Ask HN: What database (and database hosting) to use for small projects?

3 points by reeeeee 4 years ago | 7 comments

I just started on a project that will probably have no more than 100 customers, keeping track of basic accounting tasks. I'm now thinking about which database service I will use. Looking at the prices of AWS databases, it will cost me $30 per month just to host the smallest RDS instance in the region of my choice.

When starting out on smaller projects that are hosted in the cloud, which database and database hosting/provider do you use? What service do you think offers the best price to quality ratio?

FdezRomero 4 years ago |

MongoDB Atlas offers a fully managed M0 instance with 512MB of storage and shared RAM for free. You can choose among AWS, GCP or Azure and the region. I use this or the Firebase Firestore free tier.

verdverm 4 years ago |

I prefer Google Cloud, it is more expensive than Linode or DO, cheaper and easier than AWS.

You can use a fully managed Postgres for $30, maybe less. They charge based on the VM size.

Postgres is always a solid choice.

JasonCannon 4 years ago |

SQLite will almost certainly work for your purposes, and you can run it on the same server you already run your web application on.

reeeeee 4 years ago | |

SQLite is a solid solution, can't believe I didn't think of it. Thanks!

Something1234 4 years ago | |

I've been wondering if it's a terrible idea to run a SQLite database on an efs (the amazon hosted nfs solution) volume. I think it would work but I'm not sure.

JasonCannon 4 years ago | | |

Quick google-fu suggests that yes, that is a terrible idea.

https://sqlite.org/forum/info/8e84712c9d8b79e7

aaronrobinson 4 years ago |

You can run a Linode or Digital Ocean droplet for $5 a month all in. Then just run the DB yourself.