6 Great Hosting Services Supporting Node.js

To the happiness of many developers and IT professionals, Node.js is supported by the biggest and best hosting services in the industry like AWS, Heroku, Microsoft Azure, AppFog, etc. Questions like “what sort of data processing to expect”, “size of data sets”, “which database to deploy”, “number of concurrent processes to expect”, and others are the key worries developers have before choosing a hosting service. Below you can find some of the most popular and best services that support Node.js, with details and comments on what to expect and how much to invest.

AWS - AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Amazon Web Services (AWS) allows you to deploy a high-availability Node.js web application using the AWS Elastic Beanstalk service. This is a container system that makes it extremely easy to push packaged applications to AWS as Platform as a Service (PaaS). You have full control over the server on which your Node.js application runs, and indeed you can also run multiple applications on the server without incurring any additional costs.

HEROKU

Initially only supporting Ruby on Rails, Heroku has since added support for a wide range of languages and environments including Perl, Python, PHP, Java and of course Node.js. Owned by Salesforce.com, Heroku also offers seamless integration with a host of third-party services and supports deployment across multiple regions. It is very easy to get started with Heroku even for the beginners. This hosting service has great support documentation available for free and an extensive list of plugins and services that can be added instantly.

MICROSOFT AZURE

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud-based platform that lets developers rapidly build, deploy, and manage powerful websites and web apps. This is a reliable platform with great flexibility and high-availability across multiple regions. With support for both Windows and Linux machines, you are able to monitor all of your Node.js applications hosted on Azure in real-time, with automatic scalability supported. This means it is super-easy to scale your Node.js app up or down here, and enable autoscaling - meaning letting Azure to scale in accordance with the traffic. The advantages of the Microsoft product include Windows and Linux compatibility, possibility to migrate apps with no code change. When you host several Node.js apps on Azure, you are able to monitor them in real-time. Azure is a perfect option for developed businesses to develop and manage mobile and web app due to its massive set of functions and tools.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud Platform is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google. This is the same platform that the company uses for its end-user products, such as Google Search and Youtube. It is a pack of cloud computing solutions for storage, compute capacity, Big Data and Machine Learning. Of course, the leading technology support also Node.js. It has many great Node.js tools to build cloud-native apps, deploy at scale, and analyze the data. This is a great solution for those who need a simple yet powerful service to host an application.

Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is a lightweight and efficient platform for building fast, scalable network applications. It is a great platform for data-intensive apps that run across distributed devices and it greatly supports this JavaScript runtime environment - Node.js. It offers other infrastructure services such as load balancer, object storage, cloud firewall, etc. which helps you to build an enterprise-ready application. It targets experienced engineers and attracts with the usability, as well as a variety of services such as droplets, block storage, networking, monitoring, teams etc. Moreover, it is simple to not only set up but also manage the server. The pricing is quite good and it also helps to build a better infrastructure with the help of over a thousand, easy-to-follow development and sysadmin tutorials. Speed and reliability are the major benefits appraised by users.

AppFog/Century link

If you don’t want to mind setting up servers and databases, configuring and updating firewalls then this platform is just for you. With a super-intuitive user interface, powerful command line and REST API for robust deployment, Century Link, previously known as AppFog, offers you to host your Node.js applications in the cloud easily, with relatively quick deployment and automatic scalability. AppFog offers 24/7 professional live-chat support for all users, and has a simple command line utility and it takes several seconds to deploy apps on AppFog. Though AppFog is not on the list of free Node.js hosting services, it offers a 90-day free trial option.

Summary

If you opt for a sustainable and smart approach to choosing a hosting service, you will likely have fewer problems in the future. Anyway a plethora of information is available both online, also in Simply blog, and in the published professional books that can help you deepen your knowledge in the field to get the best answers to the questions that worry you while choosing a Node.js hosting service.

We hope this article was one of that materials that can guide you somehow or help you out in that tough moment of hosting your Node.js app.