I've got my MVP set up using ExpressJs, MongoDB, and NextJs, and I'm not expecting too much traffic—probably under 10,000 daily active users. I'm exploring affordable near-production cloud options for hosting it. My initial thought was to use two Lightsail instances: one for the backend and one for the frontend. Do you think a single Lightsail instance could handle 10,000 active users safely, or would it be better to jump straight into Kubernetes?
4 Answers
If you're looking for the absolute cheapest option with some room for growth, I'd recommend using AWS ECS. You can set up an ECS cluster with one micro instance for both the frontend and backend, plus another for the database, all in containers.
Check out DigitalOcean or Vultr! They offer affordable VPS options with straightforward scaling and pricing. They could handle moderate traffic without the complexity of AWS.
You might want to start with a single VPS instance at first. Just vertically scale it up as necessary if traffic increases. It's simpler, and you can always consider redundancy later on if needed.
I would actually shy away from Lightsail since it might end up costing you more in the long run. Once you set up the instances, you can't scale down. Instead, consider going for a solid VPS or mid-sized virtual machine for more flexible scaling down the road.
Yeah, I agree! I've had a great experience with Linode and Hetzner; they offer good uptime too. But keep an eye on your traffic!