Have you ever imagined running a website without any worries related to servers? Sounds fantastic, right? Well, that's precisely what serverless hosting offers you. I experimented with serverless hosting a couple of months ago for a little project, and it has dramatically changed how I approach hosting companies for my websites.
Has your site ever gone offline because too many people take a look at the same time? With serverless, this can generally be eliminated (to some degree). If your site has a sudden influx of visitors, it adjusts automatically to handle that traffic.
• It Scales Automatically – Your site scales with traffic and you don't have to do anything.
• It’s Cheaper – You only pay for what the site uses. If nobody visits your site, you still have a place to host it, but you don't pay as much
• It’s Maintenance Free – You have no worries about updating or maintaining the servers, they just have to be operating on the web.
I moved a little project of mine to serverless and I couldn't have asked for anything easier. I never had to check server space or CPU.
• Cold Starts – Sometimes when you go to access the site and it hasn't been used in the last 10 minutes a load will take a bit longer in a serverless environment than it normally would.
• Limited Control – You don't have the ability to change server settings as you might be accustomed to on a normal server.
• So-So Portability – Once you get used to having database and back-end services in a project of yours - switching becomes more difficult.
For a typical website, these issues aren't major.
I think serverless is perfect for small apps or experiments. You might still need to spinning up a service with a traditional server for larger enterprise projects.
Because who wants to work on managing a server? You can spend that time creating awesome things!
What Is Serverless Hosting?
Here’s the thing. Serverless hosting does not mean there are no servers. It simply means you don’t have to manage anything. The hosting company handles all the servers, updates and scaling. You just upload your code and it runs.Has your site ever gone offline because too many people take a look at the same time? With serverless, this can generally be eliminated (to some degree). If your site has a sudden influx of visitors, it adjusts automatically to handle that traffic.
So, why do I like it?
From experience, there's a ton of reasons to use a serverless setup:• It Scales Automatically – Your site scales with traffic and you don't have to do anything.
• It’s Cheaper – You only pay for what the site uses. If nobody visits your site, you still have a place to host it, but you don't pay as much
• It’s Maintenance Free – You have no worries about updating or maintaining the servers, they just have to be operating on the web.
I moved a little project of mine to serverless and I couldn't have asked for anything easier. I never had to check server space or CPU.
Are There Some Limitations?
Sure, there are a couple of considerations:• Cold Starts – Sometimes when you go to access the site and it hasn't been used in the last 10 minutes a load will take a bit longer in a serverless environment than it normally would.
• Limited Control – You don't have the ability to change server settings as you might be accustomed to on a normal server.
• So-So Portability – Once you get used to having database and back-end services in a project of yours - switching becomes more difficult.
For a typical website, these issues aren't major.
Who Should Use A Serverless Host?
If you build websites, web apps, or small projects then a serverless host is a very good solution. It will save you time, costs less, and let you concentrate on building your site instead of fighting with configuring your server.I think serverless is perfect for small apps or experiments. You might still need to spinning up a service with a traditional server for larger enterprise projects.
Final Thoughts
So, is serverless hosting the future? Yes, yes, yes,I think it is quite probably a big component of the future. It's adaptable, cheap, and simple to use. If you build another website, consider it and you'll probably start to question why you've ever dealt with traditional hosting solutions.Because who wants to work on managing a server? You can spend that time creating awesome things!
