r/webdev•
Collekt

Advice on hosting / email

Question

I'm looking to slowly create a personal website over time as I learn webdev, and need advice on hosting. I'm not looking for an easy/managed solution to get a site up quickly. I want to do most things myself so I can learn everything on the way.

So I'm thinking I want to go the VPS route, and will set everything up from there as I go. I already secured a domain name.

I also want to set up email using my domain, such as [email protected] and use something like gmail as the client. I'm not as interested in getting in the weeds and hosting my own email server.

Is there a good provider I can use for my unmanaged VPS, that will also give me a more user friendly way to set up my custom domain email account?

Thanks for any advice/direction. 😎

Posted Aug 20, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

29
thatsInANamefront-end•

If your website is static, i suggest you to use something like firebase hosting, GitHub pages or a service in AWS good for hosting static sites, just can't remember the name. If you have less traffic it will be complete free.

Edit: missed the not wanting a managed solution part.

3
CollektOP•

I'm not worried about it being free. I'm mainly doing this to learn for my own benefit, so I want to start from the ground and set up my own web server. Not sure what I will use yet, such as apache, nginx, etc.

I will start with a simple site but the goal is to develop it into something more advanced over time.

Ty for response. :)

2
thatsInANamefront-end•

I too initially started the same, got a Linux vps from VPSmart and installed nginx and hosted my site there. VPSmart had done black Friday sale which had upto 70% off so i got my vps for cheap.

I suggest you to try AWS lightsail for a Linux vps. Getting experience on AWS is quiet useful nowadays.

2
CollektOP•

I'll check it out. Thank you for the advice!

1
Raukie•

I think you could do that with azure services.

2
mediocre_nothing6997•

if you own a domain you can use migadu to create a custom email address just by sorting our your MX records in your DNS. i have self hosted my sites on a raspberry pi in my bedroom, which cost less than £100 and was way easier than i thought. depends on your network provider though, as i know it can be a pain with some.

2
CollektOP•

I'll check it out. Thanks!

1
I3litz_•

AWS Lightsail, DigitalOcean, Linode, you can get a cheap VPS from $5. I believe someone here recently mentioned zoho still offers a free email plan but all I found was $1 plan and up, yet it works great for email and you can use gmail as client with your free gmail account too for sure https://www.zoho.com/es-xl/mail/zohomail-pricing.html

I preffer DigitalOcean or Linode, but LightSail is a good option too,

2
Careful-Armadillo410•

If it’s just a simple static site, I’d recommend buying a domain from Google Domains and hosting from GitHub pages. You can choose to add an email address associated with your new domain for a couple bucks a month. Let me know if you choose this route and need any help!

2
theappraizer•

This is absolutely a decision that comes about as a result of a #Facebook Ban. I considered it myself. (No disrespect meant, I’m new here to Reddit, just making observations.) :-)

2