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This is a project I've been working on for a while. Dply allows you to quickly create a temporary cloud server (1CPU/512MB RAM/20GB SSD) for free. You can have
by OwainX 10y ago
This is a project I've been working on for a while. Dply allows you to quickly create a temporary cloud server (1CPU/512MB RAM/20GB SSD) for free. You can have one free server running at any time. Log in with your Github account and it will allow you to create your server using your Github ssh-key. Servers are free for 2 hours and expire after that time (unless you choose to add more time via credit card or bitcoin). It's a quick and easy way to demo some code on a live server or just play around with a few popular Linux distros.
We also provide the ability to create a button for your project allowing you to let people create a server with your service/project running on it for free to try it out. Create a yaml or bash user-data script and others can launch servers with it.
For the last 11 years on and off I've run a small Linux distribution. I work for a well known cloud host by day but in talking with users learned that it's a hassle sometimes to create an account, billing profile and all that when you just need to quickly test or share something so I built this in my free time.
Do you expect to make money on this?
Honestly, no idea. I have a decent credit grant that will cover free 2 hour servers for a while so it was worth trying out.
How do I log into my server?
All servers are created with ssh-key authentication only. You are provided the option to select from the ssh keys on your Github account when you create a server. Your key will be applied to the "root" account.
I am happy to answer any questions about dply.co and would love any feedback.
- pjc50 10y agoCan I make another free server immediately afterwards? What's your anti-abuse policy/process?
- OwainX 10y agoAs a free service we will pretty strictly enforce abuse reports and take action on them. We're using a few methods to profile users based on their github account/ssh key and other factors to block abusers once their identified. Dply servers are blocked from using SMTP ports to prevent spam. Yes. You can create another server once the first expires but automating this process is not allowed and therefore we do not provide an API.
- ryao 10y agoWhat constitutes abuse? I imagine certain applications that would be fine with the server going up and down every 2 hours. That would effectively mean that they would have free service indefinitely. For example, a Tor bridge.
- rounce 10y agoShhhh, you're gonna ruin it for everybody else!
- oneeyedpigeon 10y agoWe were all thinking it.
- wheelerwj 10y agoOr bitcoin miners
- brianwawok 10y agoYou would mine maybe 1 penny per day. Not worth the click.
- wheelerwj 10y ago....that's not how fraud works. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7490766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7490766 Just google aws bitcoin mining abuse and see what happens when shitty people have access to free servers.
- iancarroll 10y agoPretty sure it only makes sense when you can spin up AWS GPU instances, which you probably cannot do here.
- 10y ago
- detaro 10y agoLooks cool, I hope it works out for you! First impressions: From the sub-pages ("how it works" etc) you should add clearer links to the start page/maybe add a login button on those as well? You should have some info about who you/your company are if you want people to maybe give you money (maybe that's even legally required)
- OwainX 10y agoGreat feedback. The goal was to keep things as clean and basic as possible but the site itself will continue to be improved as we learn more about how people use the service.
- cschep 10y agohow will you deal with abuse? scripts to just spin and mine bit coin etc. cool project!
- OwainX 10y agoThis initial release is designed to test two things. 1.) Our abuse processes. The goal in this area is to both be very strict in preventing abuse while trying to do so with as little inconvenience for legitimate users as possible and 2.) Testing the ROI. Cloud servers are really inexpensive for short periods and we will be testing conversion rates to see if the project can be self-sustaining through the added time model.
- nixgeek 10y agoAt the point someone's wanting something for a month, why wouldn't they go pay $5 to DigitalOcean, vs. $10 to you?
- hobofan 10y agoWhy wouldn't Dply just become a DigitalOcean reseller and only cost $5? I could definately see this working out as a customer aquistion channel for DO, eith Dply getting a referral fee.
