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We have already discussed our love affair with Ruby on Rails framework and why choosing Ruby on Rails is an excellent idea to build beautiful and shining websites as well as applications.
The simplicity of Ruby’s syntax and a beautiful collection of Ruby Gems makes it so convenient for RoR developers to build advanced web solutions. And once the application is developed, then the next significant stage is where to host your amazing Ruby on Rails application.
There are numbers choices to host your Ruby on Rails applications, from cheap to very expensive.
There are several choices available to host Ruby on Rails application, from cheap to expensive. Still, it is challenging to choose an ideal one in the comparison of other programming languages in terms of pricing, deployment, configuration, flexibility, scalability, and security privileges.
To make your choice easier, I highly recommend you go through this blog post. From how to select the best RoR hosting provider to where should I host my RoR application, I will try to cover everything in this blog post to help you end up getting the best RoR hosting services.
How to Select the Best Ruby on Rails Hosting Provider?
Finding the best hosting service provider is more challenging than finding a needle out of a haystack. It’s like diving down to the ocean of hosting service providers and make a choice considering bandwidth, data storage, CPU, etc. The right hosting environment and server hardware in a place are equally essential to support your RoR deployments. The trajectory plays a significant role in the growth of your RoR application in the long run.
Let’s have a look at what to consider when it comes to choosing a Ruby on Rails hosting services:
- Higher Version of Ruby on Rails on the Server
- Updates
- cPanel control panel
- Database Engines
- Dedicated Hosting
- Data security
- Technical Support
Ruby language version 1.8.7 is the minimum criteria that are best to have pre-installed on the server, and higher versions should always be given special preference.
Ruby on Rails is frequently rolling out its version updates, and it is very much important that the hosting provider update your application the newer version and install gems as required.
Agile software development mostly focuses on rapid product development, and the control panel offered by hosting providers determines the convenience of deploying the updated websites. cPanel provides the freedom and permission to have a look at what Ruby Gems are already installed and what further Ruby gems should be added.
The hosting service provider who offers additional support for SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL databases give them special preference because more database means more flexibility for your hosted website.
Dedicated hosting service providers are rich in resources in the comparison of shared resources. However, that does not mean there’s no limitation at all. Here you need to understand your app’s data and bandwidth requirements for its most exceptional performance at the right cost.
Data security should be your first and foremost priority. You could have your own custom requirements, but the minimum criteria should include 128-bit data encryption, a data backup system, and disaster recovery.
The reason why the majority of the product owners opt for a dedicated hosting provider is they can opt for technical support at their convenience. If you are choosing shared, VPS, or PaaS hosting, make sure that make sure 24/7/365 multilingual support is available.
You may also like to read:
Why RoR Is Ideal Choice for Web App Development
How To Know Which Ruby on Rails Hosting Is The Best For You?
The variety of Ruby on Rails hosting is not at all limited to dedicated and shared options as it can be categorized into advanced hosting solutions like Cloud, VPN, and dedicated servers.
Cloud solutions also have two sub-categories Infrastructure as a Service -IaaS and Platform-as-a-Service PaaS. Whereas in the IaaS, you can hire DevOps to get the job done, whereas PaaS are pre-configured solutions – the RoR environment is the best example to take into consideration.
The majority of the hosting service providers are offering Ruby-friendly Infrastructure. Ruby on Rails can help you fulfill all the types of purposes whether you want visually appealing company websites, an eCommerce store or SaaS platform – Ruby is a perfect fit to serve your purpose.
For the startups, I would like to suggest opting for pre-configured environments, later when your applications grow, it is convenient to scale the product/application, adding more and more resources.
When it comes to choosing the hosting provider, the most significant thing that you need to take into consideration is future cost. Due to the numbers of various pricing models, it’s not that easy to compare the price. It is advisable to check your specific preferences and, based on that, choose a hosting provider.
Some hosting providers may charge you on an hourly basis; while, some may charge you based on your monthly usage. In conclusion, PaaS is cheaper than IaaS, whereas VPS is cheaper than cloud-based solutions, so evaluate all of these parameters and make a choice. In the future, based on your personal preferences, you can scale-up and scale-down your hosting services.
If you are a million-dollar startup, have opted Ruby on Rails to give your end-users pleasing user experience, then choosing VPS service is ideal for your business.
Types of Ruby on Rails Hosting Services
Ruby on Rails hosting services can be categories into 3 main categories
- VPS Ruby on Rails Hosting
- PaaS Ruby on Rails Hosting
- And Shared Hosting
VPS Ruby on Rails Hosting
Virtual private hosting and Ruby on Rails application is a match made in heaven, especially for startups, as it provides sufficient RAM space of 1 to 2 GB with minimum processing requirements. There are chances you may find similarities between shared, cloud, and VPS hosting, but there is a significant difference – an inexpensive hosting option is its first and foremost pro trait. If you are restricted by the budget, I would like to suggest you go for VPS Ruby on Rails hosting.
Digital Ocean
Digital Ocean is an advanced and incredibly affordable VPS hosting service provider. Docker, Slack, Splunk, and other globally renowned names are its clientele. At your convenience, you can create and operate the server with out-of-the-box features. Digital Ocean has its serves in the USA, Singapore, London, and Amsterdam. The best thing about the Digital Ocean is Pay-as-you-go.
