PaaS: Heroku vs. AppEngine vs. ...
As I'm looking to port an app to a PaaS solution instead of a VPS like DigitalOcean, I'm wondering what are the alternatives to Heroku?
The reason to look for a PaaS is that I need something that:
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stays up all the time, without me running to my computer when the monitor says: mysql/apache/whatever is down.
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takes care of my database with uptime and backups.
I've seen some docker based alternatives to Heroku, but they don't manage the uptime of your app (at least as I understand). And I'm not comfortable with my database in a docker container, being just a redeploy away from accidentally disappearing.
Any suggestions?
One alternative to Heroku I found is Google AppEngine standard environment.
I’ve used Google App Engine for a few side projects and I’m very happy with it. As a solo (technical) founder it’s proven very easy to build upon, near perfect uptime and has always scaled when I’ve needed it to.
The downside people always mention is cost but it’s only ever really costed anything when I’m making money from the project so it’s not been a concern.
Making database backups was an easy task in app engine, at least a few years ago.
Downside is that the default database is the Google's custom Datastore that can take a while to learn. Upside is that it scales up like a dream.
App engine also has its limitations like you cannot write to the disk directly ( you need to use the cloud filesystem).
They have pretty good custom debugging tools for python apps, which was a big plus for me.
Totally agree on people mentioning costs. PaaS delivers more than a traditional stack, and should be less DevOps than a VPS.
I also looked in AWS Elastic Beanstalk (EBS). EBS is a bit like a PaaS offer from Amazon, but seems so complicated compared to Heroku, that I'm currently more inclined to spend $ on Heroku.
Firebase?
What do you need out of your paas?
For me Firebase is not a PaaS, it's more of a hosted datastore with a tech stack lock-in. If you application suits the Firebase model, you can build fast. I need to host something written in a traditional python stack.
I do some occasional work on a Heroku rails app for a contract, and it is definitely easy (and even fun) to use. But I've also seen it eat at their early-stage profits. It goes from free, to cheap, to "OMG I'm spending over $100/mo" so quickly. And I think you have to pay around $250/mo to auto-scale up and down, which they could really use - there are just occasional resource-intensive blips.
I can't really comment on App Engine, but I imagine Google being much more competitive (could be way off here) on pricing. When I used App Engine just to play around (maybe 4) years ago, it was Python only and only supported Google's cloud database.
I learned about Dokku (might be what you were referring to) a month or so ago, and it sounded really fun, but I had the same hangups you had.
My projects are too early stage or unused to pay for professional management. I was going to try kubernetes just for the experience, but decided to just use LXD on a single server on DigitalOcean for now. I've been in devops forever, and my stuff just isn't that critical (yet? :)).
Haha if you think $100/mo is expensive for managed infrastructure, you just wait. 🤣
Haha totally. It's all relative. For projects without traction, every penny I spend is expensive. I'd love to have the problem of needing to spend hundreds per month. Partly because devops/architecture is kind of fun to me, and partly because that would (hopefully) mean I'm building something useful!
With a VPS, the problem I see is not only in setting it up. It's more like when I'm on holidays offline as a solo founder. Who keeps Dokku or the VPS running?