When to migrate hosting?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=529693

by Everest • 17 years ago

2 4 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I am developing a web application that we hope to one day turn into a high-traffic website. Our site is currently in a shared hosting account which is fine because it is in private alpha and has only a handful of users. As we move towards beta and eventually our release, we will need to migrate hosting to a virtual host. For those with experience building a web app, when did you decide to migrate? Is it better to move earlier or wait until you have enough traffic that it makes sense to move?

mahmud• 17 years ago

It's just a good idea to always have a $20/mo vps unix account. Just far less headache for just twice the price of a shared host. For one thing, it will allow you to have a platform to test several versions of your app; you can run several instances of a web app and use a proxy to direct incoming traffic to one of them based on your own criteria. You have a full blow Unix environment, install every oddball development tool you want, it's just you.

patio11• 17 years ago

A starter level VPS account costs $20 a month, which is rounding error next to the amount of engineering effort you'll expend doing a changeover on a live site. I'd move it before you start beta. If it costs you $15 a month extra times a year until you "need" the VPS, oh well, cost of doing business.

asnyder• 17 years ago

Please use Ask HN: in the title of future questions. This way users can instantly recognize when a question is being asked, rather than the default assumption that this is a link.

bcx• 17 years ago

Try a place like slicehost.com or linode.com where you can seamlessly upgrade your account over time. Both start around $20 a month, and both will let you instantly upgrade your account. That said -- if you have a good growth trajectory, you will know when you've reached the limit of your current hosting company. But honestly, the most you'd save is about $120 a year, so if your serious about your project, I'd start with a virtual server you can upgrade on the fly, it will cost you less than you spend on 2-3 months of your cellphone service (depending on plan).

When to migrate hosting?

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