Who is your preferred Web Hosting provider and choice package (VPS, Cloud, Shared) for web apps?

Question

I'm building a Ruby on Rails web app, tied in with a social media like website. As I was researching hosting providers, I realized that this is a whole new ballpark compared to picking website hosters for a mere simple website. What should I be on the look out for specifically in the case of Rails application? Would VPS be best, unmanaged or managed? Mind you, at first I don't expect many users. So I need upgradability. I imagine shared would be bad, would cloud do? And if so, from whom? What do you think?

Answer 1

You can consider DigitalOcean, it's a cloud hosting. Good documentation to guide you setup the server you want.

Answer 2

@calvin Thank you. I'll have to check out DigitalOcean!

Answer 3

I personally like to self host since it gives a ton of control over the server and websites that may result, but you have to also take responsibility for the backend and security of the server as well as keep a computer running the httpd server on 24/7 and have a fast internet connection. If you can't for some reason self host, then I'd recommend OVH as it's cheap and you get a lot of control over your vps account. But, if you are up for the challenge of keeping up a server along with possessing a good internet connection and available computer to run the server, then by all means self host your site.

Answer 4

@spotlighsrule Da-gamer
Thanks for the advice. I'd prefer to avoid running my own. I do have the available capabilities as I'm a hardware junkie, just started half a year ago with programming as opposed to 16 years of experience with hardware and PC.
I'd prefer to pay for hosting and was wondering who offers the best services for Rails, what I should be on the look out for, and if Cloud, VPS, unmanaged or managed would be best as more advanced hosting is relatively new for me.
Thanks again for your time.

Answer 5

Little late to this convo but heroku offers decent free hosting for setting up a rails app you won't expect to receive much traffic. It's also easy to scale up into the non-free tiers as your site grows.