wookie184
commented
3 years ago Relevant comment on this topic on the server: https://discord.com/channels/267624335836053506/429409067623251969/869258293942579260
Basically, while it definitely isn't a great option, there aren't really any better free options. So for people who are making a simple bot for them and a few friends in a small server, which they are happy just about working most of the time, and are happy to put up with a bit of extra setup work, it might be the best option for them - and I think that's often the use case of people asking this sort of question.
If we want to make a tag on this, rather than telling people not to use replit, it should show them these reasons they may not want to, possibly informing them of some cheap, paid alternatives, but should also give them information, or at least just a link to a guide of how to if they decide to use replit.
Proposal
We should have commands the display why not to use Heroku/repl.it to host bots. This is what the discord.py server has (shown down below) I will rewrite this since I don't want to copy anything from their server, and we should do something similar for Heroku.
Proof of Concept
You should not use Repl.it to host your bot.
While this may seem like a nice and free service, it has a lot more caveats than you might think, such as:
The machines are super underpowered. This means your bot will lag a lot as it gets bigger.
You need to run a webserver alongside your bot to prevent it from being shut off. This isn't a trivial task, and eats more of the machines power.
Repl.it uses an ephemeral file system. This means any file you saved via your bot will be overwritten when you next launch.
They use a shared IP for everything running on the service. This one is important - if someone is running a user bot on their service and gets banned, everyone on that IP will be banned. Including you.
Please avoid using repl.it to host your bot. It's not worth the trouble. See ?tag vps in #testing if you want a list of decent hosts (there are no free hosts).