6 ms·

CEO of https://zeit.co https://zeit.co here! Happy to answer any questions throughout the day :)

by Rauchg 11y ago

supster 11y ago
Really cool website! I'm confused though exactly what is going on. Is this kind of like Heroku? What are the pros and cons of this service? For context, I'm currently running a production node/express/mongo service on Digital Ocean.
- Rauchg 11y ago
  Compared to other providers, there's absolutely no setup involved. No Procfiles, ports, containers, dynos, processes, instances… Just type `now` where you have a `package.json`.
  - rockyj 11y ago
    Cool. But what about persistence / choice of database and how can I scale up / down?
  - supster 11y ago
    This is very cool. I'm excited to use this in my next project. I like the zero setup, no fuss, secure by default features. I guess 4 more questions: 1) Does "Dynamic Realtime Scaling" mean you spin up more clusters and do load balancing automatically? 2) Can your $15/month cost cover this? Or is that what the 50GB bandwidth cap is for? 3) The nature of this service means we need to use a DB service like mLab (mongoLab) or run our own DB server right? 4) What about production logs?
    - alanh 11y ago
      Protip: put an extra new line between items or HN eats your line breaks :(
      - supster 11y ago
        fixed, thx
  - Touche 11y ago
    How is there no port? I have to run my server on some port, are you saying I can choose whatever my port I want and your service detects that somehow? I don't need to use process.env.PORT ?
mvdb 11y ago
What's the difference with dokku?
mvdb 11y ago
What's the difference with dokku?
mvdb 11y ago
What's the difference with dokku?
benatkin 11y ago
Curious about performance of npm install, seems like it's one thing that could make it not so snappy. For compiled modules, does it have a decent amount of memory/CPU on the instances? How about connectivity? Does it use a mirror for NPM? Might it in the future?
- Rauchg 11y ago
  Our biggest focus is `npm install` performance. We have multiple caches to make it the best possible experience for you. Every time you run `now` it's as if you had installed from scratch (including semver invalidations like ^ or ~). The focus is on reproducibility.
  - sonnyp 11y ago
    So the deploys do not depends on npm infrastructure at all?
  - alanh 11y ago
    > Every time you run `now` it's as if you had installed from scratch (including semver invalidations like ^ or ~). The focus is on reproducibility. This is very confusing to me as these seem to be contradictory statements. Installing "from scratch" (I take this to mean, as if node_modules is an empty folder) is not a reproducible action, as all it takes is one sub-dependency releasing a new version to change your installation. Can you clarify what you mean and resolve this seeming paradox?
    - Rauchg 11y ago
      In order for you and your team to never rely on transient local state (either in the cloud or your own computer), we "start from scratch". However, our process of starting from scratch is actually faster than running `npm install` on your own computer in many cases. As an example, I've found myself getting into the habit of using `now` instead of `localhost`.
      - ludamad 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
diegorbaquero 11y ago
A more techy question, how can you let anyone use any port, how will your proxy know where to redirect?
- z3t4 11y ago
  sudo netstat -plnt
tschellenbach 11y ago
How do you plan to appeal to the enterprise/larger apps market?
reustle 11y ago
Excuse my ignorance, but could this work with Meteor?
jonahx 11y ago
I'm curious about the differences between hosting a node app on zeit vs heroku.
disbelief 11y ago
A couple questions: (1) I notice that your pricing chart mentions storage. I'm wondering what that typically would consist of? Only thing I can think of are static assets as I imagine a codebase — even with a million npm module dependencies — wouldn't come close to 1GB let alone 100. (2) Is it possible to back your apps with a database/datastore? Say I want to use MongoDB with my app. Would I need to purchase a third party service and set the MONGO_URL in the env? Are there any plans to offer database services as add-ons?
codecurve 11y ago
Any chance of some clarification around the limits of the free tier? > 20 FREE deploys per month So I can only run the `now` command 20 times each month? What are you using to track how many times I've run it already? IP? NPM username? Package name? >1MB size limit per file Is this at deployment time or is this also enforced at runtime? If I deploy a 900kb sqlite file, then add 200kb of records to it at runtime, what's going to happen? > Perfect for open-source demos, classrooms, tutorials & testing. Are 20 deploys per month really enough to use in a teaching context? I'd love to use this tool in the web tech module I teach at my university, but I think most students would burn through 20 deploys in a week, let alone a month. Is there any chance this limit could be re-thought for teaching purposes? I wouldn't mind if some of the other restrictions were changed, but free tiers that halt development til the start of next month don't sound great for learning to me.
phelm 11y ago
Not received my confirmation email yet, it has been > 10 minutes
- js4all 11y ago
  Same here. There seem to be problems with the current spike.
  - js4all 11y ago
    I got mine now. It took nearly an hour. Despite that, my early tests ran solid. The apps got hosted on AWS us-west-1.
- Rauchg 11y ago
  Fixed! Sorry about that. We exceeded all quotas. All emails should be going out smoothly :)
js4all 11y ago
Nice, is it meant for permanent hosting or just for prototyping and how does it compare to Cloudnode (https://cloudno.de https://cloudno.de)
Touche 11y ago
Can this be used with a CI service very easily?
alanh 11y ago
Something that’s bothering me is: Is there any way to deploy via `now` with secrets? You know: API keys or the like? `_src` is always public in the free plan and I don’t see any documentation around providing environment variables.
- paradite 11y ago
  my guess is that for free tier, it's targeted at demo/tutorial so environment variables wouldn't be necessary. If you are serious about privacy then you have to upgrade to paid tier. But heroku does offer environment variables to free tier and it is handy for database keys and 3rd part API keys, so I guess they will add that at some point through some user-facing web interface or just cli options.
  - alanh 11y ago
    > so env variables would not be necessary My initial thought as well — but it’s simply not true. Let's say you want to demo something that is using Firebase on the back end. You can't just give away your credentials or your demo may get very broken very quickly… and you’ll foot the bill

