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> this site and its newsletter costs about $130 USD a month to run I have toy site that gets around 100k users a month, with background services like a postgre

> this site and its newsletter costs about $130 USD a month to run I have toy site that gets around 100k users a month, with background services like a postgres db... and it costs me under $20 to run. I do everything in CloudRun (serverless) with a managed DB. What in the hell is this person doing?

dsr_ 6y ago
Paying other people for their services rather than running things in a VM.
aftergibson 6y ago
It only it was open source. Perhaps the community could suggest cost effective alternatives. In all seriousness, running a blog that relies on serverless invocations would guarantee I’d do everything I could to avoid anything popular in case I had to pay out of pocket for a huge traffic surge.
- Spivak 6y ago
  Does it really matter when, presumably, your caching layer (however you choose to implement it) is handling basically all of your traffic for a nearly static site?
francisofascii 6y ago
Cloud Server + CDN + Email. $130 doesn't sound that high.
- dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
  CloudFlare Free Plan: $0 Email: $5-$10 FastMail plan, up to 16k emails a day VM: If you manage to spend $120 here, you've fucked up somehow since you're hosting a static site with a like button.
  - FalconSensei 6y ago
    Fastmail plan is not for newsletter, right? As another comment pointed out, he uses ConvertKit for the newsletter, which can cost up to $59 per month for up to 1k subscribers[1]. If he has 10k, the cost would be way higher. [1] https://convertkit.com/pricing https://convertkit.com/pricing
    - calvinmorrison 6y ago
      Fastmail is not for sending bulk newsletter email. There is a pretty sweet product we have called Topicbox which is a take on mailing lists for organizations, but for bulk sending I would recommend taking a look at one of the services dedicated towards newsletters specifically. They'll give you list management and a bunch of features needed to run a newsletter.
NikolaNovak 6y ago
What I imagine is one factor is owner's monthly time involvement, either initial setup and/or monthly average and/or peak (when things inevitably break:) I'm at a point in my life where for non-core activities/interests, I'd rather / more easily spend $100 to have a turnkey, than $20 but spend 10 hours :-/ (understanding that the author's reasoning is wildly different of course)
nasmorn 6y ago
Especially since on a blog one would expect most traffic to be served from a cache of some sorts.
oconnore 6y ago
Each page load for this article is 485 KB data, but some of the other pages are more like 1.5 MB This blog has seen 14,000 views today, but some of the other pages are ~38-40k views So if you assume ~990KB average page size, 30k views, and he were to post once a day, then that is $78/mo in bandwidth costs assuming 9c/GB. Maybe people tend to click around to the homepage / old articles, or refresh the page a few times?
- Cu3PO42 6y ago
  What kind of traffic cost is that? I just checked and I pay 1.19 EUR/TB after the first 20TB. The rate you mention is almost two orders of magnitude higher.
  - sxp 6y ago
    10GB/$ is the approximate price for bandwidth on EC2/GCE/Azure. Bandwidth is probably the most expensive item on those cloud services compared to other places.
    - Cu3PO42 6y ago
      I see. I knew bandwidth there was more expensive, but I couldn't have fathomed how much more expensive. I am surprised that one would be willing to put up with that for software as simple as a blog, but obviously a lot of people are.
- dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
  For under 1TB in monthly bandwith many providers just straight up give it for free. And that bandwidth cost is crazy high regardless.
silicon2401 6y ago
What would be the best way to get a toy site like that running? Buy a domain and host with S3? I've never built and run my own website, and it's something I'd like to try soon.
- dsr_ 6y ago
  My advice: buy a bottom-tier VM. $1-2.50 a month. Install apache or nginx, pick a static site generator. Investigate LetsEncrypt. Run a local git repo and clone it off to a local machine every so often. When you're feeling comfortable, buy a domain and set up LetsEncrypt for SSL. If you've found a limitation in the VM provider, consider moving to a different one. Consider whether a CDN is the right thing for you.
  - silicon2401 6y ago
    this is excellent, specific advice. I'll reference this when I get a chance to work on the site. thank you!
- FractalHQ 6y ago
  Go to vercel.com, begin.com, or netlify.com. Press a few buttons. Profit. They are free.

dsr_ 6y ago

Paying other people for their services rather than running things in a VM.

aftergibson 6y ago

It only it was open source. Perhaps the community could suggest cost effective alternatives. In all seriousness, running a blog that relies on serverless invocations would guarantee I’d do everything I could to avoid anything popular in case I had to pay out of pocket for a huge traffic surge.

