Where I host my Rails applications 22
I often get asked for recommendations on where to host real, production Rails applications. I can't give one definitive answer; however, I can give a short rundown of the hosting products I've used for my various stuff. Yes, I've tried lots of different products from different companies. Mostly because I am easily distracted by shiny objects.
Also see topfunky's similar rundown from last year around this time if you're in the market for Rails hosting. And of course, this list only represents my own personal experience with these companies and products.
Rimuhosting
Products: 640MB VPS x 2, dual quad-core Xeon dedicated x 3
Used for: This site, my small business (VPS), and for a client (dedicated)
Cost: $50/month (VPS), $299/month (dedicated)
I first learned about Rimuhosting at RailsConf 2006 when I was shopping around for hosting providers myself. I started with a 256MB VPS for this site, and have used them for most of my actual, pay-the-bills kinda stuff ever since. I think the VPS I use for my small business has gone down (maybe) twice in the time I've been with them, once was for scheduled maintenance. A small team of speedy and responsive support staff has always been helpful. Their dedicated server product was not quite as stellar. It's a pretty standard product that has had some intermittent issues. Overall though, I highly recommend Rimuhosting.
Joyent (Textdrive)
Products: "Startup" and "Plus" shared hosting
Used for: Coastr, e-mail, subversion, static sites
Cost: $50/month for "Plus", and $400 "for life"
Right there, on the front page of rubyonrails.com, you'll see that Joyent (once Textdrive) is the "official" Ruby on Rails hosting company. I've been a customer since 2005, when they offered their "VC" plans at $400 for lifetime hosting. Unfortunately, I've been disappointed. I know there's a lot of issues with Rails shared hosting in general, but I've just had too many experiences with server crashes, downtime, sluggish performance, and slow support to recommend Joyent. I've heard some positive things about their VPS product ("Accelerators") but I'm afraid I won't be trying it myself anytime soon.
Slicehost
Products: 512MB VPS
Used for: Super-secret things
Cost: $38/month
One thing's for sure: the price is right. I haven't used Slicehost to host any production applications as of yet, but I've been more than happy with the initial experience and the slick control panel they provide to every customer. The only downside is that demand was high when I signed up, and I had to wait a few days for my account to be set up. But I think that's more or less a non-issue now.
Rails Machine
Products: 256MB VPS
Used for: Small app for a client
Cost: $75/month
The cost is definitely a bit higher than the product with the same specs at Rimuhosting or Slicehost. However, co-founder Bradley Taylor (author of mongrel_cluster) does this stuff in his sleep, and you definitely get the warm fuzzies with him at the helm. Communication and support is great, and Bradley himself often sends and replies to e-mails. The railsmachine gem and the made-for-Rails deployment experience make Rails Machine a pleasure to work with.
Planet Argon
Products: Shared hosting
Used for: Client
Cost: $40/month
I haven't worked with Planet Argon since I helped a client launch a site there almost two years ago. It was pretty standard as far as shared hosting goes, albeit much more reliable than the other guys. They have a VPS product as well that might be work checking out.
Products I haven't used
... but other people I know rave about.
Engine Yard -- Not so much a hosting provider, more like fully outsourced IT. Everything I've heard about EY has been positive. Sold by the "slice", which is basically a single CPU core with 640MB RAM. Each slice costs between $300-$350 per month, depending on how many you need. So we're talking big bucks for your serious web business, not for that social network for chess-playing cats you've been dabbling with on the side. (Hmmm...)
Rails Playground -- Basically, cheap but decent. Starts at $5/month.
How about you? Any recommendations? Leave us a comment.
My app is "business critical" so I had to go with Engine Yard. Even though you're paying 350+/month, they really do everything for you. If I counted up the hours spent on deploying with another host, it would be well over 350/month. All you need to do is be able to type in your terminal 'cap production deploy' and that's it! I cannot recommend them enough.
I've been using a VPS from Linode at http://www.linode.com, and they've been great, and they were definitely the least expensive of the VPS hosting providers I had looked at.
Thanks for mentioning "Planet Argon":http://planetargon.com. We've had our VPS-based service, "Rails Boxcar":http://railsboxcar.com, launched for the past year and are expanding those offerings in the coming months. :-)
Yeah, I second Justin's mention of Linode. Not only are they inexpensive but they've got great management tools and I've had a better overall experience with them than with Slicehost, who are probably their closest competitor.
