Top 15 Django Hosting Services: Pros and Cons

The original article was written by SoftFormance https://www.softformance.com/blog/top-15-django-hostings/

Choosing a Django hosting service is one of many decisions you’ll need to make when working on a project, and it’s a step that cannot be overlooked! With so many options on the market available, it surely is an overwhelming task.

At first, all of these hosting services look quite similar in their features. However, due to huge differences, choosing the wrong one will doom your project from the very beginning. For example, a hosting service with limited scalability, bandwidth, or storage isn’t the right choice for a fast-growing project that is constantly updating and changing.

But don’t worry, we got you covered and made a list of 15 Django hosting services, with their main pros and cons. We also highlighted the most important factors to consider and what to pay attention to when choosing a hosting service. So, let’s dive right in!

What to consider when choosing a hosting service for your project?

Multi-platform software vs PaaS. The multi-platform model gives you an operational system with complete freedom to build your site in any language you like. Meanwhile, the PaaS model provides you with virtual space, where you can install a limited number of languages (Python, Django, or others, provided by the platform).
Price. **Whether you are a huge company or a rising startup, money for hosting services always takes a significant part of the budget. Thus, choosing a service that has a balance between price and quality is important.
**Scalability. **Being able to adapt your platform depending on the changing needs of your business is the key to success. Scalable hosting services allow you to add bandwidth, storage, and other resources at once.
Speed. Only with a 1-second delay, customer satisfaction rate drops by 16%, while a 1-3 seconds delay on a page load leads up to a 32% bounce rate. As such, consider the speed of website load, server response, and file download/upload to a server.
**Control panel. It allows you to monitor and adjust your website and its features. Usually, control panels have many tools that may vary slightly from one hosting service to another. Pay attention to it and choose the one that matches the best with your needs.
Without further ado, let’s talk about services that will make your project a success.

Python & Django-specific hosting providers

Most of the hosting services are oriented on a lot of programming languages. However, let’s start with a few providers that are only Django-specific.

django CMS

Django CMS is easy-to-use, developer-friendly, Python CMS founded in 2007. NASA, Instagram, and National Geographic are only a few examples of companies that used it.

Pros

• User-friendliness. Django CMS is oriented not only at developers but also at marketing managers and content editors. Hence, it has a short learning curve and quite an intuitive drag and drop interface.
• Scalability and customization. It is flexible, easy to extend, and possible to add other integrations in the later stages of the project.
• Broad Django CMS community available through their Slack Channel and Forum. Cons

The basic user interface but it’s easily extendable with lots of plugins available.
Plans & Pricing

Django CMS is a free and open-source platform.

Wagtail CMS

This CMS was originally built for the Royal College of Art, but today is used by lots of developers and companies all over the world.

*Pros *

• Lightweight and straightforward interface.
• Flexibility in development. It provides developers with a platform and set of tools, giving them complete freedom in how to use them.
• Integration with existing Django applications. It is easily integrated with other Django apps in your tech stack.
• Multi-site support. You can run several sites using the same admin.

Cons

• In order to extend, you need significant coding knowledge and skills.
• Not a fully developed CMS. Even basic components require heave coding.
• Plans & Pricing

Wagtail CMS is a free and open-source platform.

Mezzanine

Mezzanine is a CMS created by Stephen McDonald in 2010. Similar to WordPress, it has most of its functionality by default, which makes it a more integrated and productive platform.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly. For inexperienced users, Mezzanine is ready to use out of the box. It provides a built-in search engine and API, numerous integrations, a blog, and lots of themes and templates.
• Front-end editing. Meaning that users can edit blog posts, themes, and widgets as long as they are logged with an Admin account.

• Integrations with third-party applications, such as Disqus, Gravatar, Google Analytics, Twitter, and others.
  Cons

• No feature of scheduled publishing. With Mezzanine, you cannot schedule publications to be posted at a specific time.
  Plans & Pricing

Mezzanine is a free and open-source platform.

PythonAnywhere

If you search for Django hosting, this is one of the first platforms that you’ll come across. Focused exclusively on Python and running on AWS servers, this PaaS hosting service allows you to install your Django project with one click.

Pros

• One-click installation for Django projects.
• Quick and easy to set up even for inexperienced users.
• Accessible and simple options for scaling.

