Node.js - PaaS everywhere!
Looking for a cheap, errr, even better FREE hosting for your Node.js apps and services? Well I guess we developers have never been so well served :-)
Nodejitsu
http://nodejitsu.com
Node.js and a few service addons
Dedicated for Node.js, but it's been my favourite so far with super easy deploys and admin. I'll officially launch a new experimental app there soon (but if you want to take a sneak peak, there you go: http://counting.to). And if your app is open-source, they'll host it for free!
AppFog
http://appfog.com
Node.js, Java, PHP, Python, .NET and dozens of service addons
AppFog was my preferred choice till a few weeks ago, when they decided to remove the custom domains from the free plan. Apart from that, they're still super cool with 2GB RAM free, and a full range of datacenters and platforms supported.
Heroku
http://heroku.com
Node.js, Java, Ruby, Python and dozens of service addons
Similar to AppFog, supports a few platforms (but no specific choice of datacenter) and it's probably the most famous cloud PaaS out there. Free plan has only 1 worker but should be enough for basic apps.
OpenShift
http://openshift.com
Node.js, Java, Ruby, PHP, Python and basically anything on the DIY
I'm hosting my not-so-up-to-date blog there. Free plan supports 3 small gears (apps), and you have full SSH access so it's basically having your own VPS with a few limitations. OpenShift could be considered IaaS as well.
CloudFoundry
http://cloudfoundry.com
Node.js, Java, Ruby, dozens of service addons
VMWare on the cloud! Their free developer plan is somehow similar to OpenShift but I haven't tried it yet so I can't say much :-(
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Although most of these services can provide MongoDB, Postgres and other databases as well, I would suggest trying a dedicated DB provider like http://mongolab.com, http://mongohq.com or http://iriscouch.com.
I'll write a more detailed review of these services soon. And if you know about any other free service worth mentioning, please feel free to leave a comment :-)
Hasta!
Written by Igor Ramadas
Related protips
6 Responses
You need to refer this one: https://www.dotcloud.com/
In my opinion a bit similar to AppFog
Hi Paulo, I know dotCloud but unfortunately they have phased out their free developer/sandbox plan a few days ago. That's why I didn't include them on this list.
But yes, they're apparently quite good as well on the paid plans.
CloudFoundry is the underpinnings of AppFog. identical service but they don't provide a web UI its all CLI. but they will support new features before AppFog.
Its useful to know this as there a quite a few vmc (Cloud foundry) tools that will work with the AppFog service
@chrismatheson I know, AppFog is built on top of CloudFoundry but here my point was to tip about the services, not the core technologies. I never tried CloudFoundry.com (the public instance of CloudFoundry) myself but on paper it's way behind compare to what AppFog offers.
But you're right, I should have mentioned that both share basically the same core technologies and should be quite easy to migrate from one to the other and use the same set of tools.
Another PaaS option is http://getupcloud.com - the "brazilian PaaS" also based in OpenShift and AWS servers
Getup Cloud offer a 750hr free trial, but if you're a developer and ask for a promo code, probably you'll get at least 1 free gear
you should look into HP Public cloud aPaas:
http://www.hpcloud.com/sites/default/files/HPCS_ManageProductionWorkloads.pdf
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