Hi! I’m very new to programming, and one of my learning projects has been to build a SQL-based database website-- one where the user can enter search terms in order to return results from a SQL database. I’m finally done building the website, and I’m ready to put it out there for the world to see!
What I’m not sure about is how to host it. I’ve never worked with a web hosting service before, and I’m not clear on whether or not all of them are necessarily good fits for a site like this, as opposed to a static website. I’m not very knowledgeable in this area and also don’t want to spend a lot of money, so I was just wondering what hosting service people would recommend, or if there’s some other option available that I haven’t thought of.
Thanks for any advice!
(P.S.: I’m a little unclear as to whether or not I’m posting in the correct forum. If I didn’t, I apologize-- please just let me know and I’ll repost in the right place!)
You should probably look for a heroku alternative if you want “simple” (for example Cloud Application Hosting for Developers | Render).
If you want to manage things more hands on and cheap, consider something like linode (or anything of that sort). There are tutorials around on how you get a sqlite (or postgres if you’re feeling adventurous) db on there and it’s nice stuff to know.
In terms of the search functionality. It depends on what exactly you want to happen. Exact searches are easy. Relative frequency searches are more subtle (how is your linear algebra?). Fuzzy searches (misspelled terms, etc) are also tough. For that sort of thing you might want to look at out-of-the-box solutions or make it a project of itself.
Thanks!
I’m not sure I understand what you said about the search functionality. The functionality already exists; I’ve made the database and the website. I’m just looking for hosting.
How are Bluehost and HostGator and SiteGround? I’ve seen references to those online, but I just don’t have a great sense of what I need to be looking for. I wouldn’t want to do something like pay five times too much for a bunch of features I don’t need.
Also: is there a different forum (on Codecademy or elsewhere) where it’d make more sense to ask for recommendations of hosting services? I had hoped to get some more replies; I don’t really know where to look. I’m a paying Codecademy student so I had hoped the forums would be a good place to get advice for my needs 
A few things to unpack.
Search can mean a lot of things. A google search for example is a very sophisticated algorithm, versus a literal query from a database is very simple. It’s hard to assume where on the spectrum you might want that for your project. One might think why not default to the simplest possible if it’s a beginner? (because the simplest possible is often not the most useful, so might as well throw a hint that there are ideas to be mined there)
DId you check out my link to render? It’s offers a completely free solution (I just opened an account to check, and it can both host a database and a website with no problem on a free tier). You want to search for things like free hosting for developers etc. there’s plenty of tutorials if you feel uncomfortable with any bits (for example, a quick youtube search yields https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusIvEKjqsc). Before render Heroku was the go-to but their free tier went down. If you want to get faster feedback I’d join some web-dev discord to see what people think (i think codecademy has one, but you can check out react or vue discord servers as well).
The websites you linked are good if you don’t want to code your website and need a non developer type solution. So they don’t seem as relevant for you… but I don’t want to assume.
Finally, money doesn’t do anything in forums (not just this one). All the forum commenters are doing it voluntarily. Some are professionals, some are enthusiasts, and some are learners. The recipe for success in getting constructive replies is patience, persistence, specificity, transparency, and conciseness (I know, there’s a trade-off there but roughly speaking that applies anywhere). Sometimes it’s a crap-shoot about where you end up getting the answer that you ultimately need, but eventually you find a rhythm of: “ok this type of question works here best, and this other type of question works in that other place etc.”
Hey… so, to clarify, the site is a searchable database. When you go to it, there are search boxes, you type in a search term, this initiates a SQL query, and then the query results are displayed. It uses Django and MySQL and it has already been created and runs locally-- so all I need is a hosting service on which I can upload this so that people can access it via the web instead of only on my machine
Will check out Render, thanks!
Glitch is a really great option if you want to spin something up quickly - and you can even start from examples by “remixing” projects. Glitch: The friendly community where everyone builds the web
You can’t use custom domains on Glitch as far as I know, but you can create a custom sub-domain.
Netlify is also really awesome and easy to deploy and get your stuff live straight from a GitHub repository, and I think their free plan may be sufficient in a lot of cases. IIRC you can use custom domains with them.
And Vercel seems pretty similar to Netlify, in that you can really quickly deploy apps and have them running, and use custom domains.