• Free SSL support no matter what plan you are choosing.
  Cons

• Support service is accessible only via email.

• No WebSocket support, meaning it can’t host real-time applications.
  Plans & Pricing

PythonAnywhere has a free plan with limited options, which is perfect to test the service and get you started as well as four paid plans. The prices vary from 5 to 100$, and there is a custom option where you can choose all of the features you need (5-500$ per month).

djangoeurope

Which hosting service can be better than the one founded by one of the Django developers himself? It was set up in 2009 by a small team of experts and grew into one of the most developer-friendly Django-specific hosting services.

djangoeurope doesn’t have its own data centers and uses ones of other hosting services, depending on location (Hetzner’s in Germany and Finland, hosttech’s in Switzerland, and so on).

*Pros *

• High level of customization. It has a fully customizable web server, and you gain complete control over the configuration of your app.
• One-click Django installation. You will have your website up and running within minutes, just by entering your project’s name, website name, and address login.
• An unlimited number of sites. djangoeurope allows hosting an unlimited number of sites and domains.

• Backups. The service provides daily and weekly backups that are available from 7 days to 3 months.
  Cons

• Scalability. The service offers quite limited bandwidth (each server has a bandwidth of 1 Gbps that cannot be modified).
  Plans & Pricing

The plans vary from 5 to 60 euros per month, and there is a policy of a 30-days money-back guarantee. You can also pay in advance for the whole year and get a 10% discount.

Wide-ranging hosting providers

Let’s move on to the hosting services of broader use. But don’t worry, all of them are perfectly fit to host Django projects.

Amazon Web Services

Today, more than 33% of all websites around the globe are built upon Amazon Web Services. This makes AWS one of the most widespread hosting services used by countless businesses and organizations. Let’s find out the secret to the success of this cloud hosting service.

Pros

• Security and compliance. AWS ensures complete redundancy, backups, and server cloning for their clients.
• Scalability. You purchase the necessary amount of storage, with an opportunity to increase or reduce it when needed.
• Excellent support. Several support plans are available, according to your needs.
• High speed and agility. AWS allows setting up an application within minutes, saving your time and money, and boosting efficiency and agility.
• Pay as you go method. You are paying only for the services and tools you are using. *Cons *
• Not beginner-friendly. The abundance of options and choices is overwhelming and difficult to understand for a newbie.
• Country specific. While AWS provides an extensive range of options, all of them are available only in the USA, while if you are located in another country, you’ll need to check for the availability of each option specifically.
• Complicated pricing. Too many options and different prices for each one make it difficult to determine the exact price beforehand. Plans & Pricing

At first, AWS pricing may seem a little too complicated when you look at it. The service offers free trials, but with a limited number of options. If you need a lot of storage or some add-ons, here comes added costs. To determine the exact cost you will need to pay, use AWS Pricing Calculator.

Azure (Microsoft)

Azure is another cloud giant in the area of hosting services, but we prefer other services to it. Our tech stack is Python/Django, which is open-source and completely contradictory to the core values of Microsoft, which is a proprietary company. As such, we go for such open-source OCs as Linux (in particular, Ubuntu).

Pros

• Scalability. The service allows you to purchase, use, and remove data packages exactly when needed.
• Security. Azure’s security system is based on the DADSC approach, which is Detect, Assess, Diagnose, Stabilise, and Close and received multiple compliance certifications

• Availability. The service has more than 40 data centers all over the world, making it accessible for international businesses.
  Cons

• Not beginner-friendly. Same as with AWS, it will take lots of time and effort to understand all of its features for a newbie.

• Inefficient customer support. In case of an emergency or problem that requires instant solution, it’s hard to contact the customer support asap.

• Data loss. Since the service is a single solution, it means that all of your data will be hosted in one space. If you won’t be able to access it for some reason or Azure itself will lose it, you will risk losing it for good.
  Plans & Pricing

Azure’s pricing system is rather complicated and includes many different factors and pitfalls, lacking precise prices and costs. On the other hand, it uses the pay-as-you-go method, so you don’t overpay for features and add-ons you don’t use.

DigitalOcean

Back in 2012, the founders of DigitalOcean, Ben and Moisey Uretsky stumbled upon the Craiglist job listing of Mitch Wainer, co-founder of the company to be. Several months later, they launched a beta version of the site.