- joantune 10y agoBecause he works for AWS :D. But ditto for AWS
- OwainX 10y agoActually, I work for DO :) But Dply is not a DO project or product. It's my personal side-project and while I have DO's blessing to run it, it's otherwise unrelated and acts like any other DO customer reselling or running an SaaS. Automatic deletion, the built in user-data button system and our acceptance of Bitcoin and Alipay provide options that DO itself currently does not offer. This is the MVP/Initial Beta of Dply and we're hoping to learn a lot from it. One thing we are testing is whether we'll see high enough conversion rates by users adding time to their servers to cover the costs of the free servers and hopefully make a profit. Acting as a DO referrer is a backup option that could add credit to the platform to help cover costs if the current model proves unsustainable.
- netrap 10y agoThe server name field might be better suited to be a white box like the rest of the options after you click New Server. Nice idea. Might want to have some kind of vetting of accounts if it gets bigger.
- robotresearcher 10y agoStrongly agree. I missed the server name field and got an error about the syntax for server names instead of 'you didn't enter a server name' error. Field should be visually similar to the other fields.
- lemiffe 10y agoSame here
- reledi 10y agoAgreed, I completely missed the server name field. Scanned over it thinking it was a horizontal line with a label below and didn't bother to read it.
- Tepix 10y agoThat's a pretty cool service, I think I can use that for a github project of mine. You should consider adding a "shutdown and delete" button to get rid of VMs when your users are done with them.
- OwainX 10y agoWe'll be adding an "expire now" option for servers on the free plan this weekend :)
- OwainX 10y agoWe've rolled out an initial version of the "expire now" functionality. Click the [X] in the top right of any free server's box in the dashboard and you'll be taken to a confirmation page letting you expire the server's remaining time immediately
- oneeyedpigeon 10y agoFYI, small typo on https://dply.co/how https://dply.co/how - "it's" should be "its".
- smnc 10y agoAlso on https://dply.co/help/sshkey https://dply.co/help/sshkey there's mention of "pubic" key instead of a public key.
- Gruselbauer 10y agoOr it signifies the beginning of key-authenticated intercourse. Just saying...
- ComodoHacker 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chastity_belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chastity_belt
- OwainX 10y agoHaha.. ok that one is hilarious.. and it's been fixed (the typo that is)
- Warp__ 10y agoThanks a lot, this service looks really useful. Would it be possible to offer a LAMP install for two hours?
- adito 10y agoSuggestion, after the server successfully created, show the command that they can execute to access the server (ssh root@<ip>, with <ip> being replaced with the real ip).
- OwainX 10y agoWe've had several people suggest making this more prevalent and it's on our todo list :)
- dividuum 10y agoI haven't used your service yet, but if I understand the limitation correctly (only github logins/only one server per login) I think it should also be possible to automatically derive a subdomain name from the github username and have that point to the server. Not sure if that's a good idea, just throwing an idea over the wall :-)
- 0x54MUR41 10y agoIt's cool project. Well done! OP This is my first try: I tested to create a "dply" button on https://dply.co/button https://dply.co/button. I tried not to fill out the form and clicked "CREATE BUTTON". The page replied with errors and their trace. SQL statements and other Ruby keywords were shown. I think it would be better if there is an error handler, like a warning that form is not filled out completely.
- OwainX 10y agoWe found an issue where the stacktrace was originally enabled in our code twice so when it was switched off it was being overridden. That's been fixed. Adding better form validation for the button creation form is also on our list. Our primary focus as we receive bug reports is on issues that directly affect server creation, deletion and billing as those are the highest impact. Since the button form just creates a shortlink and saves some text it's a lower priority but we should have significant improvements in place for that page in the next week or so.
- hashin 10y agoThis is a pretty cool service! I have had my moments when I had to set up the AWS free tier a few hours before a very important client meeting. I have this gut feeling that this service will make the cloud technology a bit more accessible for a budding to medium skilled developer. Personally, I have hesitated a lot to try out AWS and other cloud services at college due to the "over billing nightmare" you have every time you sign up with the credit card. This is particularly an issue at the part of the world I come from. Hopefully, this will bring down that barrier and bring more college students in to experimenting with the cloud tech. Also, considering the way client meetings getting rescheduled in many cases might help you in generating a lot of cash. ;) (If they haven't created it to restore state in their yaml or bash user-data script, of course!)
