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Add to SafariWhen comparing Linode vs PythonAnywhere, the Slant community recommends PythonAnywhere for most people. In the question“What are the best hosting providers for a Python web application?” PythonAnywhere is ranked 4th while Linode is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose PythonAnywhere is:
It's literally a matter of minutes to get a Python-backed website up and running.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent support
Linode's support is amazing. Tickets are usually answered within minutes, if there's a network or hardware issue it's usually resolved before anyone even notices.
Pro Gives you the chance to fix problems without relying on support
If you mess things up in your Linode instance, for example with the filesystem or boot configuration, Linode allows you to run a recovery ISO so you can try and fix things yourself without relying on Linode's support team.
Pro Speed
Their VPSs are very fast.
Pro Allows you to do things that usually can only be done if you have access to the hardware
Linode allows you to create memory partitions and copy or move them around. Furthermore, it even lets you reboot your instance with smaller RAM in order to simulate how your application would act if your Linode instance gets downgraded.
Pro Comprehensive, well documented API
The API gives access to nodes, nodebalancers, stackscripts, DNS, and accounts.
Pro Provides SDKs for several languages
SDKs are available for Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Java, and Node.js.
Pro Stack scripts
Stack scripts gives you the chance to build a completely custom Linode stack with multiple custom features and options all run automatically and set up.
Pro New Cloud Beta user interface
A new user interface is under development which will still keep the same level of power Linode offers but with a cleaner interface. Showing forward thinking and continued improvement.
Pro Easy setup
It's literally a matter of minutes to get a Python-backed website up and running.
Pro Easy scaling
You pay for a number of "Workers" for your web app (to handle requests), or CPU seconds for code that you run outside a web app, and you can get more workers or CPU seconds by upgrading your plan any time.
Pro Excellent customer service
Really fast turnaround, friendly.
Pro Free option
You can run a website at USERNAME.pythonanywhere.com for free, and it's good enough for a light-traffic website -- it runs 24/7. You get a free MySQL or SQLite database too.
Pro Flexible payments
You can pay monthly and cancel any time, or pay for a year up front to get a discount.
Pro Not too expensive
A basic site with no custom domain is free. $5 a month will afford the user enough power for a typical 100,000 hit a day website.
Cons
Con Backups have become unreliable
I've been a Linode customer for 10+ years, but over the past 3+ years their backups have become unreliable, which is unacceptable for a paid extra to the service. I've had multiple issues with backups failing, and restoring from a backup has caused my VPS to fail to deliver website content for reasons neither I nor Linode support could figure out. In the end, I just had to rebuild the server from scratch with a personal backup.
Con Not really suitable if you have a very heavy CPU application
They'll cap your usage if you go above 80% for a sustained period - even on very large expensive boxes (if you use Load Balancers offered, this can be mitigated).
Con For more advanced users
Can be an issue for those not used to setting up their own server. Managed services are really expensive if help is needed.
Con No self-help migrating option
If you want to migrate to another hosting solution from Linode, you can't do it by yourself. You have to open a support ticket.
Con Treats customer as a liability
Many malpractices in the name of machine abuse. Their machines get abused with just 10% steady cpu utilization.
Con Python-only on the server side
Obviously you can put JavaScript in your web pages and so on, but you can't use Rails or Node.
Con No WebSocket support
