Perl on Shared Hosting FTW!
Actually, shared hosting - in terms of quality - usually sucks big time.
However, some of us are (hopefully only) forced to use it. If you're one (or simply want to show off to someone else who is), this is where Patrick Donelan comes in.
If you aren't on (or following) Iron{Wo,}Man, you should know that that Patrick has set up a website for Perl on shared hosting following an interesting blog post on the subject, named Serve Up Dancer Webapps for Six Bucks.
Serious kudos, Patrick!
(and yes, extra points for using Dancer in the demo! :)
Gots to do the bloggingz
How is anyone forced to use shared hosting these days? You can get a VPS for under $10/month. That just seems like a much easier choice for hosting a Perl application.
I had to write an application for someone that has his site on shared hosting. He has no idea how to set up a VPS nor the inclination to pay someone to set up and maintain one for him. that's how.
Regardless, I agree with you on the VPS being a better choice.
Can you name some good VPS hosting services?
Thanks for the plug!
Was fun learning Dancer as part of the process too.
@autarch: wow I didn't realise VPS plans had gotten so cheap, that's awesome. I just did a quick search and found one provider doing $7/month VPS plans (128mb), I'm staggered.
That nullifies a big part of the need for the site, but Sawyer's reply has me mulling over what other reasons might make shared hosting appeal to people:
* managed apache, mail server, dns server, ..
* cPanel (we can't do single-click deployment like Wordpress has via cPanel, but it's still handy for configuring things like mail accounts, DNS, etc..)
* like Sawyer X said, people might want to try to use a shared hosting account they already have (and are already funding for some other purpose)
I'm going to have to do some more thinking and then follow up with another blog post. Would love to hear any other ideas that people have about what pulls people towards shared hosting vs. VPS accounts.
The next phase of the PerlSharedHosting site will be to have a top-level quickstart guide, starting with a series of questions that helps people decide if they actually should be using a VPS account instead of shared hosting.
The hardest part about finding a hosting, is not just finding cheapest choice, but a reliable provider with features you need for the price you willing to pay. There might be some low cost VPS plans around, but there are a lot more low-cost shared hosting plans available, and there are a lot more user reviews available for them (no one wants to look for hosting by trial-and-error).