A page similar to this was part of the former Bluepulse widget enthusiast site. Any links that you had pointing to it should have automatically redirected here. This page is maintained for reference only.
Two things I really like about developing bluepulse widgets are: I can develop in whatever server-side language or technology I like, and I don’t have to worry about UI’s.
Shared Hosting
For widget hosting, I’d recommend shared hosting. Generally speaking, you’re sitting on a powerful box, probably dual processor with 6-8 GB RAM, and while you’re sharing that box with 300 other sites, most have very little traffic. Bandwidth usage is minimal, so the primary things to look for in a host are your preferred development environment and support. I use Lunar Pages. They offer a lot of software, great support, and great prices.
The downside to shared hosting is that hosts need to protect that shared environment, so you’ll be prevented from doing some pretty standard things, and you might be using older software that is deemed consistent and reliable.
Virtual Private Servers
With a VPS, you are usually given complete root access to a virtual server, and you have total control over what is installed on your partition. These boxes are usually shared with anywhere from 25-50 other users. The upside is obviously the flexibility.
The downside is that most people use VPS’s because they’ve either outgrown shared hosting, or because they have some requirements that shared hosting can’t meet. You’ve gone from 300 sites with no traffic to 50 sites with moderate traffic, and it’s not uncommon to see your responses times double, triple, or even quadruple on less expensive plans. To keep performance acceptable, you generally need to upgrade to a pricier VPS plan.
If you have exotic requirements that can’t be met by a shared host, consider VPS hosting, but realize that you’ll likely need at least a mid-range VPS plan, and even then, performance will not be on par with shared hosting performance.
Dedicated Hosting
When you need the flexibility of a VPS, and the power of shared hosting, check out dedicated hosting. You’ll need deep pockets and the skills to setup and maintain your own box, too. After all is said and done, you’ll find yourself paying about $200 a month for an entry-level server, and $600 to $1000 a month for something with a little kick.
Free Hosting
If you have a simple widget (i.e. simple to deploy), and you need somewhere to park it, let me know. I’m happy to share my plan. Please realize that I won’t be able to give you access to deploy it yourself, and I won’t troubleshoot your deployment, but if your widget is tested, and you can give me simple deployment instructions like “drop it in a folder titled ‘foo’,” I’m open to hosting it. I can do JSP, Servlet, and PHP.