Today, DigitalOcean is a popular cloud provider among developers across North America, Europe, and East Asia.

We prefer DigitalOcean over other hosting services and use it for the majority of our clients who want to automate their business or start a new software product.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly. DigitalOcean has a simple API interface that allows both newbies and seasoned developers to use it to their best advantage.
• Scalability. You can both add more space or downsize easily, depending on your needs.
• Affordability. Compared with similar hosting services, DigitalOcean offers one of the best prices on the market. High speed. A 40 Gbps network allows you to access one of the best speed levels on the market.

• Broad outreach. DigitalOcean has 13 data centers on three continents.
  *Cons *

• Limited range of products in comparison with other hosting services.
  Plans & Pricing

Prices start from 5$ per month. Depending on your needs, there are different options available, from 5 to 960$. You can also get a two-month free trial and try out free credits up to 100$ every month.

Google Cloud Platform

Over the last three years, Google Cloud’s revenue grew from 4 to 13 billion dollars, making up more than 7% of the company’s total revenues.

Pros

• Scalability. There are wide options regarding data storage, updates, and functionality.

• Global outreach. Wherever you are, GCP gets you covered and allows deploying from all over the world.
  Cons

• Lack of innovation. In comparison with other hosting services, it is not as innovative and wide in its features and productivity as the competitors.

• Focus on smaller projects. Large projects are out of GCP’s focus in comparison with its competitors, such as Microsoft.
  Plans & Pricing

The platform offers 300$ in free credits and 20+ free products, has pay as you go method and 24/7 free billing support.

Hetzner

Hetzner is a Germany-based company that has data centers in Germany and Finland. It has been on the market since 1997 and provided services for Userlike, Leoni, Whereby, Talkwalker, and many more companies.

We also use Hetzner for demo servers and other inner goals due to its affordability.

Hetzner is also an environmentally sound organization. It uses exclusively renewable sources to power the servers in the data centers (wind and hydropower) and concentrates on choosing energy-efficient hardware.

Pros

• Affordable prices. Its prices are one of the lowest on the market and affordable for both large and small-scale businesses. 24×7 support. The support is free and available at any time. Documentation and email support are free for everyone while phone support is only free for users with Level 4 pricing plans.
• Partnership with Dell, Intel, and other vendors, which is a guarantee of reliable software and hardware.

• Free domain and SSL.
  Cons

• No data centers in the United States.

• Inconvenient and difficult to use control panel.

• Most of the documentation is in German.

• No uptime guarantee.
  Plans & Pricing

Hetzner offers various levels of subscriptions, with prices starting at 1.90 euros per month for level one. There are also plans for 4.90 and 9.90 euros per month, and a premium level for 19.90 euros monthly. You can learn more about the details of each level here.

Heroku

Founded in 2007, this PaaS platform supported only Ruby programming language at first. Today, the number of supported languages expanded, including Python, which makes Heroku a polyglot platform. It hosts more than 105 thousand social and mobile cloud applications.

Pros

-Beginner-friendly. Its initial deployment and environment configuration are easy and clear, even for a newbie.

• Seamless integration with other SaaS products and services.
• Exceptional support, ready to assist with all kinds of issues.

• Heroku uses Amazon’s secure data centers to host and manage its physical infrastructure.
  Cons

• Quite pricey, especially in comparison with other hosting services.

• Some plans include sleeping mode, which automatically puts your application into sleeping mode after some period of inactivity. Unless you have enough coding skills to work around built-in functionality, it may be inconvenient.
  Plans & Pricing

Heroku offers a free plan with a limited number of choices as well as paid ones. For the Standard plan, prices vary between 25 and 50$, and for the Performance plan between 250 and 500$, depending on the features you need.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting was founded back in 2001 and provides services for large and small-scale companies for two decades now. Having data centers in Amsterdam, Singapore, and Michigan, the platform has global coverage and can offer services to companies all over the world.

Pros

• Great hosting performance speed.
• Data centers around the globe.
• Easy to scale.
• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

• 99.9% uptime guarantee.
  Cons

• The cheaper plans are quite limited in their features in comparison with more expensive ones.

• Plans & Pricing

The prices vary between 8 and 123$ per month, with all plans including unlimited storage and data transfer, as well as free SSD.

