.. source: https://gist.github.com/Twentysix26/cb4401c6e507782aa6698e9e470243ed

.. _host-list:

=============
VPS providers
=============

.. note::
    This doc is written for the :ref:`hosting section <getting-started-hosting>`
    of the :ref:`getting started <getting-started>` guide. Please take a look
    if you don't know how to host Red on a VPS.

This is a list of the recommended VPS providers.

.. warning::
    Please be aware that a Linux server is controlled through a command line.
    If you don't know Unix basics, please take a look at `this guide
    <https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-linux-basics>`_
    from DigitalOcean which will introduce you to the Linux basics.

-------------
Linux hosting
-------------

+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|Link                                |Description                                           |
+====================================+======================================================+
|`Scaleway                           |Incredibly cheap but powerful VPSes, owned by         |
|<https://www.scaleway.com/>`_       |`<https://online.net/>`_, based in Europe.            |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|`DigitalOcean                       |US-based cheap VPSes. The gold standard. Locations    |
|<https://www.digitalocean.com/>`_   |available world wide.                                 |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|`OVH <https://www.ovh.co.uk/>`_     |Cheap VPSes, used by many people. French and Canadian |
|                                    |locations available.                                  |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|`Time4VPS                           |Cheap VPSes, seemingly based in Lithuania.            |
|<https://www.time4vps.eu/>`_        |                                                      |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|`Linode <https://www.linode.com/>`_ |More cheap VPSes!                                     |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|`Vultr <https://www.vultr.com/>`_   |US-based, DigitalOcean-like.                          |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+

------
Others
------

+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
|Link                                 |                                                     |
+=====================================+=====================================================+
|`AWS <https://aws.amazon.com/>`_     |Amazon Web Services. Free for a year (with certain   |
|                                     |limits), but very pricey after that.                 |
+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
|`Google Cloud                        |Same as AWS, but it's Google.                        |
|<https://cloud.google.com/compute/>`_|                                                     |
+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
|`Microsoft Azure                     |Same as AWS, but it's Microsoft.                     |
|<https://azure.microsoft.com>`_      |                                                     |
+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
|`Oracle Cloud                        |Same as AWS, but it's Oracle.                        |
|<https://oracle.com/cloud/>`_        |                                                     |
+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
|`LowEndBox <http://lowendbox.com/>`_ |A curator for lower specced servers.                 |
+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+

------------
Self-hosting
------------

You can always self-host on your own hardware.
A Raspberry Pi 3 will be more than sufficient for small to medium sized bots.

For bigger bots, you can build your own server PC for usage, or buy a rack
server. Any modern hardware should work 100% fine.

------------
Free hosting
------------

| `Google Cloud Compute Engine <https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/gcp-free-tier>`_,
  `Oracle Cloud Compute <https://oracle.com/cloud/free/#always-free>`_ and
  `AWS EC2 <https://aws.amazon.com/free/>`_ have free tier VPSes suitable for small bots.

| **Note:** AWS EC2's free tier does not last forever - it's a 12 month trial.
| Additionally, new Google Cloud customers get a $300 credit which is valid
  for 3 months.

Other than that... no. There is no good free VPS hoster, outside of
persuading somebody to host for you, which is incredibly unlikely.