Static Site Deployment

[jasonkuhrt]

We should have a good system for deploying static sites. Known candidates for this are:

• Google Cloud Storage
• Surge
• Firebase Hosting
• Netlify
• S3
• Google App Engine

[presstube]

Thanks for these, I'll go check them out. Any preferences off the bat?

I wonder if they all serve our pushstate requirement out of the box.

[jasonkuhrt]

Any preferences off the bat?

Surge / Firebase / Netlify all appear solid. I suggest we try each of these, even in parallel. Firebase might have an edge if the hosting service dovetails into its realtime DB and user accounts system nicely. For what its worth to us, assume Firebase is the most performant given it is Google powered.

I wonder if they all serve our pushstate requirement out of the box.

All the tailored services cover this and much more (TLS, CORS, etc.), but S3/GAE will need a few configuration steps.

Not So Much

It looks like we won't be able to do clean pushState routing with GCS actually but S3 is still an option. Google App Engine (GAE) is also an option. Using a Cloud Provider is a good learning experience but given our limited time its fat we can cut out of our process at least for now, meaning, lets try with the boutique services first, I think.

[presstube]

Surge / Firebase / Netlify all appear solid. I suggest we try each of these, even in parallel.

Great. Sounds like a fun way to start. parallel tire kick.

I'm interested to see how they feel in comparison to the Heroku w/ a server.

[jasonkuhrt]

After trying Surge, Firebase, and Netlify, here are some observations.

Surge

• The Indie choice
• No graphical user interface (e.g. web)–_CLI only_
• Very lightweight/minimal feature set
• Paid-only:
  • CORS
• Slowest response time (~70ms)
• CLI is great

Firebase

• The Enterprise choice
• Google-account pro/con blah
• Fastest response time (~27ms)
• Full-featured Dashboard GUI (web)
• Dovetails into Firebase analytics, Realtime DB, ...etc.
• Paid-only:
  • Custom Domain
• CLI is great

Netlify

• The Startup choice
• Tight github integration
• Build-pipeline
• Deploy history with previewing
• Paid only:
  • Custom Domain requires shout-out
  • Automated builds hard caps (e.g. 50/mo on free plan)
• Unable to use ping... TBD investigate?

[jasonkuhrt]

Some time has passed and we now have more notes.

Firebase

• Custom Domains are now free!

  For Hosting, custom domain support is now free for all developers, and the Database has a completely rebuilt UI. We’re working hard on other great Realtime Database features, stay tuned for those.

• A slew of new Firebase features such as robust analytics and more.

Surge

• @presstube has encountered some deployment issues such that the expected version was not present. I don't think the cause was ever investigated but as a general point it is still negative.

Horizon

• New contender!
• Cloud features are still in private beta so we haven't tried them yet. I've requested an invite.