CEO of https://zeit.co https://zeit.co here! Happy to answer any questions throughout the day :)

by Rauchg 11y ago

CEO of https://zeit.co https://zeit.co here! Happy to answer any questions throughout the day :)

Really cool website! I'm confused though exactly what is going on. Is this kind of like Heroku? What are the pros and cons of this service? For context, I'm currently running a production node/express/mongo service on Digital Ocean.

Rauchg 11y ago
Compared to other providers, there's absolutely no setup involved. No Procfiles, ports, containers, dynos, processes, instances… Just type `now` where you have a `package.json`.
- rockyj 11y ago
  Cool. But what about persistence / choice of database and how can I scale up / down?
- supster 11y ago
  This is very cool. I'm excited to use this in my next project. I like the zero setup, no fuss, secure by default features. I guess 4 more questions: 1) Does "Dynamic Realtime Scaling" mean you spin up more clusters and do load balancing automatically? 2) Can your $15/month cost cover this? Or is that what the 50GB bandwidth cap is for? 3) The nature of this service means we need to use a DB service like mLab (mongoLab) or run our own DB server right? 4) What about production logs?
  - alanh 11y ago
    Protip: put an extra new line between items or HN eats your line breaks :(
    - supster 11y ago
      fixed, thx
- Touche 11y ago
  How is there no port? I have to run my server on some port, are you saying I can choose whatever my port I want and your service detects that somehow? I don't need to use process.env.PORT ?

mvdb 11y ago

What's the difference with dokku?

mvdb 11y ago

What's the difference with dokku?

mvdb 11y ago

What's the difference with dokku?

benatkin 11y ago

Curious about performance of npm install, seems like it's one thing that could make it not so snappy. For compiled modules, does it have a decent amount of memory/CPU on the instances? How about connectivity? Does it use a mirror for NPM? Might it in the future?

