HTTPS, custom redirects you have to buy the pro package.
Firebase Hosting
Firebase Hosting is a managed hosting for both static, dynamic, and microservice pages. So you can use PHP language and configure the database. With just a few commands, you can quickly deploy web apps to the CDN. You can also create multi-sites, connect domain names to the site hosted by Firebase, ...
The free package gives you A / B testing, data analysis, App Indexing, and App Distribution. But it also limits bandwidth as below table:
Verdict
Hopefully, you have gained a better understanding of some popular hosting services, their advantages, and disadvantages. There are also other hosting services that you can refer to such as heroku.com, render.com, oracle.com. You can consult more and choose a suitable hosting offline. Wish you have more successful projects!
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A useful summary of the dev hosting market. I had GCS, but did not use it to its extent.
Now I am working with Meta Box, this may change.
Got a useful overview of the best developers-friendly hosting providers. I think the info and comparison provided in this article will be very much helpful to choose the right hosting for a developer. Thanks for sharing.