Source Control Hosting - Advice?

• Feb 22, 2005
• 12 Comments
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For my personal coding projects at home, I've been using the free one-user version of SourceGear vault for my personal source control needs. As you know, having proper source control is #1 on The Joel Test.

But since I'm embarking on a project with Micah who lives in San Francisco, we need something better than to host on my little Shuttle system at home. We need hosting!

After some preliminary research, I'm leaning towards a semi-dedicated server from WebHost4Life. The Basic plan includes 150 GB of bandwidth, 2000 MB of Space, 2GB of SQL Server 2000, ASP.NET 1.1, Sharepoint Team/Windows Services, and on and on. Plus, no setup fees, and it's $79.35 a month. This is a LOT cheaper than an equivalent option at DataPipe. DataPipe offers 5 nine uptime, but I think the 3 nines will be adequate.

This server will host our source control (which requires SQL Server and .NET) as well as a staging site for our client. If you know of a better option, please leave a comment. I'll let you know what we end up deciding.

What others have said

Christopher Baus Feb 22, 2005 10:20 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

I'm personally a huge fan of Subversion. I reviewed Vault, and even tried to get Eric to drop his price, but in the end I went with subversion, and I couldn't be happier. It works with windows and Unix equally well. Support is awesome. One time I wanted a script written in python, and I got one of the developers to write it for a very fair price. It was far less than what Eric would have charged I'm sure.

We also seriously considered using Vault at work, but ended up going with Perforce, but that is probably overkill unless you have 5+ developers on the project.

As far as hosting it. If you are serious about going your own, I would recommend getting a colo box. I messed around with a bunch of shared hosting environments, but I think in the end doing it yourself is the best way to go.

Joel Ross Feb 23, 2005 6:38 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

Have you considered just using the advanced plan rather than the semi-dedicated? We use just the advanced to host http://www.tourneylogic.com and have been very pleased with it. I have instructions somewhere on my blog about installing vault on webhost4life that if you're interested in, I can dig up the post for you. Just shoot me an email at jross at rosscode dot com.

And if you don't have a referrer, we'll take the referral bonus if you sign up! ;-)

Niels Hansen Feb 23, 2005 7:41 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

http://www.iPowerweb.com has a dedicated box for under $70 a month. That is what I am using and its been great.

I have 40 gigs of diskspace on the server. It's all mine so you can install what you want on it.

Haacked Feb 23, 2005 5:46 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

Christopher, who do you Colo with?

christopher baus Feb 23, 2005 6:03 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

I'm using a colo service up here in Reno called http://www.hostrack.net/. They are fairly cheap, but their service is only mediocre.

A friend of mine was just pricing out hosting in SF. I can't remember what he came up with though. Seemed like it was on par price was.

Haacked Feb 23, 2005 6:07 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

You know, I'd be interested in hearing who your friend goes with in SF. That's where my friend lives.

christopher baus Feb 25, 2005 9:22 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

http://www.coloserv.com/

Can't vouch for them personally though.

christopher baus Feb 25, 2005 1:01 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

I've been thinking about this for what ever reason. I still going to recommend doing it yourself. Here's why. For software developers there is nothing more important then your code repository. It is your life blood.

Because of this, no matter who you go with, you'll probably want to do your own backups, just to be sure. If you've already gone that far, you might as well host the box as well, which in the long run will be far cheaper, and faster.

I think the decision to use Vault or some other system is really secondary to the hosting decision.

The only way I would allow someone else to manage my repository is if I knew them personally, and could meet them face to face if they lost my data.

http://bharathost.com Feb 26, 2005 2:51 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

chek our site for deadly cheaper than others ...http://bharathost.com

Tyler Mar 03, 2005 10:23 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

Phil,
If you're doing open source work, go to Perforce. Your license will be free and you'll enjoy the top of the line.

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/price.html

Chris Mar 03, 2005 10:12 PM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

Hi Phil,

I'd like to chime in on hosting providers. I just started a project with a couple of remote colleagues, and we went with 1and1 (1and1.com). I just siged up for a dedicated server solution for $129/month and got a 3GHz box, 1GB memory, 120GB disk space and the ability to RDP to the box and manage anything I want.

I have several friends who are professional developers who have gone with these guys for this solution and have been very pleased. They also respond very quickly to email when you need assistance, which is rare these days.

Good luck!

Chris

Haacked Mar 04, 2005 10:08 AM

# re: Source Control Hosting - Advice?

Thanks Chris! I'll check them out.

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