Top 9 Django Compatible Hosting Services + Deploying Steps

Finding the best Django hosting to suit your requirements might be quite a big deal, but it’s worth the effort. Moreover, it’s also worth trying different options and seeing what will be the best fit for you. Some engineers prefer using paid and highly functional servers, while others find more benefits in (relatively) free services — both options have their advantages. We have chosen the top 6 small, mid, and large-scale Django hosting services with various functions that deserve consideration.

Large-scale Django web hosting companies

Market leaders can provide a wide range of options for hosting, Django-compatible services, powerful analytics, and many other benefits. Therefore, for demanding projects built on Django, servers from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are often the best Django hosts even with high prices.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS is one of the most elaborate Django hostings. What makes AWS out of the others is its flexibility and functionality. It’s possible to configure the application for practically any need using its highly adjustable construction kit and apply the web server for any project and purpose. It’s also an excellent choice for those who run lengthy projects.

By hosting Django on AWS, you will cover data storage, content delivery, database management, networking, load balancing, and auto-scaling. This list will be insufficient if analytics, mobile development, testing, developer and management tools with security services are also omitted.

Even though this Django hosting server is predominantly aimed at processing Amazon clients (as far as they have the corresponding infrastructure to run it), there are no direct restrictions for other users. The bottom line is that this is the most suitable tool for web professionals and companies requiring extensive functionality. Also, as Amazon spans around 60 entities untied by the Global infrastructure, it works particularly well for big enterprises with offices in different countries.

Among the many users at mid-to-small scale, AWS can also boast Atlassian, Expedia, Vodafone, Siemens, and Philips, and has many more up its sleeve.

Pros:

• AWS is secure and compliant as long as all the data meets rigid security standards and PII.
• It contains a number of useful tools like analytics and mobile services.
• It gives additional flexibility by providing a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud).
• Its customer support is fast and helpful.
• Using AWS, it’s easy to run and scale your application (of course, if it’s inherently scalable).
• AWS possesses data centers around the world.

Cons:

• Technical support is paid.
• The abundance of options may confuse and even discourage an inexperienced user.
• You pay for using resources, so it’s hard to predict how much you will be charged at the end of the day.

Plans & pricing

The AWS Django hosting pricing is not an easy thing.

Their official website offers a free trial with special offers for beginners. This may be an alluring proposal to have a go, but pay attention that once you exceed the chosen tier they are going to charge you according to official pay-as-you-go rates.

There is also an option to go for non-expiring free-tier AWS solutions. These, however, have perks when you begin gathering momentum due to limited storage volumes.

To know the exact (or, more likely, the approximate) amount you are about to pay after the end of the trial period, you should use the calculator placed on their website’s “Pricing” page.

Even though AWS might seem way too tangled at first glance, it is still worth thorough consideration for those willing and aiming to progress in this industry. To make things easier, look at Terraform (a tool for implementation culture infrastructure as code.) Also, using guides might be a starting point for AWS’s deeper understanding.

Read Also: How to Write an Investment Proposal

Azure (Microsoft)

Among the Django hosting platforms, it is worth mentioning Azure by Microsoft. It’s a cloud-based platform with the main functions being a content delivery network, media services, web apps, API apps, and so on. As a whole, this service might resemble DigitalOcean in Amazon’s interpretation. It also embodies the necessary toolkit to help host your Django website. This is crucial for busy websites, especially those that receive billions of monthly requests.

The Azure case studies list includes companies like HP, Asos, Adobe, IHG, and Airbus, among others.

Pros:

• It has multi-factor authentication and other security layers.
• A user gets 1-year free access to Virtual Machines with a $200 30-day credit.
• It has AI-powered processes at your disposal.
• It is fully scalable.
• Azure is hosted globally with over 40 data centers.
• Spending some time with its nuances, one can easily use and deploy apps.

Cons:

• It’s effective only if you are into managing data.
• Recovery mode is absent, which may be solved only through setup new server settings, pulling up your stuck project data.
• Azure makes you work solely with one vendor.
• It might be challenging to understand for a new user.
• With pretty much the same set of features, it might cost more than other Django hostings.

Plans & pricing

While Microsoft Azure ensures it’s five times less expensive than AWS hosting services, it concedes to Amazon Services in terms of complexity, the absence of certain features, and even price. This, however, does not hinder big enterprises running their businesses if they find it cost-effective enough. Instead, you may find it beneficial especially if you use other Microsoft products.

Google Cloud Platform

The service is an elaborate product with many tools, from services to compute, store, and run big data analytics to machine learning and much more. They are specifically focused on meeting the needs of large enterprises akin to Spotify, Lush, Johnson-Johnson, Coca-Cola, Sony Music, Wix, etc. Its alternative function is cloud storage for people and companies that need to keep their documents securely in place off-site.

