The discussion revolves around choosing the best hosting services for a new Discourse community, with a focus on long-term reliability, performance, and regional server location. mk0r seeks advice on providers like Upcloud, DigitalOcean, and others, emphasizing the need for fast hardware, customer support, and a server on the US West Coast. Lilly shares a link to a guide on recommended hosting providers. BrianC recommends Phoenix NAP for its responsive support and good performance. NateDhaliwal suggests GCP for its cost-effectiveness and mentions DO and Contabo as viable options. Jagster questions the significance of server location, arguing that connectivity issues are often overstated, especially for users in developed regions. tvavrda adds context by referencing connectivity challenges in less developed areas, such as Egypt, where regional hosting made a difference. The conversation highlights differing perspectives on the importance of server location, with some users emphasizing regional proximity while others downplay its impact based on their experiences.
Hi all, I’m getting ready to create a new Discourse community. For the next months to a year I expect it to be fairly small, but I’d like to make sure I get set up on the best possible service. I’ve seen the comparison chart and I’m wondering:
Which services do people think are best positioned for the long haul as companies, from an infrastructure and customer service perspective? I don’t expect to be making use of support often but if/when it’s necessary it’s probably an urgent situation.
Do people have positive experiences with Upcloud?
It’s hard for me to evaluate technical differences between types of servers, but it goes without saying I’d like my instance to be running on the best/fastest possible hardware, I’m not worried about an extra $5 per month here or there. But I don’t know what features are meaningful for a small community.
I’m located in the US West Coast and would want the server to be in that region, I see Upcloud only has one offering in the region.
Are there any other companies/services not listed in the chart or that have changed recently?
Thanks for any advice about current best deals and services in hosting (and apologies for the somewhat nonspecific query!)
I used upcloud in the past and I thought they were fine. Performance seemee to be good. I’m currently using Phoenix NAP and have a inexpensive dedicated server from them which more than meets my need. Needed their help a couple of times because I messed up the OS and they were more than willing to jump in and help out with a reload or whatever. Very responsive, they call and verify who you are and what your site is. Overall a very good experience. https://phoenixnap.com
I use GCP for my forum. Inexpensive, and it’s great. The free tier gives you a e2-micro server for free, but the resources are really low, so if you have the patience to wait 3 hours for a rebuild, you can do that (for the free plan).
DO looks great and Contabo looks very worth it.
More details can be found in the guide @Lilly linked above.
Why? I’m living in Finland, northern Europe, and it doesn’t play any roll if I’m using center in San Francisco, London or anywhere in Europe. Only reason I’m using nowadays Helsinki with Hetzner is I want to support businesses located in Finland.
But sure, I’ve heard that reason before, and everytime from US. So I wonder if this is a hype or is there really so bad connections that nearby centers are really needed.
Or maybe it’s so good there that we have no idea how bad it actually is out here
My only experience is with more exotic countries. We had a customer from Egypt and the connectivity anywhere outside of Egypt was not good. We made it with an EU based Azure in the end (the US worked much worse for them) but still image uploads etc. were not so great in Egypt. This was something else than Discourse, therefore we needed Azure.
Aren’t you sitting on a transatlantic optical cable out there ?
I know this is very much 1st world point on view, and because of that it may be totally wrong, but I wouldn’t compare Egypt and its rural areas and USA. But again — I don’t know and just weaknesses or lacking of mobile coverage in USA is quite often shock to me. I understand it in deserts and large wilderness, but still.
But I’m curious to know if connections are really that bad in USA that location of a data center really plays a significant role.
and the connectivity anywhere outside of Egypt was not good. We made it with an EU based Azure in the end (the US worked much worse for them) but still image uploads etc. were not so great in Egypt. This was something else than Discourse, therefore we needed Azure.
?