share
Stack OverflowGood Ruby on Rails Free Hosting
[+112] [7] Nathan Campos
[2009-06-28 20:33:55]
[ ruby-on-rails ruby hosting web-hosting ]
[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1055682/good-ruby-on-rails-free-hosting ] [DELETED]

What is the best place to go for free Ruby on Rails web hosting? I'm starting my project and I don't need a really good package for hosting, but if my project begins to grow then I'll pay for the best! Thanks.

(2) This seems to be a really useful thread ... 120 upvotes? umm yeah this was clearly useful. - delinquentme
[+128] [2009-06-28 20:41:40] Bayard Randel [ACCEPTED]

Heroku [1] is what you're after. They're widely considered one of the finest commercial rails hosts which offers a free account option [2].

[1] http://heroku.com/
[2] http://heroku.com/pricing#blossom-1

Thanks Very Much!! - Nathan Campos
(4) Exactly what I needed to get my pet project running in test mode, thank you! - Toms Mikoss
1
[+14] [2009-06-29 05:49:03] Ethan

I know you said free, but I tried Heroku, switched to Slicehost, and it has been great.

Their minimal package is around $20 and is enough to get started. The advantage of Slicehost over Heroku is that since you're paying, you have the right to complain if something goes wrong (although I've never had that happen in over a year of hosting with them). Another advantage is total control of your system. Use whatever DB suits you, install any gems you want, get data in and out without special tools, install any other daemons you may need such as a search daemon. Heroku puts you on PostgreSQL and that's that.

Another thing about Heroku is that, OK it's free, but then the next "recommended" level up above free is $51 ("Koi" with two dynos). With Slicehost, you can get pretty far with $20, then the next level is $40.

Slicehost's server management tools are really well-designed and easy to use and their forums are very active.

If free is a definite requirement, you could also look at Google App Engine. You can run Rails apps there under JRuby.


(1) Technically, you still have the right to complain - they are just not obliged to do anything about it. I've complained to free hosts before and some of them have been remarkably tolerant and friendly, fixing my problem. - Lucas Jones
(2) You can think of Heroku in a way that you're paying for administering the Nginx, Varnish, Postgres, Rack, ..., for you. No wonder another level costs a bit more. Still many dev folks love it as they can focus precisely on coding. - Wojciech Kaczmarek
(1) As Wojciech noticed, with slicehost you get an unmanaged VPS. It's all on your control, and this could be a pain for a novice, or for someone with little time. - dmarucco
Update for 2012: Slicehost was bought by Rackspace and will be shutting down within the year. Rackspace is pushing everyone to move toward Rackspace Cloud Servers. - Jeremy Ricketts
2
[+8] [2009-06-28 20:47:46] Damien Wilson

Rails Playground [1] isn't free, but it offers a decent hosting plan for developers [2] at $5/month.

If you're doing any kind of application development, I'd recommend you go for a VPS like Slicehost [3]. Having root level access to a server makes things like application deployment, configuration, and other related development tasks a lot easier.

[1] http://railsplayground.com/plans-products/
[2] http://railsplayground.com/plans-products/developer-hosting/
[3] http://www.slicehost.com/

If my project got bigger i gonna use this! Thanks! - Nathan Campos
(2) Slicehost is an excellent option (along with Heroku, EngineYard, Rimu and a few others) when you're ready for a paid rails hosting account. - Bayard Randel
(5) Excuse me but, did you ever use heroku? Man! What can be easier to deploy than THAT? - Erik Escobedo
(1) Excuse me but, did you ever try running 1500m? Man! What can be easier than THAT?... depends on your experience. People starting off with ruby.programming my not be familiar with git, or even gem concepts... Not that easy for people getting started - Abe Petrillo
3
[+6] [2009-06-29 21:37:40] bogdanp9

You could try http://www.heliohost.org/


4
[+6] [2010-11-16 01:27:08] pbreitenbach

AlwaysData.com [1] has a free tier which is great for trying out Rails or Django.

[1] http://www.alwaysdata.com

5
[+1] [2009-06-29 06:30:55] lego

Slicehost - good performance, vps (install everything you want), cheap, rock solid uptime and great admin panel (dns zones/records managment is ease).


Update for 2012: Slicehost was bought by Rackspace and will be shutting down within the year. Rackspace is pushing everyone to move toward Rackspace Cloud Servers. - Jeremy Ricketts
6
[0] [2009-06-30 12:27:20] Srinivas M.V.

Free hosting service for rails is now provided @ http://herokugarden.com

Step 1: Create an account in herokugarden.com

Step 2 : Create a new rails application

Step 3 : Edit your project settings and export your project and migrate your migration files

Step 4 . Url of your application will be "http://projectName.herokugarden.com "

Step 5 : Share this link to show your local rails projects to your friends

Good luck !!!


And if i want i can do a free domain to my project, that redirects to my heroku's project. Thanks! - Nathan Campos
herokugarden is dead. - Jay Godse
7