Pros:

• It’s extremely good at analytics and data storage.
• Google Cloud works well with other Google products.
• The platform offers $300 free credit to spend over 12 months.

Cons:

• With around $150 monthly support fee, it’s a bit hefty.
• Getting data from Google Cloud Storage will cost you $0.12 per GB.
• It has a complex pricing scheme, which makes it difficult to predict expenses.
• It’s a bit behind AWS with its features and productivity.

Using other Google services, looking for generous offers to host a Django app, and being fine with paying for costly yet terrific Google support assistance are the main reasons why you should give it a shot. Therefore, Google Cloud Platform can be called one of the best Django website hosting.

Plans & pricing

The pricing is comparatively low: $0,02 per GB monthly for the Regional class and $0,007 per GB monthly once you go for the Coldline class.

Mid and small-scale Django hosting services

Let’s get right to it: even if free Django hosting services did exist, you would rarely opt for them since the number of features, their quality, and lack of support would hardly amaze or fit you. However, some Django hosting providers ensure free trial periods, which are equally advantageous for clients and hosts.

Hetzner

Hetzner is a Germany-based organization with data centers in Germany and Finland. When visiting their website, the first thing to strike one’s eye is its old web design, but this does not prevent the company from offering a wide range of services, such as SSL certificates, dedicated servers, vServers, unlimited bandwidth, storage box, domain registration, and others. Overall, Hetzner is a wise solution for those who understand the ropes of hosts’ specs and thus know what exactly they want to get from them.

Hetzner is widely used by Leoni, Autodoc, Showmax, Bitdefender, Outdooractive, etc.

Pros:

• It probably has the most affordable fees for both small and large-scale projects.
• Partnership with Dell and Intel means high quality of software.
• Is relatively scalable.
• Hetzner gives free domain and SSL.
• Support is free and available 24/7.
• It has a ready-made image, which is easy to configure.

Cons:

• Trying to reach support by phone outside of Germany may be costly.
• There is no reimbursement in case of server failure.
• It does not offer a traditional uptime guarantee.
• Hetzner provides an awkward web interface and a very limited control panel.
• They do not possess any data centers in the USA.
• Technical documentation is available only in the German language.

Plans & pricing

One of the most attractive parts of Hetzner’s is its affordability. It might turn to be truly cheap to go with Django hosting. It allows the use of web hosting with Python starting from level 9 (cx41), though. Here is the list of approximate fees as follows:

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is no less than a decent competitor to Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Service, and Azure. This cloud service platform is a reasonably good hosting provider in terms of simplicity, fast load times (with SSD storage and its 8 datacenters), and security. It also provides an intuitive interface and straightforward setup. Primarily, it’s equally good for newbies and experienced businesses with basic needs.

Lytham Labs, QuoDeck, Fanout, Accern, TaskRabbit, and numerous other organizations have been happily using DigitalOcean services for years.

Pros:

• It has a quite simple, user-friendly setup.
• The company has 9 data centers in the USA, the UK, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
• There are no hidden charges for extra services you might not know about.
• It has outstanding support around the clock.
• DigitalOcean boasts an affordable pricing policy.
• A user can get a 60-day trial of free cloud-based hosting.

Cons:

• Overall, and covering multiple aspects, DigitalOcean doesn’t have apparent shortcomings. It’s both good in terms of pricing and coverage.

Plans & pricing

Starting from $5 for monthly subscription up to $960 depending on its configurations. Considering this, we can say that this is a cheap Django hosting.

To sum it up, it’s probably the best solution for Linux developers according to price and effectiveness, even though it doesn’t offer any analytics, configuration management, or hosted databases.

Heroku

Here, you won’t find a lot of frills and fancies, but Heroku still possesses PaaS architecture, Python, Ruby, Java, and PHP support, plus add-ons and databases. It features app metrics, code and data rollback, real-time insights, GitHub Integration, and more. What distinguishes Heroku is that it provides an easy way to set up and configure elements, raising engagement and productivity. Best for small and medium-sized companies.

Pros:

• It is super easy to upload, update, and deploy a project quickly.
• It possesses data centers in the USA and Europe.
• The company provides very good support services.
• Heroku’s infrastructure is managed within Amazon’s secure data centers.
• It’s a polyglot among hosting services, so you can pick the language you need.
• It’s easy to get to the bottom of its essentials.

Cons:

• It will cost you more than other VPS if you grow bigger.
• Compatibility with app servers could be better.
• As long as Heroku provides its own infrastructure solutions, it might be challenging to switch to another server.

Plans & pricing

All the paid plans follow the pay-as-you-go model.

By and large, Heroku is extremely good to help you kickstart from the beginning but might impede at more advanced levels. It’s probably the best choice if you are aiming at simply launching a product. In our other article, we talked about the best websites made with Django.

