# Shared hostings: how to compare/evaluate them (aka: "Rails n **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 23, 2005, 10:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hostings-how-to-compare-evaluate-them-aka-rails-n/50973 "2005-12-23T10:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 10:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hostings-how-to-compare-evaluate-them-aka-rails-n/50973/1 "2005-12-23T10:33:20Z")
Hi all, New offers for cheap Rails hosting keep popping-up at an increasing pace. ``` - Are they any good? - Is this 60$/year plan good enough for me? - "Is DreamHost any good, despite the hundreds of accounts per ``` server?" - Will plan Z support the load/traffic my client expect? - Is this 60$/month plan @ hoster X better than the 14$/month plan @ hoster Y - Why is my app 3 times slower than last months? Is it my code, or is it the server? - etc… All those questions are vital when comes deployment time and today, when hosting price really matters, we’re clueless. AFAIK, the only way to an answer those questions is for through a standard (set of) Rails application(s) that would exercise and measure various areas of Rails, and publish the results interactively or send them to a repository where they would be accumulated. We would just have to install one instance at each hoster (or better, each server). If the community’s pressure is sufficient, we could even have the hosters do this on a voluntary basis. It would benefit the good ones, as they could publish their ‘Rails Index’ on the plans ad pages. Rails is right on many points where mature platforms are still struggling - deployment - testing - plugins - upgrades - simplicity this is one more area where it can “Think Different”. What say you? Alain ---
**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hostings-how-to-compare-evaluate-them-aka-rails-n/50973/2 "2006-05-03T19:06:50Z")
> > > > > “foobario” == foobario [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > It seems like there should be […] > Someone could write […] > […] graphs could be made […] > Am I tripping here or is this not a good idea? It does not matter how good or bad an idea is as long as there is nobody willing to create, write and make the stuff needed to make it real. You obviously think that this is a good idea. You also feel a need for it. The question then becomes what you’re willing to do in order to make it happen. The strategy you have just tried, posting about it and hoping someone else will do it, is extremely common and has the advantage of requiring almost no effort. The drawback is that its success rate is vanishingly small. Not quite nonexistent, but pretty close. I’ve used this one myself, on occasion. Another common strategy is to pay someone to make it happen. _Much_ better success rate, but with the drawback of requiring significant amounts of a resource most of us are short of (money, that is). This one is mostly used by companies, as far as I can tell. ## The strategy most of us try to avoid (more or less consciously) is of course to build it yourself. For most ideas, this requires significant effort. Sometimes part of that effort will be learning the skills needed to build whatever it is. But sometimes all that’s required is a little initiative and enthusiasm, to get something started up that others can contribute to. ``` Calle D. http://www.livejournal.com/users/cdybedahl/ "Ah, optimism. I remember optimism." -- Anya, Buffy the Vampire ``` Slayer ---
**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 10:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hostings-how-to-compare-evaluate-them-aka-rails-n/50973/3 "2006-05-03T10:25:23Z")
> AFAIK, the only way to an answer those questions is for through a > standard (set of) Rails application(s) that would exercise and measure > various areas of Rails, and publish the results interactively or send > them to a repository where they would be accumulated. We would just have > to install one instance at each hoster (or better, each server). > If the community’s pressure is sufficient, we could even have the > hosters do this on a voluntary basis. It would benefit the good ones, as > they could publish their ‘Rails Index’ on the plans ad pages. > What say you? I say “Why are there no responses to this very good 6-month old idea?” It seems like there should be a standard test module that users could decide whether or not to run or make accessible. Then for every Rails site that had it running, you could just go to [railssite.com/benchmark](http://railssite.com/benchmark) or something and glean the data. Someone could write a nice Rails app to ping sites known to be running the benchmark, and graphs could be made to codify the data. Am I tripping here or is this not a good idea? I am looking for a host right now, and having no prior experience with hosts that have Rails I’m stuck. The RoR wiki lists hosts; only one has a user experience associated with it. Pick any name on that list and google “railshostname sucks” and you’re guaranteed some hits, but who knows if those people knew what they were doing or if their complaints are valid in the context of my usage patterns? ---
**Author:** ![aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@aravet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aravet)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hostings-how-to-compare-evaluate-them-aka-rails-n/50973/4 "2006-05-03T19:07:24Z")
Foobario ``` > Am I tripping here or is this not a good idea? ``` This is a brilliant idea 🙂 ``` > I say "Why are there no responses to this very good 6-month old ``` idea?" My 2 cents: there is way too much noise and too much traffic in this forum. My other 2 cents: core and advanced railers don’t use shared hosting, so they don’t care much. Look at scaffold, globalization, etc… Rails is not for hobbyist, it is for business, serious business. Fair enough: Rails is free. Painful though, when those who need the info are 1/the majority, and 2/the ones who don’t have the resources/technical knowledge to obtain the info. I’m puzzled though that this very question never caught the eye of at least one of the core members, or of the old/experienced railers. Rails is so much smarter when it come to testing, deploying, RJS, caching, templating, etc. and then there is this hole in its foot. Alain