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Nice service, but too expensive to be honest. My static websites (built with middleman) are hosted in Amazon S3 as a static website bucket and have a Cloudfront

Nice service, but too expensive to be honest. My static websites (built with middleman) are hosted in Amazon S3 as a static website bucket and have a Cloudfront distribution in front of it. I use `middleman s3_sync` to deploy the build in one command and it takes care of everything, even Cloudfront invalidation. All for just a few pennies per month. Anyway, keep up the good work.

davidcelis 10y ago
This is the same reason I ended up with S3/Cloudfront as well. A while ago, I was moving my site from GitHub Pages. I wanted HTTPS for my custom domain and more control over how my site was cached. I looked at Surge and, as much as I loved their defaults and CLI tool, that $13/mo price tag was too high.
bennylope 10y ago
I wouldn't be too quick to say it's too expensive. My set up is not dissimilar to your own. I'm comfortable working on the command line, using s3cmd to sync the site, modifying bucket policies, etc. Once you know those things - or if you enjoy learning them - it's all pretty trivial, but if you don't... well don't underestimate the hassle for someone who doesn't know this stuff. I'd think it a waste to pay $13/mo for what I'm happy to throw in an S3 bucket, but that's 3 venti lattes for someone not to have to deal with any of it. It's not the file storage they're charging for.
- juandazapata 10y ago
  I agree with you. It's just too expensive for me, maybe not for others. In the end they are just tools, and you should use whatever fits you better.
- cfjedimaster 10y ago
  Also remember that's 13 bucks to get custom SSL, redirects, etc. If you have simple pages w/o the need of https, it costs nothing.
  - djsumdog 10y ago
    I think that SSL is just for surge.sh subdomains. I didn't see anything about lets-encrypt SSL on custom domains.
- g4k 10y ago
  For low volume projects it is clearly too expensive. I prefer a volume based pricing model like 5apps is offering it: https://5apps.com/deploy/plans https://5apps.com/deploy/plans
macandcheese 10y ago
Agree, Middleman + Middleman s3_sync is such an easy set up and deploy... Middleman project doesn't get enough love I think...
- cutler 10y ago
  I gave up on Middleman when I couldn't get anyone in various Ruby mailing lists and IRC channels to advise me how to stop Middleman deleting directories which aren't mirrored in the src directory. Jekyll has the keep_files: [] config option.
  - elliotec 10y ago
    I had that same issue. But then I just mirrored them in the src directory and it was fine.
    - cutler 10y ago
      That's not practical when you have a massive images directory. A decent framework should have the equivalent of Jekyll's keep_files:
  - macandcheese 10y ago
    Definitely looking in the wrong places, based on Middleman's more "lightweight" front-end audience. You'd probably get faster responses on Twitter.
sintaxi 10y ago
Hi, Brock from surge.sh here. We are still figuring out our pricing. It kind of kills me to hear someone call surge too expensive. We worked hard to give surge a very legit free offering which is serving over 35k projects. Surge gives (currently) unlimited projects with custom domains. We charge $13/mo for that extra 1% which is custom SSL, basic auth, custom redirects. Very open to suggestions if you have any. Would you prefer we have a small membership fee and open up all the features? What would you suggest is fair?
- nathancahill 10y ago
  It would be cool to see a $2/mo option for people that want to support the project (same features as the free tier).
- davidcelis 10y ago
  > Would you prefer we have a small membership fee and open up all the features? Yes.
- prashnts 10y ago
  $13/mo is pretty good for people with premium requirements (as you said, the 1%) in my opinion. Though, I feel a psychological bias for paying upwards of 10 USD for services, since there are so many of them. I feel comfortable paying 9.77 USD for Netflix (India), but 12.6 USD tier just feels expensive.
- gtf21 10y ago
  We use surge.sh to host our production app for our customers, and have been very happy except for one bout of downtime which was very frustrating. I have no objection to paying 13$/mo if surge would implement some premium redundancy features. Cloudflare already gives me the SSL I need, and 13$/mo for custom redirects isn't really worthwhile for me when I can just use hash-based history for our app. Basically I think you guys have the pricing worked out incorrectly, at least for our use-case. Avoiding downtime is the #1 reason I would pay someone else to host something for me (because tbh I can just write an ansible script to deploy my code to nginx running on Digital Ocean if I wanted to maintain it myself).
- 10y ago

davidcelis 10y ago

This is the same reason I ended up with S3/Cloudfront as well. A while ago, I was moving my site from GitHub Pages. I wanted HTTPS for my custom domain and more control over how my site was cached. I looked at Surge and, as much as I loved their defaults and CLI tool, that $13/mo price tag was too high.