Spivak 6y ago
Does it really matter when, presumably, your caching layer (however you choose to implement it) is handling basically all of your traffic for a nearly static site?

francisofascii 6y ago

Cloud Server + CDN + Email. $130 doesn't sound that high.

dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
CloudFlare Free Plan: $0 Email: $5-$10 FastMail plan, up to 16k emails a day VM: If you manage to spend $120 here, you've fucked up somehow since you're hosting a static site with a like button.
- FalconSensei 6y ago
  Fastmail plan is not for newsletter, right? As another comment pointed out, he uses ConvertKit for the newsletter, which can cost up to $59 per month for up to 1k subscribers[1]. If he has 10k, the cost would be way higher. [1] https://convertkit.com/pricing https://convertkit.com/pricing
  - calvinmorrison 6y ago
    Fastmail is not for sending bulk newsletter email. There is a pretty sweet product we have called Topicbox which is a take on mailing lists for organizations, but for bulk sending I would recommend taking a look at one of the services dedicated towards newsletters specifically. They'll give you list management and a bunch of features needed to run a newsletter.

NikolaNovak 6y ago

What I imagine is one factor is owner's monthly time involvement, either initial setup and/or monthly average and/or peak (when things inevitably break:) I'm at a point in my life where for non-core activities/interests, I'd rather / more easily spend $100 to have a turnkey, than $20 but spend 10 hours :-/ (understanding that the author's reasoning is wildly different of course)

nasmorn 6y ago

Especially since on a blog one would expect most traffic to be served from a cache of some sorts.

oconnore 6y ago

Each page load for this article is 485 KB data, but some of the other pages are more like 1.5 MB This blog has seen 14,000 views today, but some of the other pages are ~38-40k views So if you assume ~990KB average page size, 30k views, and he were to post once a day, then that is $78/mo in bandwidth costs assuming 9c/GB. Maybe people tend to click around to the homepage / old articles, or refresh the page a few times?

Cu3PO42 6y ago
What kind of traffic cost is that? I just checked and I pay 1.19 EUR/TB after the first 20TB. The rate you mention is almost two orders of magnitude higher.
- sxp 6y ago
  10GB/$ is the approximate price for bandwidth on EC2/GCE/Azure. Bandwidth is probably the most expensive item on those cloud services compared to other places.
  - Cu3PO42 6y ago
    I see. I knew bandwidth there was more expensive, but I couldn't have fathomed how much more expensive. I am surprised that one would be willing to put up with that for software as simple as a blog, but obviously a lot of people are.
dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
For under 1TB in monthly bandwith many providers just straight up give it for free. And that bandwidth cost is crazy high regardless.

silicon2401 6y ago

What would be the best way to get a toy site like that running? Buy a domain and host with S3? I've never built and run my own website, and it's something I'd like to try soon.

dsr_ 6y ago
My advice: buy a bottom-tier VM. $1-2.50 a month. Install apache or nginx, pick a static site generator. Investigate LetsEncrypt. Run a local git repo and clone it off to a local machine every so often. When you're feeling comfortable, buy a domain and set up LetsEncrypt for SSL. If you've found a limitation in the VM provider, consider moving to a different one. Consider whether a CDN is the right thing for you.
- silicon2401 6y ago
  this is excellent, specific advice. I'll reference this when I get a chance to work on the site. thank you!
FractalHQ 6y ago
Go to vercel.com, begin.com, or netlify.com. Press a few buttons. Profit. They are free.