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PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

pikapods.com

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Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#31

Post by nicoburns »

m3nu wrote: post #21
indigodaddy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should consider OP’s suggestion. Unlimited apps for some X flat rate. I believe this would bring in more users and potentially attract an audience who for instance was considering Cloudron but didn’t want the hassle of even managing/buying the VPS to install it on..

I was considering this, but in a survey most respondents preferred a prepaid model to avoid surprise charges. The flatrate model does that too, though. Maybe worth trying in the future. Like Spotify for open source apps.

Something that could potentially be a big improvement (in actual efficiency, not just pricing) for low-traffic apps, would be to allow users to provision a set of resources that are shared between multiple apps.

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#32

Post by arvigeus »

m3nu wrote: post #21
indigodaddy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should consider OP’s suggestion. Unlimited apps for some X flat rate. I believe this would bring in more users and potentially attract an audience who for instance was considering Cloudron but didn’t want the hassle of even managing/buying the VPS to install it on..

I was considering this, but in a survey most respondents preferred a prepaid model to avoid surprise charges. The flatrate model does that too, though. Maybe worth trying in the future. Like Spotify for open source apps.

I think combination of two would be the best. In this case I can have a beefy nextcloud pod, and then some shared pod that hosts multiple less demanding apps.

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#33

Post by m3nu »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #24
m3nu wrote: post #7

Founder here. Nice surprise to see this posted. Any questions, drop them here.

Plans to allow 3-4 apps on one pod? Something that literally is by just one person? Maybe something that hosts notes server, contacts, calendar etc?

One pod maps to one public URL and one Docker image. So would be hard to change the setup like this.

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#35

Post by m3nu »

ozcap wrote: post #27

It's really nice just to have a browse through the apps, actually. I've learned about some cool projects which I never knew existed!

That's what I think every time when I find a new project! There are a few directories, but none perfect. I'd like to see one that's user-updatable (via Github), sort- and filterable and shows the current health of a project (last update, contributors, ..). Closest I found is this:

https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#36

Post by m3nu »

harryvederci wrote: post #34

Looks great! 2 bits of feedback: - I'd like to know what kind of payment methods are available before signing up. - I'd LOVE it if this supported a prepaid payment option, where the service just stops if you run out of credit. (With an email alert, of course.)

Major credit cards via Stripe. Later PayPal probably.

Yes, it's prepaid and your pod will stop after a few notifications. You can optionally enable automatic top-ups to avoid this. Both possible.

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#37

Post by troyjfarrell »

m3nu wrote: post #29
zokier wrote: post #25

Sounds a lot like sandcats (/sandstorm), albeit slightly less ambitious?

Sandstorm uses VM templates (Vagrant)[1], so pretty heavy and harder to update. I use Docker images, as provided by the upstream project. So you get the same experience as running it yourself, as well as quick updates. 1: https://docs.sandstorm.io/en/latest/vagrant-spk/packaging-tu...

Sandstorm uses Vagrant as part of the app packaging (for developers) process. It is _not_ used in everyday use of Sandstorm. Instead, "Sandstorm implements fine-grained containers"[1], not VMs.

1: https://docs.sandstorm.io/en/latest/using/security-practices...

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#39

Post by harryvederci »

m3nu wrote: post #36
harryvederci wrote: post #34

Looks great! 2 bits of feedback: - I'd like to know what kind of payment methods are available before signing up. - I'd LOVE it if this supported a prepaid payment option, where the service just stops if you run out of credit. (With an email alert, of course.)

Major credit cards via Stripe. Later PayPal probably. Yes, it's prepaid and your pod will stop after a few notifications. You can optionally enable automatic top-ups to avoid this. Both possible.

Awesome, thanks. If you're going to tell me it's also possible to remove a credit card after topping up the credit, I'll consider using this!

Re: PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting

#40

Post by m3nu »

john-titor wrote: post #38
m3nu wrote: post #7

Founder here. Nice surprise to see this posted. Any questions, drop them here.

Cool idea. Can you comment on who the owner of the actual server hardware is and on the locations of those?

We rent from our regular colo partners and sometimes buy our own drives, if it helps lower the price. It will eventually show the DC location as tooltip on the region. For the EU it's Hetzner, for US it's INAP and Cogent DCs near Boston, for Asia it will be Leaseweb.
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