Developer Guide

How to Choose a Hosting Plan

Stop overpaying for resources you don't need. This guide helps you pick the right plan for any provider - including us.

The Industry's Dirty Secret

Most developers massively over-provision their hosting. A typical Node.js API serving 1,000 requests/day uses less than 100MB of RAM and virtually no CPU. Yet people routinely pay for 2GB+ instances "just in case."

Cloud providers love this. You're paying 10-20x what you actually need.

What Apps Actually Use

App TypeTypical RAMCPU UsageReality Check
Static Site10-50 MB~0%Just serving files
Node.js API50-150 MB1-5%Idle most of the time
Next.js / Nuxt150-400 MB2-10%SSR adds overhead
Rails / Django200-500 MB5-15%Framework overhead
PostgreSQL100-256 MB1-5%Until you have millions of rows
Redis10-64 MB~0%Data stays in memory

* Based on typical usage patterns for apps with <10K daily users

Resource Calculator

Recommended Minimums

0.25 cores
CPU
256 MB
RAM
500 MB
Storage

These estimates include headroom. Best practice is to provision 20-30% above your baseline to handle traffic spikes without degradation. The numbers above already factor this in.

Real-world example: A full-stack platform handling 100K+ lines of code, multiple databases, file storage, background jobs, analytics, and AI-powered features can run comfortably on under 1% of a mid-range server with fewer than 100 active users. The infrastructure you need is almost always less than you think.

The Decision Framework

Always start with the cheapest option that technically works. You can upgrade in minutes, but you'll never know your actual needs until you run in production.

Real example:

A SaaS handling 500 daily users runs fine on Railway's $5/month tier. The founder was about to pay $50/month for a "production" instance.

Signs You Need to Upgrade

Response times increasing

If P95 latency is climbing without code changes, you're hitting resource limits. Check CPU and RAM usage first.

Database connection errors

"Too many connections" means you need connection pooling or a bigger database, not a bigger app server.

Out of memory crashes

If your app keeps restarting, check for memory leaks first. Then upgrade if needed. Most "memory issues" are actually code bugs.

Users complaining

The only metric that truly matters. If users notice slowness, investigate. Often it's not your hosting - it's an N+1 query or slow API call.

Signs You're Overpaying

CPU always under 20%

If your CPU graph is a flat line near zero, you're paying for compute you don't use. Downgrade or switch to a smaller instance.

RAM barely used

Using 200MB on a 2GB instance? That's 90% waste. Most apps run fine on 256-512MB.

Paying for replicas with no traffic

Multiple instances for an app with 50 daily users? One is plenty. Add replicas when you actually need high availability.

Multi-region for local audience

If 90% of your users are in one country, you don't need global edge deployment. Pick the closest region and save money.

Quick Provider Guide

Vercel / Netlify

Best for: Static sites, Next.js, JAMstack. Free tier is generous.

Watch out for: Bandwidth overages, serverless cold starts, function timeouts.

Railway / Render

Best for: Full-stack apps, databases, background jobs. Simple pricing.

Watch out for: Sleep on free tier, limited regions.

Fly.io / Cloudflare Workers

Best for: Global distribution, edge computing, low-latency needs.

Watch out for: Complexity, debugging distributed systems.

AWS / GCP / Azure

Best for: Enterprise requirements, compliance, infinite scale.

Watch out for: Bill shock, complexity, 47 services for one app.

Anchorscape

Best for: Security-conscious teams who want scan → fix → deploy in one place. Flat pricing, no surprises.

Includes: Security scanning, AI code fixes, managed databases, SSL, custom domains.

Common Questions

Ready to deploy without overpaying?

Anchorscape gives you security scanning, AI code fixes, and hosting in one flat-rate plan. No bandwidth surprises. No complexity.