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Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

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Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#11

Post by isoprophlex »

dcminter wrote: post #8
isoprophlex wrote: post #6

Few things beats a cheap, powerful Hetzner server, IMO. I host a LOT of stuff on my single €40/month box. 20 core, 64 gb ram, 1 TB ssd, unmetered network. They have GPU-backed servers too, obviously theyre more expensive, and not ideal for your usecase maybe. Modal is a good serverless alternative if you want to scale to zero and be able to handle spiky loads.

Sounds like that might work for OP while they're using APIs, but if they decide to run models locally can you get GPU equipped servers from Hetzner? Edit: Not sure if I misread, or if you edited, but I see you addressed this, and yes in that case sounds like this would be a good option if that kind of price range is ok.

Yeah i edited after a minute indeed, thought I was quick enough for anyone to notice haha.

But you really have to do the calculus, as you buy their cheapest servers for at least a month at a time. And with fluctuating loads, a serverless approach might actually be better.

See also: replicate or runpod. But I like modal best; their SDK is pretty comprehensive and has a sane developer experience, replicate is too constrained and runpod instances were unavailable for me half the time...

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#13

Post by isoprophlex »

akudha wrote: post #9
isoprophlex wrote: post #6

Few things beats a cheap, powerful Hetzner server, IMO. I host a LOT of stuff on my single €40/month box. 20 core, 64 gb ram, 1 TB ssd, unmetered network. They have GPU-backed servers too, obviously theyre more expensive, and not ideal for your usecase maybe. Modal is a good serverless alternative if you want to scale to zero and be able to handle spiky loads.

How smooth is the signup process? I remember reading they require passport copy etc, which makes me uncomfortable

They require extensive proof of identity. I don't mind, I have a EU business so I registered through that... but there's a barrier there for sure.

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#14

Post by api »

isoprophlex wrote: post #6

Few things beats a cheap, powerful Hetzner server, IMO. I host a LOT of stuff on my single €40/month box. 20 core, 64 gb ram, 1 TB ssd, unmetered network. They have GPU-backed servers too, obviously theyre more expensive, and not ideal for your usecase maybe. Modal is a good serverless alternative if you want to scale to zero and be able to handle spiky loads.

Cloud markup over bare metal and wholesale bandwidth is astronomical. Like hundreds to thousands of times in some cases. If you don’t actually need the managed services and other capabilities offered by big cloud, it’s down right stupid to use it.

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#15

Post by api »

akudha wrote: post #9
isoprophlex wrote: post #6

Few things beats a cheap, powerful Hetzner server, IMO. I host a LOT of stuff on my single €40/month box. 20 core, 64 gb ram, 1 TB ssd, unmetered network. They have GPU-backed servers too, obviously theyre more expensive, and not ideal for your usecase maybe. Modal is a good serverless alternative if you want to scale to zero and be able to handle spiky loads.

How smooth is the signup process? I remember reading they require passport copy etc, which makes me uncomfortable

It’s because they get a lot of fraud. The alternative would be to raise their prices to compensate for theft and the cost of dealing with abuse.

VPS providers like Vultr and Digital Ocean are a little more expensive but a little easier in some cases. They’re still way cheaper than big cloud.

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#16

Post by gumperbumper »

Can’t you run one of AWS’ t-series servers for like $10 a month? If you’re just making a few API calls, then that should be more than sufficient. My advice: don’t prematurely optimize. You _may want_ to explore self-serving models. But you also may not. Wait till you have a real problem before trying to solve it.

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#18

Post by password4321 »

Though not intended for reliable, professional, and/or commercial use, Oracle Always Free⁰ is free cloud VPS (24GB RAM [ARM], 200GB, 10TB transfer, IP) and Scaleway Stardust¹ is no-additional-cost data transfer capped at 100mbps (€3.43/mo: 1GB RAM, 10GB, IP). Maybe it goes without saying, but don't mess around on the info requested when creating an account - they won't.

If you're not interested in sysadmin work... well, that's what you're paying extra for! I've never bothered but you can find discussions of open source PaaS options here on HN keword Dokku².

I see no reason not to buy or repurpose a dedicated laptop/Raspberry Pi/NUC and host everything on your own home internet connection while getting started. This helps separate concerns a bit; less secure would be a VM (probably ok) or even docker container (yikes!). Cloudflare Tunnel³ is a free endpoint vs. NAT port forwarding exposing your home IP.

I can't provide the voice of experience regarding self-hosted LLMs, but there have been a few HN discussions on building your own. You might find a deal on a near-dead GPU and can buy 'without graphics card' gaming machines capable of powering them from others reselling after pulling new GPUs.

⁰https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free

¹https://www.scaleway.com/en/stardust-instances

²https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dokku%20comments%3E0

³https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/connections...

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#19

Post by [deleted] »

akudha wrote: post #9
isoprophlex wrote: post #6

Few things beats a cheap, powerful Hetzner server, IMO. I host a LOT of stuff on my single €40/month box. 20 core, 64 gb ram, 1 TB ssd, unmetered network. They have GPU-backed servers too, obviously theyre more expensive, and not ideal for your usecase maybe. Modal is a good serverless alternative if you want to scale to zero and be able to handle spiky loads.

How smooth is the signup process? I remember reading they require passport copy etc, which makes me uncomfortable

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Moving a not-for-profit web app off AWS

#20

Post by amanda99 »

yoaviram wrote: post #17

If you form a real nonprofit AWS will give you up to 5000 USD per year. https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/nonprofits/nonpr...

Specifics on this: if you have a US 501(c)3 with less than $1m in revenue, you need to pay TechSoup ~$100 to get $1k in credits.
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