Bluehost

Founded by one of the oldest and largest global hosting corporations, Bluehost is another platform to consider when looking for a hosting service. FalconStor Software, HB Communications, Quest are just a few companies among many others who used Bluehost.

Pros

User-friendly hosting dashboard and control panel.
Simple and straightforward website transfer and setup.
Money-back guarantee.
24×7 support via chat, email, and phone.
Cons

• No automated backup. You have to set up your own backup via the control panel or additionally pay for the Backup Pro feature.
• Slower speed in comparison with other hosting services. No unlimited storage. Plans & Pricing

The platform offers three plans for 19.99, 29.99, and 59.99$ per month, which vary by the amount of SSD storage, bandwidth, cores, and IP addresses.

TMDHosting

TMDHosting has data centers in 7 locations around the world and uses cutting-edge cloud technology to provide its customers with the fastest load times.

Pros

• Convenient and easy-to-use interface, including control panel, support tickets, billing, and other features.
• Exceptional server performance: high speed and quick server response time.
• Regular updates and daily backup.
• 24×7 support time, response time is less than 15 minutes. *Cons *
• There are not a lot of features and characteristics for more complex projects. Plans & Pricing

The prices start from 2.95$ per month for the Starter Plan, 5.95$ for the Business Plan, and 12.95$ for the Professional Plan.

HostUpon

Based in Toronto, HostUpon accounts for more than 10 thousand customers and 50 thousand websites and offers a tailored solution for clients all over the world.

*Pros
*

• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth.
• 5 data centers across the world.
• 99.9% uptime guarantee.
• Full control with cPanel and WHM Control Panels.
• Free migration from your current provider.

• 24×7 support available via phone, live chat, and support ticket.
  Cons

• Too many features and details in the basic plans.

• Lower-price plans don’t offer SSL certificates and backups.
  Plans & Pricing

The prices of VPS hosting start with 49.95$ per month, offering 20GB disk space, 100GB bandwidth, and 512MB memory. All of the other plans include unlimited bandwidth and more disk space and memory. The most popular plan costs 69.95$ per month and includes 50GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and 1 GB memory.

Comparison Table
Up to this point, you are probably overwhelmed with all the facts, numbers, and statistics. So, we simplified it a bit for you. Take a look at the table with all the core features and characteristics of each of the listed hosting services:

Type of cloud computing service Price Scalability Speed Control Panel
Django CMS Free Easily scalable

Wagtail CMS Free

Mezzanine Free

PythonAnywhere PaaS 5-500$ Accessible and simple scaling options Slower in several times in comparison with other providers No control panel
djangoeurope Multi-platform 5-60€ Limited bandwidth Django-based control panel
Amazon Web Services Multi-platform Pricing Calculator Accessible and simple scaling High speed and agility

Azure (Microsoft) PaaS Pricing Calculator

DigitalOcean Multi-platform 5-960$ Highly scalable 40 Gbps network; one of the best speeds on the market cPanel, WHM Control Panels
Google Cloud Platform Multi-platform 300$ free credits, 20+ free products Highly scalable cPanel/WHM Control Panels
Hetzner Multi-platform 1.90-19.90$ Inconvenient, difficult to use
Heroku PaaS 25-500$

A2 Hosting 8-123$ Easy to scale 285ms

Bluehost Multi-platform 19.99-59.99$ Not highly scalable 688ms User-friendly control panel
TMD Hosting Multi-platform 2.95-12.95$ Up to 10TB bandwidth 648ms cPanel, WHM Control Panels
HostUpon Multi-platform 49.95-149.95$ Unlimited disk space and bandwidth 846ms cPanel, WHM Control Panels
Sum Up
The right hosting provider is a significant part of building a successful project. There are lots of factors to consider, from your experience to the budget of your project. You should always pay attention to scalability, speed, prices, control panel, among other characteristics when checking out the hosting service.

We prefer to use DigitalOcean for the majority of our clients due to its extended features, user-friendly control panel, excellent functionality, and affordable prices.

Also, we use Amazon Web Services for fast-growing and developing projects with bigger budgets.

If you are looking to launch a Django-based software but don’t know where to start, waste no time and contact us! We’d be happy to help you to figure out all the details and calculate the costs for the development, support, and hosting of your project.

Still unsure? Check out some of our latest work.