.NET Application Hosting

UpTime Hosting Recommended Solution

Before we compare the alternatives, we should cover what’s included when you host your .net application on an UpTime VPS.

A VPS is a Virtual Private Server.  It’s a fully functional server running as an instance on high-end hardware. The instance can be moved to other hardware or have its resources changed on demand with little to no downtime.  This provides flexibility and fast recovery for your server.  All of the options in this article are based on VPS technology.

UpTime VPS Inclusions

The primary purpose of our hosting solution is to provide you with a reliable, high-performing platform you have full control over and can manage as needed.

We set a baseline of specifications of 4 vCPU, 8 GB of RAM and fast NVMe storage at 100GB.  All of these specifications can be altered, but we believe this is a good base platform for a busy, high-performance web application.

For management, we include Plesk Web Edition, which provides you with an easy-to-use control panel to set up all aspects of your application, including IIS Management, DNS and optional Email server.

There’s no hidden costs. Be aware that there may be hidden costs with other providers. For example, you may have to pay for additional read/write actions to your storage.

A full image of your server is stored nightly for backup and can be quickly restored as needed. You can also configure scheduled on-server backups using the Plesk backup system. Off-server backups to your own storage solution are also available (eg S3, FTP etc.)

Conclusion

An affordable service that’s fully supported. Everything is set up and ready to go without any complex configuration required.

Azure VM

The Azure platform provides an extensive cloud computing solution for Microsoft-based technologies. They do provide a VPS solution similar to UpTime, and using their online price calculator, the base server alone with SQL Web and no additional services (control panel, support, backup) is priced at over $540 per month.

Once you have ordered your server, you will need to have a good understanding of configuring and installing server components manually, like IIS.

If you’d like to use Plesk Web Admin, you will need to purchase your own licence (approx AUD$30 per month) and install it yourself.

Because pricing is USD, each month, your cost will fluctuate based on the current exchange rate.

Support only covers their platform. Any issues with your operating system or configuration help is an additional cost. They do provide Standard support at $154.64 per month. Their Developer support ($44.85) is only for non-production servers.

Static IPs are around $5 per month.

Azure Backup needs to be added for backing up your server and costs around $15 per month based on the server size.

Conclusion

A similar solution to UpTime would cost you over $750 per month. You still need to configure the server to your specifications, but this cost does include their standard support. You will need to self-install basic features, such as IIS and the .Net framework.

Azure App Service

The Azure platform also provides a different service to VPS called App Service. The S3 (4 Cores, 7GB Ram, 50GB SSD) costs around $570 per month and doesn’t include SQL Server. 

Without SQL Server running on the instance, you could drop the specs down to S2 (2 Cores and 50GB of storage). You would then need to add an Azure SQL Database (different to SQL Server). Using the cheaper (and less performant) DTU pricing on Standard performance, costing is around $25 with no backups.

You lose a lot configuration options with this approach as it’s purely app hosting only. No additonal services like Plesk, and Email are available.  Everything else is a paid add-on.

Conclusion

Even using the minimum recommended production service levels the costs are way above the UpTime VPS solution.

AWS

As a top-tier cloud computing provider, they have many options that can make their configuration confusing when first set up. Using their online price calculator, we configured similar hardware specs to our recommended set-up.

The base cost is USD$293.29 and includes only the server with a licence for SQL Server Web Editon.  There is no control panel to manage the server setup and ongoing configuration. You will need to have a good understanding of configuring Windows servers and installing components manually, like IIS.  If you’d like to use Plesk Web Admin, you will need to purchase your own licence (approx AUD$30 per month) and install it yourself.

Because pricing is USD, each month, your cost will fluctuate based on the current exchange rate.

Support only covers their platform. Any issues with your operating system or configuration help is an additional cost.

Note that there are iops and MiB/s costs above their included usage (see storage costs in their calculator).

Server snapshots are not included. You can purchase their EBS Snapshot service starting at around $50 per month for 100GB.

Conclusion

A similar solution to UpTime would cost you over double the monthly price. You will need to configure the server to your specifications and without support from AWS beyond the hosting platform. Many basic features, such as IIS and the .Net framework, will need to be manually installed.

Comparison Table Of Services