- phamilton 10y ago> the part of the world I come from Just curious, is a $5/month DO server cost prohibitive in your neck of the woods?
- y4mi 10y agoPretty sure he is talking about the people that got hacked (with 2 factor on) and had their acc used to mine bitcoins. I remember reading about that twice one or two years ago Or maybe even less nefarious reports about people accidently ordering a bigger machine and forgetting about it until the month is over. Can result in 1+k bill as well. Or the most talked about problem. Downloading something from the glacier. They're mostly avoidable problems. And they still terrify people with little income
- OwainX 10y agoThere are quite a lot of cases where you could find yourself facing a large bill unexpectedly. Forgetting about a server you spun up to try something out, with may platforms having your server hacked (or even DDoSed) could result in huge bills for bandwidth. With Dply you only pay what you pay up-front if you choose to add time to a server. There are no bills racking up. The flip side is that if you forget about it, it could vanish on you. Automating your deployment with something like a user-data script that pulls your code from Github would make this less of a concern. Permanent services on Dply are certainly possible but not the primary use case for most users.
- r0muald 10y agoExcellent project! I wish I had this kind of service available a few years ago. Minor question: are the servers configured for IPv4 only?
- OwainX 10y agoRight now they are but if there is enough interest we could enable ipv6 in an update in the near future.
- joosters 10y agoI like the simplicity, well done for getting this up and running! Please be more open about the pricing though. When the service costs are not upfront and are buried in the FAQs, I lose trust in the service. Every real customer of yours will want to know what it costs. Have a simple pricing page at the very least, and link to it from the standard 'how does this work?' and other places. Just saying that you can pay $2 to keep your server running longer is not good enough.
- OwainX 10y agoA great suggestion. We've received quite a few suggestions for improvement. As the MVP/First beta we aimed for absolute simplicity in the design and implementation as it's easier to add things than take them away. The homepage and informational sections of the site will receive some improvements over time as we get more feedback like this.
- lucb1e 10y ago> credit card or bitcoin Thank you for allowing Bitcoin. Many people don't have a credit card (everyone who has one gets it only because all the American companies require it, but I never needed one in the Netherlands or Germany, the two countries I have experience with).
- OwainX 10y agoYou're welcome. Thanks to Stripe there was no extra work required on our end to accept Credit card, bitcoin and alipay. We hope to keep all these options around. There are concerns about having a bitcoin option leading to more abuse so we'll be gathering data over the coming weeks and hopefully the measures we're taking to prevent abuse will allow us to continue to offer the Bitcoin option.
- aceperry 10y agoCool idea, I love it. Solves all of the probs you mentioned. I'm going to try it out and see how it works for me. Thanks.
- diwu1989 10y agosomething that would be awesome is if there was a command line tool to spin one up & it'd have a ticking timer to let me know how much time is left.
- bmh100 10y agoI agree with this. It would be much better to annoy users with constant "time remaining" notifications than to unexpectedly delete everything when the time expires. This would also function as an up-sell promotion, a literally "limited time offer" to extend the server's life. I'm not sure it's feasible, but what if you also added a command within the instance to extend its life to the next tier?
- choicenotchance 10y agoYeah. Something along the lines of: dply launch ... bunch of SSH log, logged into instance, see ASCII logo of DPLY like in EC2 servers.. $/home/random-user-11110101010/# AND WE ARE IN
- welly 10y agoLove this. I shall have all kinds of fun destroying various linux distros without a care in the world for the consequences. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this. I understand your reservations about building an API but is something I'll look forward to playing with when/if you do eventually provide one! Good luck with the project, I'll be watching this one closely.
- xr09 10y agoAwesome service! I've been testing it hard these days and I'm very pleased. One small request, could you allow changing the ssh port to 443 from the web?
- xr09 10y agoDone! https://dply.co/b/MBKBIJqE https://dply.co/b/MBKBIJqE