HACKER Q&A
📣 mradek

Fly.io vs. AWS/GCP/cloud servers vs. host myself elixir phoenix app


I built a chat and notification system using Phoenix and I've never deployed this kind of app before.

Its for a side project, and I'm also trying to learn. At home I have a fiber connection (1.2gbps down/1.0 up) so I'm thinking that is plenty of bandwidth for my needs, and if my calculation is correct I could potentially support 100k+ connections on my home server (r9 5900x, 64gb ram).

I looked at fly.io and their pricing calculator is confusing (to me), so I'm wondering if someone can help me understand it by sharing their own experience using it, and how much they pay + the dx.

The other option is to spin up something on a cloud provider. I am familiar with AWS, and a little bit with GCP. I could also just get a bare metal linux box.

Or.. I could self-host at home where I have a reliable fiber connection.

What should I do in this case?

I only have experience deploying node and go apps, which seem a lot easier to think about compared to this elixir stuff.


  👤 _virtu Accepted Answer ✓
I would personally choose fly. But that’s after years of wasting time yak shaving my spare time to use AWS/GCP/Azure.

Go check out the elixir slack. There’s a fly.io channel you can ask questions about pricing in. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the alternatives. You can also hit me up if you have any questions. I would love to help.