Looking for Free VPS for academic repository (1GB RAM, ~20GB disk)

pablodg · February 2020

Hi, I run a non profit repository of academic paper from Argentina (we offer free academic profiles to show research results). The domain is https://aacademica.org, and we coded and maintain it since 2014 in our spare time.

In the last year, Google recorded 24M results displayed of our contents, with 1.4M clicks. Wich is great for a site of our nature..

We put no ads in the contents, and we ask no registration to download (it's full open access). We run the site on hostgator, a hosting we can pay, by small donations of people who support the site (about $100 dollars every 3 years). The problem we have now is that we would need to configure a sphinx for full text search (mysql is getting too slow), and that would require at least a VPS account (or a sphinx hosting).

We would like to know if anyone knows about someone that could provide VPS or search for us. We currently have about 50k documents of about 30kb average each (10GB for the index should be enough).

Thanks a lot in advance!

hzr · February 2020

Algolia will do free fulltext instant search for nonprofits: https://www.algolia.com/for-open-source/

dahartigan · February 2020

I think that Evolution Host is worth a shot, they have a free offer in exchange for a link back.
https://evolution-host.com/free-vps.php

hzr · February 2020

Have you also consider prefab search in Google: https://www.google.com/search?client=android&ei=&q=site%3Aaacademica.org+filetype%3Apdf+"test+de+matrices"

greattomeetyou · February 2020

Did you ask AWS? or MS (Azure)?

uptime · February 2020

hello there @pablodg

It is an ironic tradition to welcome new posters here with "congratulations on your first post!" so, there it is, and welcome!

I would like to help - at least with some advice to help find a suitable host, though I also don't mind to sponsor a VPS for some time if that might help you during the transition.

I am of the strong opinion however that - in the long run - it would be better for your organization to pay for a decent service, as you should have some expectation of a decent SLA (service level agreement) and support - given that your users may depend on a degree of reliability not guaranteed by a free service.

The good news is that if you are paying almost $3 per month already (that is, "about $100 dollars every 3 years" for hostgator) - and you are looking for a VPS with 1 GB ram and 20 GB storage - then that should be within the realm of (lowend) possibility.

EDIT2:

On the off chance that either this forum is not available, or I am not on it - you can find me on any of several other boards: https://talk.lowendspirit.com, https://hostedtalk.net, and https://primarydns.net.

marvel · February 2020

I always have my doubts about posts of this nature. First post, new user asking for a free VPS. If you run a website wit 1.4M clicks surely it can't be a problem to raise 3 or 4 bucks a month for a VPS.

That being said, if it's a legit post and really non-profit educational purpose in Argentina I would give you a free VPS with even bigger specs no problem.

uptime · February 2020

@marvel in general I do agree some skepticism and careful scrutiny is always necessary for "free service" requests - however in this case the site is legit, and I expect that I can fairly easily confirm that I am corresponding with someone actually involved with work on that project, etc - so, what could possibly go wrong?

the greater risk in this situation - in my opinion - would be that a worthy project ends up dealing with a problematic hosting experience, possibly from some quasi-amateur operation or whatever. (Not saying that would be you, but ... just saying.) (Also, not to totally dis your possible offer! I expect they would benefit from having a low-pressure environment to setup and test their deployment. But for a service like this, I personally believe that a well-established provider would be a more appropriate choice, just in the interest of maximizing likelihood of long-term stability.)

Hence the suggestion that they arrange a suitable "fee for service" deal - and if they need some help to do that (including some donation via their established channels) - then I'm more than happy to support them doing things right. Because knowledge and stuff.

marvel · February 2020

@uptime said:
@marvel in general I do agree some skepticism and careful scrutiny is always necessary for "free service" requests - however in this case the site is legit, and I expect that I can fairly easily confirm that I am corresponding with someone actually involved with work on that project, etc - so, what could possibly go wrong?

the greater risk in this situation - in my opinion - would be that a worthy project ends up dealing with a problematic hosting experience, possibly from some quasi-amateur operation or whatever. (Not saying that would be you, but ... just saying.) (Also, not to totally dis your possible offer! I expect they would benefit from having a low-pressure environment to setup and test their deployment. But for a service like this, I personally believe that a well-established provider would be a more appropriate choice, just in the interest of maximizing likelihood of long-term stability.)

Hence the suggestion that they arrange a suitable "fee for service" deal - and if they need some help to do that (including some donation via their established channels) - then I'm more than happy to support them doing things right. Because knowledge and stuff.

Yes I do agree with this. It's better to pay for something and know what to expect.

tridinebandim · February 2020

@pablodg is it open source? can i use it :}

PineappleBox · March 2020

Hello, I do know someone who could do something similar to this for educational services, it's as follows:
1gb DDR3 Memory
2gb vSwap
15gb HDD
Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop
2 vCore's
100MB/s shared (Unmetered)
NAT IPv4
LAMP
KVM Virtualization
No root access

Alternatively, you could do the following:

512mb DDR3 Memory
2gb vSwap
25gb HDD
Centos 7
1 vCore
100MB/s shared (Unmetered)
NAT IPv4
LAMP
KVM Virtualization
No root access

Unfortunately, this is not quite what you need but it is all I am aware of. Your website seems to have a large amount of traffic so, it might be a better investment to get a lower-cost VPS. I can recommend Servercheap.net's Chicago KVM VPS (1gb memory, 1gbps bandwidth, 30gb SSD), which is $28.50 USD on an annual plan with code "SERVERHUNTER5," which is very cheap and will give you a much better experience than any free service. If you're interested in the other service, however, feel free to message me.

angstrom · March 2020

@uptime said:
@marvel in general I do agree some skepticism and careful scrutiny is always necessary for "free service" requests - however in this case the site is legit, and I expect that I can fairly easily confirm that I am corresponding with someone actually involved with work on that project, etc - so, what could possibly go wrong?

Unless the OP has contacted one of you personally, it appears that he was a fly-by-night (signs up, starts a thread asking for help, then disappears). Perhaps the site is legit, but the guy himself isn't really credible.