What to use?
First I needed to figure out how do I and host a website properly. There were several frameworks and stacks used in web development that I have heard of:
- LAMP: Linux; Apache; MySql; PHP, Perl, Python
- MEAN: MongoDB; ExpressJS; AngularJS; NodeJS
- Django: Python Based Web Framework
The LAMP stack was the most familiar to me because I had seen it used in my previous coop. The MEAN stack is newer and I am less familiar with it. Django is also a new experience however I am comfortable with python.
In the end, a major factor in deciding which method to use comes down to how I get my site hosted. This is a side project for me and I do not want to be paying a monthly or yearly subscription.
Options include:
- Amazon Web Services: AWS
- Google Cloud
- Digital Ocean Hosting
- Self Hosting
AWS and Google Cloud has some free features like a NoSql database that make the MEAN stack a better method than others. They both have many paid services that do all the setup for you. Digital Ocean has a lot of tutorials for setting up websites in various ways and are very flexible. Unfortunately they are a paid service. In the end I can still use Apache to setup a self-hosted site while being careful about security.
Unfortunately all these options require a seperate purchase of a domain or my website is stuck to my local network like above. Going to need to do more research to find a better solution!