I've been asked to look at a rebuild for a charity website. I'd love to steer them to an Umbraco site but I'm nervous about potential hosting costs vs the status quo - a Wordpress site (cheap as chips).
I'm not looking to own the hosting - I'd like to set it up and hand it over so it needs to be a stand alone solution.
Does anyone have any costs for a small website on Azure (can I just set it up as a Website)... the reason I ask it looking at the pricing calculator it seems way too cheap. I must be missing a charge (database?).
I'm only really looking at this as a favour so want it to be something I don't end up supporting!
it should be possible to host it for free. But only if you are ok with an azurewebsites.net domain name, and if you are ok with using SQL CE.
A custom domain name requires a payed alternative (at least $10 / mo), and SQL CE should be alright, but according to some forum posts it seems there might be issues with that (not sure about the status). Also CE is a file based database which means you will need to be careful about that particular file (plus shutting down a running process might cause loss of non saved information). A regular SQL Server Web option costs $5 or more likely $10 a month (for 1 GB).
Thought I was missing something obvious - the pricing calculator doesn't mention you can't actually host a website without the Basic package.. a "custom domain" is necessity! £45 a month... shared host it is!
Azure Hosting for a very small charity
I've been asked to look at a rebuild for a charity website. I'd love to steer them to an Umbraco site but I'm nervous about potential hosting costs vs the status quo - a Wordpress site (cheap as chips).
I'm not looking to own the hosting - I'd like to set it up and hand it over so it needs to be a stand alone solution.
Does anyone have any costs for a small website on Azure (can I just set it up as a Website)... the reason I ask it looking at the pricing calculator it seems way too cheap. I must be missing a charge (database?).
I'm only really looking at this as a favour so want it to be something I don't end up supporting!
Hi,
it should be possible to host it for free. But only if you are ok with an azurewebsites.net domain name, and if you are ok with using SQL CE.
A custom domain name requires a payed alternative (at least $10 / mo), and SQL CE should be alright, but according to some forum posts it seems there might be issues with that (not sure about the status). Also CE is a file based database which means you will need to be careful about that particular file (plus shutting down a running process might cause loss of non saved information). A regular SQL Server Web option costs $5 or more likely $10 a month (for 1 GB).
See also
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11242772/disadvantages-of-using-sql-server-compact-versus-dedicated-sql-server-database
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PennyPinchingInTheCloudWhenDoAzureWebsitesMakeSense.aspx
Testing the theory: http://joeriks-blog.azurewebsites.net/archive/host-an-umbraco-site-for-free-on-azure/ :)
HTH
Jonas
Thought I was missing something obvious - the pricing calculator doesn't mention you can't actually host a website without the Basic package.. a "custom domain" is necessity! £45 a month... shared host it is!
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