Comments on: Heroku rocked my face off http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/ Ben Johnson's thoughts and programming techniques Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:32:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Michael Mullany http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-825 Michael Mullany Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:38:14 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-825 Hi Ben. Well, I was trying to do apples to apples. Heroku doesn't have a support offering yet -- although it's got to be something they're working on, if they plan to move up into production apps. Hi Ben. Well, I was trying to do apples to apples. Heroku doesn’t have a support offering yet — although it’s got to be something they’re working on, if they plan to move up into production apps.

]]> By: benjohnson http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-816 benjohnson Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:08:21 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-816 Hey Michael, thanks for the clarification. Also, with the flex plan aren't your required to buy the basic support plan for $150 a month? If that's the case the prices are about the same. Either way, the price gap isn't that big for a large application, and I think either choice is a good choice. You really can't go wrong. I was really impressed by engine yards set up. It seemed more configurable and less restrictive. I could see how your service might be more conducive towards a larger application. I guess I just liked the sheer simplicity of heroku and the pricing structure seemed nicer for company. Hey Michael, thanks for the clarification. Also, with the flex plan aren’t your required to buy the basic support plan for $150 a month? If that’s the case the prices are about the same.

Either way, the price gap isn’t that big for a large application, and I think either choice is a good choice. You really can’t go wrong. I was really impressed by engine yards set up. It seemed more configurable and less restrictive. I could see how your service might be more conducive towards a larger application. I guess I just liked the sheer simplicity of heroku and the pricing structure seemed nicer for company.

]]> By: Michael Mullany http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-815 Michael Mullany Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:58:09 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-815 Oh, and just in case people don't mouseover my name -- I work for Engine Yard (full disclosure) Oh, and just in case people don’t mouseover my name — I work for Engine Yard (full disclosure)

]]> By: Michael Mullany http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-814 Michael Mullany Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:57:01 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-814 Heroku has an awesome entry price (free!) and I think it's great for starter apps but I think you might want to break out the calculator before you say Heroku is always cheaper. Let's take a production app running on two small instances on Engine Yard Cloud and a third instance running a dedicated database. And let's say you have 10GB of data with daily snapshots = 300GB of data. On Engine Yard that configuration will cost (Flex plan): 2 x small instances = $259.20 1 x database instance = $129.20 300 GB of EBS space = $30.00 Bandwidth + i/o ~ $20.00 ******************************* Total = $438.40 (Each small cloud instance runs 6 mongrels, so this runs 12 mongrels in a redundant configuration.) An equivalent environment on Heroku would be: 12 Dynos = $396 Ronin Database = $200 Backups = $20 ************************ Total = $616 As far as staging environments go. People seem to bring those up and down as need dictates -- on Engine Yard, you only have to pay for hours you actually run instances, so I think that's pretty much a wash. Heroku has an awesome entry price (free!) and I think it’s great for starter apps but I think you might want to break out the calculator before you say Heroku is always cheaper.

Let’s take a production app running on two small instances on Engine Yard Cloud and a third instance running a dedicated database. And let’s say you have 10GB of data with daily snapshots = 300GB of data.

On Engine Yard that configuration will cost (Flex plan):

2 x small instances = $259.20
1 x database instance = $129.20
300 GB of EBS space = $30.00
Bandwidth + i/o ~ $20.00
*******************************
Total = $438.40

(Each small cloud instance runs 6 mongrels, so this runs 12 mongrels in a redundant configuration.)

An equivalent environment on Heroku would be:
12 Dynos = $396
Ronin Database = $200
Backups = $20
************************
Total = $616

As far as staging environments go. People seem to bring those up and down as need dictates — on Engine Yard, you only have to pay for hours you actually run instances, so I think that’s pretty much a wash.

]]> By: Oddwalli http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-813 Oddwalli Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:02:35 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-813 Both Solo and Heroku are cheaper than dedicated servers because they both run on top of amazon web services. You get a virtual machine, not a physical machine. Both Solo and Heroku are cheaper than dedicated servers because they both run on top of amazon web services. You get a virtual machine, not a physical machine.

