I'm looking for recommendations on cloud providers that are more developer-friendly for small scale deployments. Specifically, I need a managed Postgres service and a container orchestration tool that isn't as complex as Kubernetes, similar to AWS Fargate. I've used AWS before but I'd prefer to focus on building my product without having to worry about infrastructure management. I've done bare metal deployments previously, which was fine, but I would like to avoid that hassle now. I haven't considered GCP much and have avoided Azure so far due to past impressions, but I've recently heard positive things about both. Price and flexibility are important since we're currently doing small scale deployments, but we want the ability to scale up as needed. Any insights from those who have experience with SaaS or startups would be super helpful!
3 Answers
You should check out DigitalOcean's App Platform! I was in a similar situation a year ago, wanting to focus on building rather than managing infrastructure. It’s a managed platform that’s super easy to use. For about $30/month, I managed to run two replicas of my app with a managed PostgreSQL database. As you scale, you can add more replicas and increase resources easily. Plus, they handle all the ops for you—just connect your Git repo and they’ll deploy automatically on each push. I'm not affiliated with them, just really impressed with how user-friendly it is!
I think a lot of people with SaaS experience will suggest that many platforms can lead to vendor lock-in, which can make scaling tough. If you're planning to grow, sticking with AWS and taking advantage of their startup program might be your best bet. Use managed solutions when possible, especially if you're not ready for Kubernetes yet. Set up your infrastructure as code to simplify your deployments to just a few command lines—it's a bit of upfront work, but it pays off in the long run!
Are you planning to use your own containers or would you prefer a PaaS with managed runtimes? Something like Upsun could work, but I've heard it can be pricier than just using AWS RDS and Fargate.
Seems like it could end up costing more than just sticking with AWS's offerings. Not sure if it's worth it!