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I have a potential USA-based client, a small business, that has a need for a web application. Their application will have roughly 50 users, essentially a server for small files.
I'm researching hosts that are stable, have good support, are easy to deal with, and relatively inexpensive. Can I get recommendations?
Thanks!
[Yeah, I know I'm asking for the sun, the moon, and the stars -- and will probably have to settle for something less.  ]
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Step 0 : Roll your own.
Step 1 : Profit.
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I do that. I offer Plesk based webhosting with not too many restrictions.
One .com-Domain included, from $30 each year.
Service includes user level ssh-access, custom dns-settings and much more.
Just send me a PM and we may talk about it.
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Thanks, but I'm not interested in running the hosting. Just looking for a setup for customers which is stable, easy to use (for them), and hassle free (for me).
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Yes, that's exactly what you'd get.
There's a demo account to try it out:
https://cumulu.org:8443/
Username:
demo
Password:
showcase
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If they're behind a static IP, why don't they just the server themselves?
If they can afford $60/mo or so, a micro-server on Amazon is great. Or you could look at Azure.
Otherwise, there's various reasonable hosting sites out there, but I haven't used them in ages, so others will have to make a recommendation in that arena.
Marc
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This is a small business, totally non-technical. I can't imagine them hosting anything themselves. This is not to denigrate them; tech-stuff is not their arena.
The app is not a robust one, it simply collects information from a single source and serves the information out to customers each day.
Azure may be more affordable. Thanks!
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BryanFazekas wrote: The app is not a robust one, it simply collects information from a single source and serves the information out to customers each day.
Heh. Sounds like it could be implemented on an rPi sitting in the janitor's closet.
Seriously, they don't need to know anything about hosting, sounds like all you need to do is set up a box for them that runs a web server, configure the router to for port 443, set up an SSL certificate and auto-renewal, register a domain, point it to their static IP, ...
Ah, ok, I see your point. 
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: Seriously, they don't need to know anything about hosting, sounds like all you need to do is set up a box for them that runs a web server, configure the router to for port 443, set up an SSL certificate and auto-renewal, register a domain, point it to their static IP, ...
Yup!
This could run on a PI3, probably a Pi Zero. For this client I don't think that's the best choice, but I'm keeping that in mind. I've got one of each (PI3, zero W) and need to play more with them.
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My AWS administration experience is limited, but I would second something like Azure or AWS... mainly because of the level of control you get with it is very much akin to a VPS. Or you could just get a VPS, but typically with those you don't get the fancy web interfaces to control it as much as you do with cloud-based environments.
Jeremy Falcon
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Tell them to use Linux... n00bs. 
Jeremy Falcon
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I just watched this Build apps faster with Azure Serverless - YouTube from the MSDN news letter, seems it may meet your requirements. I know a demo like that glosses over all the difficult bits but it may be worth investigating.
I do note there is no discussion of cost 
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Thanks! I was thinking of Azure ... but cost is an issue, so I need to check that.
This is for one client, but I'm also thinking longer range for other small clients.
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Assessing the cost of that service seems to be a major challenge.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I use SmarterASP.net - Unlimited ASP.NET Web Hosting[^]
1. Decent control panel to host .NET based applications
2. Not sure about support as I never needed it. I mostly use them for my side project
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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What about an Azure app service, for that much expected traffic they could be on one of the lower pricing tiers.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
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I have a couple of .net applications hosted on http://appharbor.com and I can't recommend it highly enough. If your requirements are simple you may even get away with using their free options, but if not it remains cheap, versatile and scalable
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How about a Azure Web App (there's a free tier for up to 60 compute mins a day) associated with a Azure storage account for the files.
Azure Calculator
Paulo Gomes
Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
—Bill Gates
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
—Albert Einstein
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I have used GoDaddy for clients that need a lot of hand holding. Their customer support is geared towards clients that need a lot of assistance. Takes the load off me. Not the cheapest option for them, but definitely for you.
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I agree about GoDaddy. Fairly easy to manage and it does just work. If the application is fairly small should be fine
Azure is nice but almost requires that a person know how to manage servers kind of. So Not sure that would be best for you after hearing aobut the client.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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I know is a long shot. But .netcore runs in Linux. You might want to look into Digital Ocean. I did some early development with aspnet core 1.0 and it was fast and responsive with a Debian droplet. All experimental. It was interesting.
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Thanks for the suggestion, but I need stable, not experimental. A Raspberry PI was suggested up stream, and THAT is an entertaining thought ... and dirt cheap for the client. But they need something reliable so some type of service is better for everyone.
However, some time down the road when I've had a chance to experiment with my PI's ... I may choose otherwise.
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Arvixe I use a good bit. Very reasonable and while it requires that you have some reasonable level of knowledge. They have been the most cost effective .NET host provider I've run into. When there has been a real problem they were capable and resolved issues in a reasonable length of time.
www.arvixe.com
They have both shared and dedicated hosting at various levels based on your need and very quickly get to unlimited storage and SQL backends. MySQL is provided by default with all of their packages.
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WinHost.com is a very good and affordable option with good support as well. It has all of the tools and more for .NET developers who want or need to support hosted .NET web applications...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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