Digital Ocean Features:
- Solid-State Drives (SSD)
- Global Image Transfer
- DNS Management
- Private Networking
- 99.99% Uptime SLA
- Floating IPs
- Team Accounts
- Multiple Datacenter Locations
- Efficiently Scale Through Versatile API
- 55 Second Provisioning
- Tier-1 Bandwidth
- KVM Virtualization
- Simple Control Panel
- Powerful Hex Core machines
Amazon Lightsail
Get a month free trial with Amazon Lightsail, and the paid plan starts at 3.50$ per month. This solution is based on AWS that is possible to migrate to AWS EC2 when the application grows. If you wish to continue with Lightsail, then all you are required to do is purchase other AWS services of your choice.
Amazon Lightsail Features
- Lightsail virtual servers
- Simplified load balancing
- Managed databases
- Upgrade to EC2
- Access to AWS services
Linode
Linode is so convenient to launch and enrich your application as low as 5$ per month. It allows you to host gaming services, machine learning workloads, and CI/CD environments. The best thing about Linode is it lets you scale your modern application faster and easier.
Linode Features
- DNS manager
- Linode API
- Command-line access
- Full IPv6 support
- Rescue mode
- Virtual console for server access
- Custom stack deployment capability
RackSpace
Rackspace also comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Being very customer friendly, it has data centers across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US, that are world-class. One of the cons being the customization options are very less, and price models are misleading. Go for Rackspace if,
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Superior performance
- Multi-cloud flexibility
- Increased security
- Greater control
- Customer support
PaaS Ruby on Rails Hosting
PaaS is a new cloud-based hosting method that is widely adopted by businesses around the world to grow and expand their businesses concurrently. The best thing about PaaS is it allows software developers to test and mimic diverse environments and gives them space for continuous integration and delivery. PaaS is a helping hand for startups. It gives them peace of mind, along with maintaining and securing the servers.
Heroku
The entrepreneur’s most preferable hosting partner for Ruby on Rails is Heroku. Heroku is specially designed for Ruby and provides support for all the major languages like – Node, Ruby, Java, Clojure, Scala, Go, Python, and PHP. If you want to showcase MVP to your investors, its free plan is enough to fulfill your purpose. The deployment process is so easy in less than five minutes; you can deploy your RoR app on Heroku.
Heroku Features
- Support for modern open-source languages
- Smart containers, elastic runtime
- Simple horizontal and vertical scalability
- Trusted application operations – 24/7/365
- Leading platform tools and services ecosystem
- Built for continuous integration and delivery
Engine Yard
Engine Yard is another contender in the list of web hosting for Ruby on Rails. Engine Yard’s services are not limited to the automation and support form platform, but it assists your application’s code as well. The purpose is to provide round-the-clock DevOps and automated PaaS support. Engine Yard is a large scale entrepreneur’s first and foremost choice because of its excellent customer service.
Engine Yard Features
- Database administration
- Database analysis
- Ticketing
- Web-based reactive ticketing
- Onboarding services
- Proactive application monitoring
- Extended solutions support
- AWS custom component support and management
- Infrastructure security scans
- Annual health checks
- Custom Runbook
- Custom end-point monitoring
Amazon AWS
AWS cloud solution is providing support for IaaS and PaaS and offering 12 months free support, storage, elastic IPs, and more for the new users. AWS does not require any introduction; it’s easy to use service allows you to automate your app’s deployment via Amazon Elastic Beanstalk as well as components configuration.
Features
- Flexible schema management
- Fully-managed Infrastructure
- Built-in search capabilities across objects and relationships
- Built-in data encryption
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is a PaaS solution that provides pay-as-you-go payment services to help you control your spending. Google Cloud App Engine is managed by Google to help large-scale entrepreneurs run smoothly host and run your business on it. GAE is a decent solution with multiple language support, access control, and persistent data storages and caching.
Google Cloud Features
- Trustworthy NoSQL datastore
- Security scanner
- Traffic splitting
- Easy to Integrate with other Google services
- In-memory data cache
- Application versioning
- Fully managed environment
Shared hosting
There are numbers of shared hosting service providers; however, it’s not an ideal way to host your RoR application. RoR gems provide additional support with dependency management that means your RoR application will be downloading and installing numbers of Ruby Gems to keep your RoR application updated. This is where shared hosting might be a problem because it gets limited CPU and RAM, whereas Rails demands substantial resources.
I would like to suggest you to not fall for unlimited resources as its promotional gimmick and better I would like to advise you to choose VPS services to deal with good traffic and disk space. Shared hosting is similar to paying guests, pay for your usage with other occupants. Still, if you find shared hosting a viable option, then educate yourself with your business perspective about the pros and cons.
Before I wrap up, there is one last thing I would like to bring to your attention is once your RoR application is deployed, monitor your application when you are releasing it for the final production. It is always a good idea to install a lightweight plugin so that any unexpected issues can be identified at the early stage.
You may also like to read;
How to Hire Ruby on Rails Developer: A Guide for CTOs and Tech Leaders (100% Remote Work Possible)
Wrapping Up
It’s been more than a decade our well-versed RoR developers at Bacancy Technology is offering top-of-the-line Ruby on Rails development services. Based on their experience and personal preferences, I have listed the best Ruby on Rails hosting options. Based on your personal preference, whatever hosting service you choose, make sure to create the best environment to deploy your Rails application.
If you are looking for the best Ruby on Rails Development Company with the seasoned RoR experts who can take care of your application from pricing to underlying technologies to make the deployment of your RoR application efficient, then get in touch with us today. If you are facing problems with your existing hosting provider, looking for assistance, then our Ruby on Rails consultants are willingly ready to lend a helping hand.
