1. Introduction

The Laravel Framework is used to run Web Apps and Mobile App backends at Webmobyle and requires hosting to be maintained. This involves our clients paying a fee.

Keeping app hosting for our clients both practical and affordable at Webmobyle is a top priority. Recent developments have seen a new app hosting model being adopted. That model being Serverless Hosting. However this new approach may not be suitable nor affordable for all our clients. Consequently, it has been decided to keep our traditional hosting models and offer the new model in tandem.

Therefore, moving forward, our app hosting will be offered in 3 tiers, as below. Each, beyond Shared Hosting, brings increased capacity for scale. It should be noted that it is possible to switch between the different tiers.

1. Shared Hosting

2. Dedicated Hosting

3. Serverless hosting

With the exception of Serverless Hosting, the capacity for app hosting to accommodate the needs and requirements of a project are estimated and server resources allocated to meet the projected demand. Since each app has unique characteristics, it is not possible to estimate server requirements until the app is built and undergoes Server Load Testing.

In traditional hosting, therefore, servers are then scaled up or down according to anticipated resource demand. It should be noted that scaling up or down a server takes time and results in some down time. To minimise interruptions, these operations are carried out during times of low activity, such as in the early hours of the morning. In contrast, Serverless Hosting automatically scales server resources to keep up with demand in real time and within a fraction of a second, whatever the demand.

Below are details for each of these tiers. The idea is to get you informed of what options exist for your applications. The important thing to underpin is that; however your application needs to scale, Webmobyle has the capacity to adapt and accommodate your growth needs and requirements. We’ve got you covered!

2. Shared Hosting

Since servers are over-provisioned in a traditional configuration in anticipation of expected resource demand, resources are often underutilised most of the time particularly in times of low demand. Shared Hosting takes advantage of this fact and apps are pooled or clustered to share server resources, thereby maximising server capacity on average.

Shared Hosting is the standard tier on which most of our client’s projects are hosted. This is often sufficient to meet the needs of most of our client base, who are typically small to medium businesses. If a project has higher capacity requirements than the standard, Dedicated and Serverless Hosting are available.

Servers can be scaled up or down to address seasonal demand; for instance. Scaling Shared Servers is done vertically. This means that more System Resources (CPU, RAM and Storage Disk) are added to a single server machine, or removed to increase or decrease its capacity.

2.1 Shared Hosting Pricing

2.2 What Types of Projects Are suitable for Shared Hosting?

Shared Hosting is suitable for projects meeting all or some of the following characteristics;

• Most typical projects for small to medium businesses.

• Projects which are capable of running on a Shared Hosting Server with the specs and capacity outlined in the information panel above.

• Projects with predictable server capacity requirements throughout the year.

• Projects for clients expecting a consistent and constant bill for hosting services. (Some clients are not prepared to deal with a variable hosting bill as in the case for Serverless Hosting)

3. Dedicated Hosting

Just like in Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting also over-provisions servers in preparation for anticipated capacity demands. The difference with Shared Hosting is that your project or projects will have a server dedicated solely to your use and does not share resources with projects from other clients. This means that your apps will have more computing power dedicated to their use.

Servers can be scaled up or down to address seasonal demand; for instance. Scaling Dedicated Servers is done vertically and if more capacity is required horizontal scaling may also be applied.

In vertical scaling, more System Resources (CPU, RAM and Storage Disk) are added to a single server machine, or removed to increase or decrease its capacity.

In horizontal scaling, 2 or more servers are brought to bear and work together in a load-balanced configuration to provide more computing power. More servers can be added or removed in order to scale, as the need arises. Each of the load-balanced servers can also be scaled vertically to further increase capacity.

3.1 Dedicated Hosting Pricing

Dedicated Hosting pricing comes in 2 flavours.

1. Shared CPU Plans (Shared Virtual Machines With Balanced Power and Performance) : Whereby hosting is carried out in Virtual Machines where resources are shared with other hosting providers apart from Webmobyle. The servers are still being utilised solely by your project but CPU resources are distributed across Webmobyle and other hosting organisations. This offers powerful servers at affordable pricing.

2. Dedicated CPU Plans (Dedicated Virtual Machines For CPU-Intensive Applications): Whereby the processing CPU power is used exclusively by your project.

A. Shared CPU Plans Pricing

B. Dedicated CPU Plans Pricing

3.2 What Types of Projects Are suitable for Dedicated Hosting?

Dedicated hosting is suitable for projects meeting all or some of the following characteristics;

• Projects implemented at high scale and/or for large businesses.

• Project that cannot be sustainably run on Shared Hosting Server with the specs and capacity outlined in the information panel in Section 2 above due to high server capacity requirements.

• Projects with predictable server capacity requirements throughout the year.

• Projects for clients expecting a consistent and constant bill for hosting services. (Some clients are not prepared to deal with a variable hosting bill as in the case for Serverless Hosting)

4. Serveless Hosting

Imagine being able to scale the capacity of your application regardless of the traffic. Further imagine that this can be done in less than a second without limitations- which means no down time. Imagine your app being able to scale almost instantaneously regardless of whether you have a billion users or more, or a few hundred- in real time.

That is what Serverless Hosting is all about. Serverless Hosting will allow you to pay a Base Rate to Webmobyle and pay additional fees directly to Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) depending on usage. This provides you with a consistent means to automatically scale up and scale down the capacity of your application depending on its particular user requirements and demand in real time.

In Serverless Hosting, your project is hosted as what is known as a Lambda function. At very, very high scale, load balancing may be used to scale your serverless application.

By default, traffic to your serverless application is routed through HTTP using AWS API Gateway. When using this service, AWS only bills you based on the amount of requests your application receives. However, at very high scale, API Gateway can become more expensive than Lambda functions themselves.

As an alternative to API Gateway, traffic may be routed to your application using an Application Load Balancer, which provides large cost savings at scale. For example, if an application receives about 1 billion requests per month, using an Application Load Balancer will save about $4,000 on the application's monthly Amazon bill.

4.1 Serverless Hosting Pricing

A. Serverless Hosting Base Price

A. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Pricing Resources

There are 3 AWS pricing points that you have to take into account. Below are the links to online resources to give you some insight into how Amazon prices serverless resources. Click the links to view the details.

1. Amazon Lambda Pricing: This is pricing for the Serverless services on which your project will run. https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/pricing/

2. Amazon S3 Simple Storage Service (S3 Standard) Pricing: This is the price for storing objects (Files, Images, Media) in your S3 storage buckets. https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

3. Amazon MySQL RDS - Managed Relational Database (On-Demand DB Instance) Pricing : This is the pricing for a database for your project. For most projects, the entry level database db.t4g.micro is sufficient. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/mysql/pricing/

4.2 What Types of Projects Are suitable for Serverless Hosting?

Serverless hosting is suitable for projects meeting all or some of the following characteristics;

• Projects implemented at high scale and/or for large businesses.

• Project that cannot be sustainably run on Shared Hosting Server with the specs and capacity outlined in the information panel in Section 2 above due to high server capacity requirements.

• Projects with widely varied server capacity requirements throughout the year.

• Projects for clients who are prepared to deal with a variable hosting bill for hosting services. (Some clients are not prepared to deal with a variable hosting bill)

5. Thank You For Your Patronage

Thank you for your interest in having your mobile or web app developed by and hosted through Webmobyle. We look forward to interacting with you and adding value to you, your business or organisation.

Please visit our website at www.webmobyle.com to learn more about our services or to contact us.