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Why would i use this over a VPS? A VPS is a similar price and has similar functionality, but doesn't pose a security risk to my home workstation and comes with
by mtogo 16y ago
Why would i use this over a VPS? A VPS is a similar price and has similar functionality, but doesn't pose a security risk to my home workstation and comes with a slew of other benefits.
The tech looks reasonably cool, but what is the use case?
EDIT: Your site also makes it sound like it is HTTP(S) only. If it's not, you might want to clarify that.
- senex 16y agoHey mtogo, good question. We often develop sites on our laptops. The more complicated sites are, the more there is to sync around (databases, dependencies to install, version control commits, &c). Showoff is a quick way for us to get feedback from clients or each other without adding overhead to our development process.
- mtogo 16y agoAh, that makes sense. Thanks.
- albemuth 16y agoFunny, I thought you mentioned the VPS because you could still reverse tunnel and share the app in your laptop without deploying. I was going to say that it's still a good idea since the day pass is just $1. p.s. surprised they didn't go for 99 cents
- roryokane 16y agoThe main page seems focused on simplicity and short sentences. I think they thought that $0.99 would have looked too noisy compared to $1. It's possible that they are also pandering to people like me who dislike prices written in that way. I am annoyed by the chore of mentally adding one to every price ending in 99 cents, and I respect sellers who write prices like that less.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- mtogo 16y agoNo, you can reverse tunnel through a VPS and get the same effect, but you're paying 2-5x as much for virtually the same thing (unless you already have a VPS).
- jz 16y agoI work remotely 100% of the time (and not always in the same location). The use case for me is to quickly show a feature to coworkers without having to commit/push to a remote server. Especially if the feature needs immediate feedback and is not completely baked/finished.
- lukeschlather 16y agoYou can still just use an SSH tunnel on your VPS... no committing/pushing required.
- 182446 16y agoCan you explain how? I am a newbie to web development. I have been making sites locally on my machine and using heroku to deploy online. I am thinking of getting VPS hosting.
- dedward 16y agoIn the simplest case, something like: ssh -R8000:127.0.0.1:80 my.vps.com This will forward all connections to http://my.vps.com:8000/ http://my.vps.com:8000/ to port 80 on your local machine. Adjust ports as necessary. Then you also have the VPS where you can actually host a copy of your app - but that's off-topic.
- robrighter2 16y agoGood point about the HTTP/HTTPS we will get that clarified on the website.
- senex 16y agoThanks for bringing HTTPS up, that's another good use-case for Showoff. If you're developing a web app that needs to be tested with HTTPS and don't want to mess with creating a self-signed cert, Showoff can help you out. It's also really nice for testing web hooks or API callback URLs against a local web server (e.g. ecommerce sites with IPN, &c). If you sign up for an unlimited account, you can choose a permanent URL to use for your tunnel (e.g. "my-name.showoff.io").
- bobwaycott 16y agoThe latter feature is a pretty big deal, imo. Working independently on a project or projects with distinct clients who either need or want to give input/feedback on feature development can be greatly alleviated: work up a quick prototype, show off from my local dev machine (never have to touch a server), call/IM my-name.showoff.io, and they get to see it right away, in the same medium they will eventually be using it. This is so much nicer than sending a wireframe or design of a feature. The long-term benefit is that the my-name.showoff.io URL can be pretty easy to recall & reuse for any number of clients & features.
- dedward 16y agoA surprising number of web developers don't have a VPS.