Thumbs up.
Another thumbs-up for Linode. Although I also like Slicehost, Linode seems a little faster and I like their controls more than Slicehost. Both have IRC channels and support is great. Communities for both are also active with lots of documentation.
So, though I like them both, Linode wins for their network (3 data centers to choose from), their controls, especially for the uber-sysadmin types, and their capacity.
For Joyent, it looks like you are obviously talking about the FreeBSD shared hosting. If you had taken a spin on the Solaris shared accelerators, you would have noticed that there are less users per shared accelerator, and that they extremely stable. If you have a VC account, I'd recommend that you submit a 'Golden Ticket' upgrade request. See the following Joyent Forum posting for details about getting your 'Golden Ticket' http://discuss.joyent.com/viewtopic.php?id=21592.
@Jacques: Thanks for the info. I've had two accounts (one VC, one business shared) with Joyent/Textdrive for over 2 years and they've never offered me an opportunity to move over to the Accelerators. I can't say I frequent the forums, so it's too bad this is the first time I've heard of it. I probably would have done it sooner and had a more positive experience.
I've been using Rails Playground's shared hosting plans for all my sites since I've been working with Rails (I started on the free "sandbox" plan they used to have) and it's been a pleasure so far, especially because of their outstanding support. Whenever I've needed any help setting things up they've always gotten back to me in a matter of minutes. I recommend them wholeheartedly, if only for that reason.
Hi Brian,
We have been reaching out to customers on the BSD servers since last August via our email newsletter, trying to encourage folks to move. http://www.joyent.com/news/newsletter/
I am sorry you had not seen or heard about this, I must not have a current email address for you. If you want to shoot one my way, I am happy to update your information so we can get the latest news to you.
With that said, there is a golden ticket (or two) with your name on it if you wanted to give the new Joyent environment a try. I would love the opportunity to win your love back.
I have been using WebFaction for over a year and I'd definitely recommend them. Robust servers and friendly customer support.
I would recommend vpslink.com for smallish Rails apps - they have some Rails "quickstart" VPS images, and they have a very active support forum.
For serious dedicated servers, I always use DataPipe. They are expensive, but less so than Rackspace and much more reliable and with a truly dedicated support staff.
We have a couple of VPSs from RimuHosting. Their support has been great, even after I sent them a mail which I wrote for theplanet. :) Hasn't had much trouble with the VPSs. We noticed a performance hit in a VPS during certain hours. Since we haven't followed with them on this issue yet, I cannot say it's an issue. It might well be our apps. I can recommend RimuHosting VPS plans. They give a lot of control for a reasonable price tag.
Also heard that EY is great. Great crowd there, and definitely something to check for mission critical Rails things.
Hi!
I was at TextDrive first, but only for infrastructure (my SVN repo etc) and no application hosting.
Later on I upgraded to the new Joyent Accelerator M as they offered me to do so (a lifetime offer). The machine is very snappy and host my rubyonrails stuff without issues at all.
I have to say I am very happy with their level of service and support, as well with the community over there.
PS: for those willing to experiment with facebook apps, you should check out this : http://joyent.com/developers/facebook/
cheers!
-- Thibaut
I have used Rails Playground for a long time - very simple but useful
I second a couple of choices.
rimuhosting is stand-up. they're great. However, we've moved most of our hosting to slicehost. You can't beat the price for the value those St. Louis Guys offer. I'd definitely recommend slicehost.
I've been tempted by railsmachine. We'll see.
Thanks for the round-up.
I use SilverRack (http://www.silverrack.com). Setup was immediate and support has been good so far.
Is anyone using Site5's Juggernaut plan? They seem to have a good feel for what a good Ruby hosting plan requires and toss it all in with the bundle.
a2hosting.com. As long as you can work on the command line this is a great value / $. Low cost per year and fairly good RoR support.
I've used hostingrails.com for a while with pretty good success. They have responsive support as well.
By far Linode (linode.com) has been the best VPS provider I've ever used. Friendly, professional, serious hardware, and at a very competitive price.
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