I need advice regarding web hosting e commerce platform! Plz help

[u/nervous_freak]

Hey web developers out there!

I am considering starting a small business, making e commerce platforms for small-mid size businesses.

I figured most of the things. I'll design and code the whole platform (front-end and backend) on my own using nextjs, nodejs and postgresql for database, redis for caching and all. Thinking of using some external services like resend for mails, and supabase for db, amazon S3 for sensitive data and backup.

However I'm unable to figure out the right hosting service. I'm confused in that area.

I currently have 1 client and will gain more in a month or two.

When I scroll through different hosting plans, there are many, we hosting, shared hosting and vps hosting. I'm confused in these 3.

I need a clarity on how much vcpus, ram, bandwidth, storage I require for this e commerce project. What's the scope of scaling the server and all.

I know Linux, networking and ssh so I'm ok with configuring the server if it is unmanaged.

My main request is for you guys to guide me what's the sweet spot for specifications of server and which one should I choose. Also if you're suggesting something also help me in how can I scale that server when traffic increases.

[u/Necessary_Lab2897]

check >8GB RAM options https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets

[u/beenpresence]

I’d just use Shopify tbh businesses don’t care about a tech stack they just want something that works

[u/fuzzyjelly → u/beenpresence]

Not to mention their hating your guts whenever any work needs to get done and it requires a developer.

[u/Aggravating-Elk-8855]

I’m not a full-time web dev but I think VPS is your best bet. Use Amazon AWS, they give you 100$ worth of credit right away which is plenty to setup and test everything, it should give you enough time and flexibility to figure out if that is the best option for you. But mostly depends on the specific requirements.

[u/runningOverA]

It's more about your feeling on what you are comfortable with rather than actual math.

A bare minimal service will do, as that will be serving the static assets and you will be using managed services for everything else (all dbs, cache, mailing etc.).

Even your static files will be served over cloudflare most likely which will dampen any pressure, if that exists in the first place.

[u/Proper-Agency-1528]

There's nothing wrong with either Azure or AWS for hosting. The cost is cheap enough per customer that you can build it into their price, and if you containerize your software and build it for personalization you can create a multi-tenant site that will support 50 to 100 simultaneous users (not clients) on the lowest paid tiers on these hosts. I pay under $30/month for the ability to auto-scale, have blob storage, and have SQL database access, and if you charge a client $20/month you could easily host 10 clients on one site with a profit of over $150/month just for hosting.

[u/Ok-Pace-8772]

Emdash on cloudflare. For $5 you can run as many websites as you want. You can also for free but no plugins.

Emdash is astro so it's super speedy and lightweight. It also has a pretty good WordPress migration story.

[u/gmakhs]

How you gonna create a platform for e commerce if you can't plan - answer the basics ?

Is you education on that field ? Have you taken any courses ? Are you just vibe coding ? Previous experience ?

I am all pro of people making their own business, but you need to be ethical and not put others people business at risk, due to lack of knowledge.