Where to host websites powered by Python and Django
Posted by Martin Brochhaus | Filed under Reviews
As this blog is dedicated to web development powered by Python and Django my first article consequently is going to try to answer the first question you probably ask yourself when planning to create a Django powered Website: “Where can I host my stuff?”When I decided to port all my websites from .NET to Django a year ago I quickly learned that there was no well known, professional and reliable web hosting service offering Django support in Germany. I started some research and quickly stumbled upon a list of Django friendly websites. At that time the list was much shorter but Webfaction already was on top of the list – just as today.
The process of signing up is dead-simple. I just provided some personal information like user-name and email and paid via Paypal. Some hours later my account was ready and I got an email providing me with the next steps. I followed the link in the email and logged into the control panel. The whole panel is baldly designed yet very intuitive and responsive so I quickly learned which information can be found without needing any help.
I decided to set up a Django instance just for fun. Since I am the kind of user who reads the fucking readme I watched a screencast at the Webfaction website first. There is an impressive amount of applications available through one-click-installers and for the most of them you get easy to follow step by step instructions through official screencasts from the Webfaction team. However, if you run into problems you will most probably find a solution in the Webfaction knowledge base or support forums. Fortunately all those resources are indexed very well by Google so you can search for “webfaction +XXX” and you will find a solution quickly without contacting the Webfaction support thanks to the superb community of the Webfaction userbase. Thanks to a very nice guide on how to host Django projects at Webfaction I was able to push some of my local projects into the web within a few hours. I expected several days of trial and error…
If nothing helps you should consider contacting the support team. I already did this several times. EVERY single time I got a friendly answer quickly (within 24 hours) written by a real human being. As if this wasn’t nice enough the ticket system adds even more transparency to the whole problem solving process. You can always see who is currently responsible for your request (again: real persons with real names) and you see who needs to do the next action (me or them). A pros pros transparency: Even Webfaction is not perfect. Sometimes machines go down. I worked with several hosting providers already and no service provider was so transparent and honest about their service as Webfaction is. Those guys communicate problems on their status blog even before I realize that something goes wrong. This is a great thing because if one of my customers asks me why he can’t receive emails I can quickly glance at the status blog. No need to make a phone call to England or to wait for an answer to a support request.
All in all this sounds pretty much like web-hosting-heaven and indeed to me it is. However if you signup for a Webfaction account and feel like it wasn’t a good decision you can cancel your account within 60 days and get all your money back which is a really fair offering. I even did this with one of my many accounts and guess what – it works like a charme. I got my money back within a few days…
8 Responses to “Where to host websites powered by Python and Django”
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March 25th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
WebFaction is really great. And AFAIK it is the only one that hosts CherryPy projects. And they guys there are really helpful.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Great review of a great host. I’ve added your review to WebFaction’s links at http://djangofriendly.com/hosts/webfaction/
March 27th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I couldn’t agree more. Web Faction is THE best host I’ve ever used – period. You can get a Django app running in minutes, and their support staff is kind, informative and responsive.
I highly recommend them to all my clients.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
For my part, I rely on two hosts. For international websites, I exclusively use Slicehost. It’s a fantastically well-made VPS provider which I cannot praise enough.
For Norwegian customers, I usually order a package at Subsys.no. It’s not especially practical to use servers in the US for Norwegian customers (latency, support etc..)
June 8th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Pretty sweet… Great stuff :)
June 10th, 2010 at 5:40 am
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:42 am
July 18th, 2010 at 7:36 pm