]]> By: David Dollar http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-812 David Dollar Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:47:41 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-812 heroku db:pull is absolutely a killer feature. It lets you quickly and easily clone production's database down to your local system. That plus the ability to create production/staging/foo versions of your app and deploy to them at willl (and for free in many cases) is a definite win in my book. Heroku is amazing. heroku db:pull is absolutely a killer feature. It lets you quickly and easily clone production’s database down to your local system. That plus the ability to create production/staging/foo versions of your app and deploy to them at willl (and for free in many cases) is a definite win in my book.

Heroku is amazing.

]]> By: Emilien http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-811 Emilien Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:35:40 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-811 Hello everybody, Why such a price gap between dedicated servers and EY/Heroku offers ? do I underestimate cloud parts power ? Hello everybody,
Why such a price gap between dedicated servers and EY/Heroku offers ? do I underestimate cloud parts power ?

]]> By: Jon Hinson http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-795 Jon Hinson Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:24:08 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-795 Hey Ben, thanks for the reply. Yeah, it seems like EY will fit my needs for this particular project (well, kind of a suite of apps that are intertwined). I really like Heroku and have been impressed with how easy they seem to make the whole process of deploying and hosting a Rails app. I think for future projects I'm going to try Heroku out from the start and see how it goes from there. The free option is definitely a huge plus. Hey Ben, thanks for the reply. Yeah, it seems like EY will fit my needs for this particular project (well, kind of a suite of apps that are intertwined). I really like Heroku and have been impressed with how easy they seem to make the whole process of deploying and hosting a Rails app. I think for future projects I’m going to try Heroku out from the start and see how it goes from there. The free option is definitely a huge plus.

]]> By: benjohnson http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-794 benjohnson Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:56:59 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-794 Hey Jon, it sounds like you want to use Engine Yard. Go for it. Either one is a good choice. I also agree with you on their database pricing gap, but that's part of the reason Heroku is so affordable. I believe with Engine Yard you start with your own database. It really depends on what you are doing, but the fact that Heroku has a free plan to start is what really got my attention. Hey Jon, it sounds like you want to use Engine Yard. Go for it. Either one is a good choice. I also agree with you on their database pricing gap, but that’s part of the reason Heroku is so affordable. I believe with Engine Yard you start with your own database. It really depends on what you are doing, but the fact that Heroku has a free plan to start is what really got my attention.

]]> By: Jon Hinson http://www.binarylogic.com/2009/08/25/heroku-rocked-my-face-off/comment-page-1/#comment-789 Jon Hinson Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:48:20 +0000 http://www.binarylogic.com/?p=792#comment-789 I did read that you can take your instance down and change it to a beefier instance on Engine Yard (http://bit.ly/BI2Y6). Do you know if Heroku has any partnerships with Git Hub, New Relic, Lighthouse, etc? I'm pretty sure you get free accounts with those apps when getting a server w/ Engine Yard. One thing I don't like about Heroku is the gap between Crane and Ronin for storage. I'm looking into a cloud solution and both Heroku and Engine Yard seem like the direction I want to go, but my database storage alone is around 2GB. One last thing, do you know if it is possible to host multiple apps on one Heroku instance (or whatever they call it)? I know this is possible with Engine Yard. I did read that you can take your instance down and change it to a beefier instance on Engine Yard (http://bit.ly/BI2Y6).

Do you know if Heroku has any partnerships with Git Hub, New Relic, Lighthouse, etc? I’m pretty sure you get free accounts with those apps when getting a server w/ Engine Yard.

One thing I don’t like about Heroku is the gap between Crane and Ronin for storage. I’m looking into a cloud solution and both Heroku and Engine Yard seem like the direction I want to go, but my database storage alone is around 2GB.

One last thing, do you know if it is possible to host multiple apps on one Heroku instance (or whatever they call it)? I know this is possible with Engine Yard.

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