Cheap server options
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The main question is "what is the price you want to pay" & "how many ressources are you going to need"?
To host only a wordpress i would not recommend cloudron at all - just take a wordpress-hosting from any hoster.
To host anything more than 3 apps, like for example one wordpress, one nextcloud and one privatebin you could just take any low cost VPS from netcup for germany or digitaloceans cheap droplets in general.
To do more with cloudron you will need more ressources, and that is what makes hosting expensive in general.
Furthermore note that domains will also come with a cost and as of what i know, you will need a fqdn to get cloudron work properly.
I do run a dedicated server, which is surely something not everyone will be able to afford, so i can't speak about how great digitalocean droplets will be capable of running cloudron - could anyone else share their experience with this? -
Oh - one thing i wanted to share with you:
The cheapest solution which is something i did a long time and i will do in future is a server at your home.
So you have the hardware at your home, full managable and you route everything using a single, very cheap VPS. There is a talk from the CCC and a blog about it here:
https://media.ccc.de/v/gpn19-76-einen-server-daheim-ohne-ffentliche-ipv4-adresse
https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2019/06/how-to-run-a-server-at-home-without-an-ipv4-address.html -
When it comes to "cheap" you can host cloudron on a raspberry pi in your home. I would not recommend that since you expose a server running inside your home network to the internet and this always comes with a risk. Hosting at home is also not always the cheapest option, as your hardware needs to be purchased first and then run constantly what increases the electricity bill.
As mentioned before I can recommend Netcup (contracts available for german and international customers) since they are a reliable hoster and have good price/performance ratio. On top of that they have a preconfigured Ubuntu 18.04 LTS + Cloudron image for their VPS/Root servers so you have cloudron running out of the box. Prices for VPS capable running cloudron (1 core, 2GB RAM, 20GB SSD) start at 2,69€/month so there is little room for arguing about better solutions.
Finally it comes down to the question what you want to achieve. I started with renting a root server for 7 € / month and testing cloudrons capabilities. If you want to test it out, start with your own hardware and the free plan.
If you plan to use cloudron as your main infrastructure (mail, website, services) in production, do not hesitate to spend some money on it. 30$ Cloudron + 10$ for a root server per month is appropriate.
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These are all great replies - If you are looking for bang for buck that's reliable:
I spend $30/USD at kimsufi for:
- 2TB Soft-raid across 2 1TB drives
- 100MBit/s bandwidth
- 32 GB RAM
- 8 core intel based CPU (I forget the model, but it's fast enough for my needs)
Hosting a total of like 10 - 12 apps sometimes more when developing a new app. This is a dedicated server. Meaning I am not sharing my resources with anyone else like with other VPS hosting.
Kimsufi has dedicated servers (hardware, not virtual based!) in CA and FR starting at $4.99/USD.
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thanks you guys all so much! tremendous help. i’ve jumped on netcup & hope for the best.
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There's also Contabo VPS.
Don't ever ever ever take one of the cheapest listed: they are buggy and crash.
But the most powerful ones are doing a fine job. (I'm on the VPS L SSD and it's a smooth ride)
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I use Hetzner Cloud VPS for my Cloudron server and I love it. I also love that they are 100% powered by renewable energy.
The user interface is great and also only charge by the hour so it's possible to quickly and easily set-up test servers etc if you need to.
I also have a VPS with 1984hosting where I've got a Sandstorm server running. They aren't as cheap as Hetzner nor some of the others mentioned above, but are also really great; they are big advocates of Free Software and run on 100% renewables too.
I've started putting together a list (in a doc on my Cloudron-powered Nextcloud+ONLYOFFICE on my Hetzner VPS
) of all the 100% renewable* VPS providers I've found so far here:
https://office.uniteddiversity.coop/s/oZjArwQDtPEgGFd- some (eg Fasthosts, Bitfolk) claim that they are 100% renewable but when you dig into the detail they include the burning of biofuels at power plants like Drax in the UK. I don't personally consider such energy sources to be sustainable and so don't include these in my list.
Edit: I've just checked the links above and pleased to discover netcup are also powered by green energy so have added them to my list. Germany certainly seems to be the leader of cheap green good VPS providers!
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@jdaviescoates said in Cheap server options:
I use Hetzner Cloud VPS for my Cloudron server and I love it. I also love that they are 100% powered by renewable energy.
Just for completeness (because someone just upvoted that post above) I should probably add that I'm now using Netcup for my primary Cloudron, mostly just because you get WAY more disk space (I had already upgraded my Hetzner Cloud VPS to the largest offer so the next step with Hetzner would've been a decidated server - probably end up there eventually - whereas I actually saved money and got more power and WAY more disk space by moving to Netcup (although the UX is terrible in comparison)
