Choosing a web hosting provider is really important. And if you’re into building your Ruby on Rails web application, it’s becoming wiser to choose a reputable web host. Let’s see how to host Ruby on Rails web application.
Of course, you need to do your searches and see what are the offerings out there. You may have been consuming much other content in different formats just to get to a definite trusted answer for that.
In this article, we’re going over the different web hosting providers. And most importantly, we’re showing you definite criteria upon which you can choose a proper web host for your Ruby on Rails web application.
If this is wherein your adventure begins, then I hope this sets your foundation. Firstly, we’re going to get into more information about Ruby on Rails and why it’s really powerful nowadays.
What is Ruby on Rails?
Ruby is a programming language used on a web application framework called “Rails”. RoR is meant to be coupled with an agile development methodology.
It basically allows small teams to build a relatively small application and extend features fast. One of the most important reasons for RoR Popularity is the rapid development basis.
The language is to smart to understand what you’re into developing for your app. Furthermore, it depends on convention over configuration. This allows coders and developers to code apps way better and fast.
Why Use Ruby on Rails?
A significant number of the most successful web applications are using based Ruby on Rails. Nevertheless, there are many other Ruby on Rails websites using the framework.
While the PHP programming language is more popular, Ruby on Rails is way better for web apps and advanced websites. RoR is meant to construct more robust internet applications that are easy to preserve, efficient and scalable.
If you’re building your app on the agile methodology, Ruby on Rails is the best programming language of choice. It’s amazing if you need to build an app on a small-scale first and then grow it over time.
Ruby is a versatile and forgiving language. It also helps coders and developers build apps while saving a whole lot of time. RoR Ready-to-use factors mean less coding, less time, and less cost as well.
How To Choose Ruby on Rails Hosting?
There is a decent number of web hosting providers out there. Choosing the best host for your needs is not easy. You basically can follow other’s recommendations. But It’s always better to get yourself educated and choose a web hosting provider carefully.
For example, Google App Engine is cool if you want to leverage other Google offerings like; Cloud Vision, Firebase Notifications, BigQuery, etc. AWS is another great option when you use their offerings for coping with databases, load balancers, lambdas, etc.
Nevertheless, there are many more options and offerings to choose from and compare. Our best advice here is to launch your app on a PaaS hosting company. And later on, you can move to a VPS hosting as an upgrade.
Ruby on Rails Hosting factors to take in mind:
- Monthly Bandwidth & Disk Storage
- Resources limits; CPU and RAM allocated
Among all the offerings, make sure to carefully check the disk space and assigned monthly bandwidth. The bandwidth basically determines how many visitors you can receive each day.
Host Ruby on Rails Web Application
If you’re building an app and expecting high traffic volume, it’s important to choose a higher-level hosting plan. If you’re expecting a huge spike in signups and actual usage, consider higher CPU and RAM resources.
Some companies are offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth in shared hosting plans. These offerings may be just fine at the beginning phases of building your apps. But as you grow you may need to upgrade to bigger plans for optimal overall performance.
While shared hosting works, it’s not offering the optimal hosting for a production app or a high-traffic website. On shared hosting, the accounts are supported with Gems gadgets. This basically facilitates RoR with dependency management and regular updates.
Shared hosting is offering vCPU and vRAM. This means that the assigned resources are not dedicated. They’re virtual numbers that are not anywhere close to the dedicated hosting resources.
Shared hosting is like sharing a rental. You break up the rent and share the duty with the other occupants. This is wherein your gain ends though. I strongly advise starting with shared hosting until you grow bigger. At that time, you may upgrade to a PaaS or a VPS.
Recommended shared hosting providers are:
It’s also very important to understand that launching an app or a website is just the beginning. This means you will need to continuously monitor the resources and scale up as you go.
VPS Ruby on Rails Hosting
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is very ideal to host Rails applications. For a moderate amount of traffic, you may only need a 2 GB RAM virtual server. You’ll receive better performance than a regular shared hosting plan.
VPS hosting is comparatively inexpensive. The full-management is exactly what makes it more expensive. For example, you can get a decent VPS for as low as $5 per month (Unmanaged).
In case you need staff support to manage your VPS, it becomes even higher in pricing. VPS is only recommended if you’re a Linux expert and can set-up a box on your own from scratch. Alternatively, you may need to opt-in for a management service to get things done just right!
An Unmanaged VPS will put all the responsibilities on you. Basically, you will have to handle all the set-up, security and maintenance of your Rails app in production. If something goes wrong, you’re on your own!
Recommended VPS providers are:
In case you’ve found the VPS is not your best option, I would recommend choosing the PaaS Ruby on Rails Hosting. We’re discussing more this service in the next section.
PaaS Ruby on Rails Hosting
PaaS basically stands for “Platform as a Service”. And this is all based on cloud hosting solutions. It quickly became very popular and scalable since you pay as you go.