bennylope 10y ago

I wouldn't be too quick to say it's too expensive. My set up is not dissimilar to your own. I'm comfortable working on the command line, using s3cmd to sync the site, modifying bucket policies, etc. Once you know those things - or if you enjoy learning them - it's all pretty trivial, but if you don't... well don't underestimate the hassle for someone who doesn't know this stuff. I'd think it a waste to pay $13/mo for what I'm happy to throw in an S3 bucket, but that's 3 venti lattes for someone not to have to deal with any of it. It's not the file storage they're charging for.

juandazapata 10y ago
I agree with you. It's just too expensive for me, maybe not for others. In the end they are just tools, and you should use whatever fits you better.
cfjedimaster 10y ago
Also remember that's 13 bucks to get custom SSL, redirects, etc. If you have simple pages w/o the need of https, it costs nothing.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  I think that SSL is just for surge.sh subdomains. I didn't see anything about lets-encrypt SSL on custom domains.
g4k 10y ago
For low volume projects it is clearly too expensive. I prefer a volume based pricing model like 5apps is offering it: https://5apps.com/deploy/plans https://5apps.com/deploy/plans

macandcheese 10y ago

Agree, Middleman + Middleman s3_sync is such an easy set up and deploy... Middleman project doesn't get enough love I think...

cutler 10y ago
I gave up on Middleman when I couldn't get anyone in various Ruby mailing lists and IRC channels to advise me how to stop Middleman deleting directories which aren't mirrored in the src directory. Jekyll has the keep_files: [] config option.
- elliotec 10y ago
  I had that same issue. But then I just mirrored them in the src directory and it was fine.
  - cutler 10y ago
    That's not practical when you have a massive images directory. A decent framework should have the equivalent of Jekyll's keep_files:
- macandcheese 10y ago
  Definitely looking in the wrong places, based on Middleman's more "lightweight" front-end audience. You'd probably get faster responses on Twitter.

sintaxi 10y ago

Hi, Brock from surge.sh here. We are still figuring out our pricing. It kind of kills me to hear someone call surge too expensive. We worked hard to give surge a very legit free offering which is serving over 35k projects. Surge gives (currently) unlimited projects with custom domains. We charge $13/mo for that extra 1% which is custom SSL, basic auth, custom redirects. Very open to suggestions if you have any. Would you prefer we have a small membership fee and open up all the features? What would you suggest is fair?

nathancahill 10y ago
It would be cool to see a $2/mo option for people that want to support the project (same features as the free tier).
davidcelis 10y ago
> Would you prefer we have a small membership fee and open up all the features? Yes.
prashnts 10y ago
$13/mo is pretty good for people with premium requirements (as you said, the 1%) in my opinion. Though, I feel a psychological bias for paying upwards of 10 USD for services, since there are so many of them. I feel comfortable paying 9.77 USD for Netflix (India), but 12.6 USD tier just feels expensive.
gtf21 10y ago
We use surge.sh to host our production app for our customers, and have been very happy except for one bout of downtime which was very frustrating. I have no objection to paying 13$/mo if surge would implement some premium redundancy features. Cloudflare already gives me the SSL I need, and 13$/mo for custom redirects isn't really worthwhile for me when I can just use hash-based history for our app. Basically I think you guys have the pricing worked out incorrectly, at least for our use-case. Avoiding downtime is the #1 reason I would pay someone else to host something for me (because tbh I can just write an ansible script to deploy my code to nginx running on Digital Ocean if I wanted to maintain it myself).
10y ago