Rauchg 11y ago
Our biggest focus is `npm install` performance. We have multiple caches to make it the best possible experience for you. Every time you run `now` it's as if you had installed from scratch (including semver invalidations like ^ or ~). The focus is on reproducibility.
- sonnyp 11y ago
  So the deploys do not depends on npm infrastructure at all?
- alanh 11y ago
  > Every time you run `now` it's as if you had installed from scratch (including semver invalidations like ^ or ~). The focus is on reproducibility. This is very confusing to me as these seem to be contradictory statements. Installing "from scratch" (I take this to mean, as if node_modules is an empty folder) is not a reproducible action, as all it takes is one sub-dependency releasing a new version to change your installation. Can you clarify what you mean and resolve this seeming paradox?
  - Rauchg 11y ago
    In order for you and your team to never rely on transient local state (either in the cloud or your own computer), we "start from scratch". However, our process of starting from scratch is actually faster than running `npm install` on your own computer in many cases. As an example, I've found myself getting into the habit of using `now` instead of `localhost`.
    - ludamad 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

diegorbaquero 11y ago

A more techy question, how can you let anyone use any port, how will your proxy know where to redirect?

z3t4 11y ago
sudo netstat -plnt

tschellenbach 11y ago

How do you plan to appeal to the enterprise/larger apps market?

reustle 11y ago

Excuse my ignorance, but could this work with Meteor?

jonahx 11y ago

I'm curious about the differences between hosting a node app on zeit vs heroku.

disbelief 11y ago

A couple questions: (1) I notice that your pricing chart mentions storage. I'm wondering what that typically would consist of? Only thing I can think of are static assets as I imagine a codebase — even with a million npm module dependencies — wouldn't come close to 1GB let alone 100. (2) Is it possible to back your apps with a database/datastore? Say I want to use MongoDB with my app. Would I need to purchase a third party service and set the MONGO_URL in the env? Are there any plans to offer database services as add-ons?

codecurve 11y ago

Any chance of some clarification around the limits of the free tier? > 20 FREE deploys per month So I can only run the `now` command 20 times each month? What are you using to track how many times I've run it already? IP? NPM username? Package name? >1MB size limit per file Is this at deployment time or is this also enforced at runtime? If I deploy a 900kb sqlite file, then add 200kb of records to it at runtime, what's going to happen? > Perfect for open-source demos, classrooms, tutorials & testing. Are 20 deploys per month really enough to use in a teaching context? I'd love to use this tool in the web tech module I teach at my university, but I think most students would burn through 20 deploys in a week, let alone a month. Is there any chance this limit could be re-thought for teaching purposes? I wouldn't mind if some of the other restrictions were changed, but free tiers that halt development til the start of next month don't sound great for learning to me.

phelm 11y ago

Not received my confirmation email yet, it has been > 10 minutes

js4all 11y ago
Same here. There seem to be problems with the current spike.
- js4all 11y ago
  I got mine now. It took nearly an hour. Despite that, my early tests ran solid. The apps got hosted on AWS us-west-1.
Rauchg 11y ago
Fixed! Sorry about that. We exceeded all quotas. All emails should be going out smoothly :)

js4all 11y ago

Nice, is it meant for permanent hosting or just for prototyping and how does it compare to Cloudnode (https://cloudno.de https://cloudno.de)

Touche 11y ago

Can this be used with a CI service very easily?

alanh 11y ago

Something that’s bothering me is: Is there any way to deploy via `now` with secrets? You know: API keys or the like? `_src` is always public in the free plan and I don’t see any documentation around providing environment variables.

paradite 11y ago
my guess is that for free tier, it's targeted at demo/tutorial so environment variables wouldn't be necessary. If you are serious about privacy then you have to upgrade to paid tier. But heroku does offer environment variables to free tier and it is handy for database keys and 3rd part API keys, so I guess they will add that at some point through some user-facing web interface or just cli options.
- alanh 11y ago
  > so env variables would not be necessary My initial thought as well — but it’s simply not true. Let's say you want to demo something that is using Firebase on the back end. You can't just give away your credentials or your demo may get very broken very quickly… and you’ll foot the bill