The companies here are offering you a managed platform to host your Ruby on Rails web application. And the best part is that all the management hassle is being handled by professionals.
If you’re a solo developer or a small startup, hiring developers to manage and maintain your server could be a real headache. instead, PaaS providers are just offering you all you need to run a stress-free web app.
With PaaS hosting solutions, you can put the required services together and then deploy your app to the cloud. No platform setup or maintenance needed at all. You can rest assured your server is maintained and always up-to-date.
PaaS hosting solutions will typically allow you to scale your app by simply adding more resources through a visual administrative panel, as well.
Recommended PaaS hosting providers:
The only downside to PaaS is that the convenience they provide will typically come at a higher cost than VPS hosting. That’s even very normal since all the headaches have been taken care of.
Dedicated Ruby on Rails Hosting:
The most expensive solution is indeed the dedicated hosting. With the shared hosting concept, you get a tiny little piece of a bigger dedicated server. With dedicated hosting, you get the whole bigger server with dedicated resources for your web apps.
Shared web hosting commonly comes with performance barriers like; CPU, RAM, and monthly bandwidth. In a shared hosting environment, you can’t modify system files. And accordingly, you can’t run different software programs that are not supported on the server.
All these limits have vanished with a dedicated hosting solution. Yet, you still have to maintain and manage the server on your own for; security, updates, ..etc.
If you’re a solo-developer, dedicated hosting is not at all recommended unless you get it with full-management service. The management staff will help to manage the server and to keep it up-to-date.
Best Dedicated Hosting providers are:
In case you’ve already got a team, a budget, and the required Linux experience, you’ll be very good to go with a dedicated hosting solution. The platform will give you a robust performance for production apps.
Best Way To Host Rails App
In case you’re getting started with your brand-new web application, it would be very cost-effective to start with a shared hosting plan. It won’t cost much and will give you a decent performance.
If you’re an advanced user with a production Ruby on Rails application, it would be better to opt-in for a VPS or PaaS solution based on your knowledge, budget, and requirements.
Dedicated web hosting has a lot to offer; dedicated resources and robust performance. Due to the higher cost, it’s only recommended for bigger projects and advanced apps.
Data safety is another important concern to take in. You might have your own state-of-the-art demands, but the minimal ones ought to consist of;
- 128-bit Data Encryption
- Statistics & Backup system
- Disaster Recovery
Technical support and server management is likewise very important! When you choose a web hosting provider, it would be very wise to check reviews about their support and technical experts’ assistance.
Free Hosting Ruby on Rails
While most companies are offering free web hosting trials, There are very few providers offer free Ruby on Rails hosting. And when I say free, I mean free forever!
Heroku has got a decent free-forever web hosting plan. It gives you dedicated 512Mb RAM along with an up-to-date platform to build your Ruby web application. It is a free PaaS for your web app!
We’ve been using Heroku for a couple of projects with great success so far. We didn’t experience any server fails, long-time loading, or any similar issues. A free account is very enough to get started on and you can upgrade later on only if needed to.
You can easily use Heroku services such as;
- Email Hosting
- Databases
- Scheduling
- and more!
You can also buy additional memory allocation (web dyno) for a monthly charge. On the free account, you still can install add-ons and services without a problem.
Ruby on Rails MVC:
The Rails framework is based on MVC. You may have heard that a lot of times. But what is MVC? It stands for Model View Controller which is a principle that divides the actions of a web application into three sub-systems works together to bring in a specific outcome.
Model: Handles things like validations, associations, transactions, and so on. In Ruby on Rails, this is the ActiveRecord, which is implemented using a library of the same name
View: The View presents the application’s data appropriately. In Ruby on Rails programming, this stage is implemented via the ActionView library.
Controller: The Controller handles the app’s traffic, as well as the search for and organization of the data that is requested.
In Ruby on Rails, this is implemented via the ActionController. The ActionController sits between the ActiveRecord (model) and the ActionView (view).
Ruby Gems are another revolutionary update to Ruby on Rails! It gives you a variety of plugins and libraries to extend your application’s features and functionality. You can basically install multiple dependencies to a single web application built on Ruby on Rails.
Conclusion
RoR web hosting varies according to the resources and requirements. Before opting in for a host, you should be fully aware of which level you’re currently at, what are you aiming to, and what is the budget in hand.
By knowing all these factors, you should be able to choose a decent host. Like how Ruby on Rails has been developed on the agile methodology, it’s important that you follow the same concept and grow as you go.
That was it all about how to host Ruby on Rails web application. We’ve covered a number of a decent web hosting provider. It’s also very important to do your own research and choose the best based on your needs.
Thank you for providing a guide to use Ruby on Rails Web Application, appreciate your efforts keep up the good work.