Ask HN: MVP built Django/MySQL/ElastSearch. Where should I host/buy domain?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8084492

by lnchmx • 12 years ago

2 4 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Developing locally on my laptop, my MVP finally looks good to push out to the real world. In order to do that, I need to purchase my domain name and host my code somewhere. Where is the best place to buy that domain name, and where can I host my product (which depends on Django/MySQL/Elasticsearch) in a cost effective manner?

ccvannorman• 12 years ago

Amazon (AWS) can host sites, and you can use a microinstance for free but your address will be xx.xx.xx.xx instead of mycoolapp.com.

For AWS you need to do a bit of setup/sysadmin to keep it running, and cost can be high if you don't know what you're doing (twice I've gotten a surprise bill for hundreds of dollars because I left a large instance active).

For getting your own domain, any registrar (name.com will do) and you can simply point mycoolapp.com to your xx.xx.xx.xx (with a bit of setup).

mattkrea• 12 years ago

I'd recommend DigitalOcean for servers. I've got a few servers there as well as all my domains transferred to their name servers.

I'd recommend Namecheap for purchasing domains.

webmaven• 12 years ago

With minor adjustments, you can probably deploy your Django app on Google App Engine using Cloud SQL for storage, but ElasticSearch would probably have to be replaced: https://developers.google.com/appengine/training/fts_intro/

The nice thing is that you get free quotas for resources every month (ie., you don't start paying until you start succeeding)!: https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/quotas

Blueliner• 12 years ago

I would second Amazon Web Services but I believe the free instance is only good for a year (my free time ended after a year for a micro-instance). Although many here would suggest GoogleAppEngine I avoid Google products for business critical anything just because I have found their support to be very poor or non-existent.

For a domain registrar I have used Register.com (avoid like the plague), GoDaddy and most recently transferred a couple dozen domains to NameSilo (http://www.namesilo.com/). I had used GoDaddy for years when they were among the cheapest but since their private equity buyout and IPO they have eliminated all their discounts for existing customers and renewals which makes their pricing uncompetitive. NameSilo has great pricing (among the lowest based on my research), they have a good system and clean interface/dashboard, I completed the transfers from GoDaddy to NameSilo within an hour by following their instructions exactly and so far have been very happy with their service. I considered NameCheap which a lot of HNers seem to use but NameCheap doesn't offer any live phone support only email and chat which was a complete non-starter for me. I had a few questions about NameSilo's services and pricing and made a couple of calls their support line which were answered by a live human with no wait and they knew their stuff and answered what I needed. It is a great value with their registrar systems/services, pricing and live phone support.

I still have some domain names with GoDaddy but as soon as they come up for renewal I will transfer them to NameSilo and I will be glad to not have to deal with GoDaddy' frustrating support people who just want to sell you crap as well as not missing the non-stop barrage of promotional crap they send to you which before they eliminated their discount coupons you had to receive in order to get their no longer available discounts.

Good luck to you...

Ask HN: MVP built Django/MySQL/ElastSearch. Where should I host/buy domain?

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