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Ask HN: What server would you recommend for a first MVP website?

11 points| Mister_Y | 9 years ago | reply

I'm not looking for anything super fancy, but I want it to be reliable and I'm completely lost on this, if you could help me I'd be forever granted :)

Edit: We used css and html

The thing is that I'm not sure about the amount of people that will land on the page will depend on the success of the marketing/crowdfunding campaign.

Also, the type of application is an easy concept for booking (via online form) vacation experiences, so it has terms and conditions, explanations of our service, cities in which we're offering it and not much more

20 comments

[+] GFischer|9 years ago|reply

I'm using Azure, with the bonus if that if you want you can apply to BizSpark and get 3 years of free software and servers. Uploading an MVP should be easy.

It's an amazing service for startups, and it's gotten more Linux and OSS-friendly.

https://bizspark.microsoft.com/

Some resources:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/msgulfcommunity/2013/04/08/...

https://cmatskas.com/getting-started-with-microsoft-azure-ru...

Edit: that said, for basic HTML it's probably overkill, I haven't tried Gitlab or similar but it should do.

For a proof of concept, maybe a landing page generator like Unbounce? http://unbounce.com/

[+] sirrele|9 years ago|reply

If you are just doing an html5 site, then just throw your project in AWS's s3. Its easy, and not much to think about. If you are connected to a DB and have users I would say get an EC2 up and configure it with your needs.

[+] dirktheman|9 years ago|reply

I'm a huge fan (and user) of AWS, but I would not recommend it if all you want to do is host an MVP website. There's quite a learning curve before you have something reliable up and running and it will cost you a lot of time before you have figured everything out... If you have the time to learn about using AWS it's totally worth it, but if all you need is to host your website somewhere I'd look for something like the smallest Linode plan and scale it up when necessary.

[+] joeclark77|9 years ago|reply

Github Pages is free and extremely easy for a static site, especially for someone with no skills. (I've used it with non-technical students to host their first simple web pages.) You don't even have to use Git -- there's a drag-and-drop interface to "Upload Files".

[+] stevekemp|9 years ago|reply

So to recap:

* You're building a landing-page, with HTML + CSS. * But you also need to run PHP. * I think you already have a server running MySQL.

If you trust the company providing you with the MySQL-server then use them to add a second machine if you're worried. If you're not sure how much load to expect, but are pessimistic, then just use the server you already have.

Really you can't guess how much traffic you'll get, but chances are high it will be slow to scale up. So the important thing is that you monitor resources and can re-deploy on a bigger host in a hurry if you need to - moving your code, your database(s), and updating DNS promptly.

[+] BjoernKW|9 years ago|reply

GitHub Pages. The only real downside I can think of is it doesn't provide SSL encryption for your own second-level domain. Other than that it's perfect for that use case.

[+] atmosx|9 years ago|reply

You have to provider at least some information (what kind of application, expected traffic, design, what level of HA is required, what's the probable bottleneck, etc.)

[+] Mister_Y|9 years ago|reply

You're completely right, the thing is that I'm not sure about that as the amount of people that will land on the page will depend on the success of the marketing/crowdfunding campaign.

[+] seanwilson|9 years ago|reply

Netlify. You can drag and drop your files to set the site up or use a command-line utility to upload a folder. Miles easier than GitHub Pages or S3.