How to Host Your Django Project: Step-by-Step Guide

When your website development is finished or at least ready to start public testing, it’s time to release it to the audience.

Read Also: Best Django Development Companies

This guide will help you to host, configure, and operate your Django website.

1. Choose a hosting provider

There are dozens of Django-friendly hosts in the global market. They offer various types of services (IaaS, PaaS) and different computing and processing capabilities, so here are some things you must consider when deciding:

• How demanding would your website or app be to computing resources?
• What is an available level of the host’s scalability?
• Where its data centers are situated?
• What is the tier of available data centers: their uptime and downtime performance?
• What additional tools does it have to monitor the server and manage your project?
• Does it have some additional customer-friendly features? For example, some hosts offer free domain names and support for TLS certificates.
• What are the host’s limitations? Some hosts offer limited places on servers or don’t work with certain services. Check it before you have a deal.

2. Get your project ready to release

It’s critical to set up settings.py and manage.py tools for your project carefully. But keep in mind that deploying different projects may also require other settings.

For example, the most vital Django website settings you must check before deployment are:

• Disable debug. You must turn off the debug feature before deploying a website. Otherwise, some confidential debug trace and variable information may be leaked.
• Hide your secret key. This value is used for CSRF protection, so making it inaccessible outside the production server is vital. It would be better if the secret key was kept in a server-only file.

3. Create a code repository on GitHub

Most hosting providers are integrated with GitHub and its version control tool. You can set it to updating when some branch or repository is changed. 

There are many ways to work with GitHub, so analyze and choose what is the most convenient for your team.

4. Configure the database

Sure, you can use SQLite — the default Django database. It’s a perfect choice for small and mid-sized companies. But be careful: some famous hostages don’t support this database.

5. Test security issues

This step is critical if your project uses sensitive or personal users’ data. Before deploying, we recommend testing the security system one more time.

6. Launch the project

When the project deployment is done, you can access your application. Carefully monitor the app’s performance, user trips, and feedback to ensure it works as it should.

Free Django Hosting Providers

It’s also possible to host a Django project for free. Some hostings offer free subscriptions if you deploy a small website or an app that doesn’t require much computing power.

Here are three such hosting providers:

AWS Free tier

AWS hosting has a few free options. First is a 12-month free period for new users, which includes the most popular AWS features: 5 GB for storage, 1 TB of data transfer, 750 hours of computing per month, and All available features for data analysis, machine learning, management tools, security, IoT, and others.

Even when the 12-month free period ended, users had plenty of free options: storage, developer tools, calculating powers, databases, etc. For small projects, it’s enough.

Googiehost

Googiehost free options are usually used to host blogs and single-page websites; they are fully compatible with the Django framework.

Free storage size is limited to 1000 MB and may not be enough to host the Django app, but it is still okay for websites. Still, it offers free SSL certification, 100 GB bandwidth, two MySQL databases, two FTP accounts, and 99% uptime.

Vultr

Vultr Cloud Compute opened its free plan in 2023, but it has become popular now. They give all users 10 GB of storage, 0,5 GB RAM, one vCPU, and 2 TB of global bandwidth.

Vultr is fully compatible with the Django framework. Moreover, its free subscription is enough to host a Django app or even a full-fledged and multifunctional website.

Wrap it Up

It is a big deal to pick best web hosting for Django for yourself. Through trials and errors, you can, however, come to terms with the most suitable kind for your specific needs.

So, if you are yet to find your own best hosting for Django website, let’s take a look at the essentials of a robust host:

• scalability that allows for customization;
• solid technical support you can reach no matter what;
• secure site certification to ensure reliability;
• free domains at your disposal;
• money-back guarantee for higher reliability;
• multiple servers in different countries.

These features are not all completely standard, yet they might give you a hint if this or that host is worth trying. Overall, we recommend you take a closer look at these Django-compatible providers and pick those that most suit your business size, aim, background, and personal preferences.

	AWS	Azure	Google Cloud	Hetzner	DigitalOcean	Heroku
Available locations  (click for more info)	26 geographic regions 84 zones	54 regions 41 zones	34 regions 103 zones	3 regions 4 zones	8 regions 13 zones	8 regions 6 regions with private spaces
Terraform	AWS Provider	Azure	GCP	Hetzner Provider	DigitalOcean	Heroku Provider
Data sources	124	56	38	8	12	4
Resources	479	186	155	7	15	21
VPS (VDS)*
Name	T3.small	A1 v2	G1-small	CX11	–	Standard
Monthly fee   (730 hours)	~$17.52	~$29.93	~$18.60	€2.49	$10	from $25 (if CPU= 2 GB)
Hourly fee	$0.024	$0.041	~$0,025	€0.004	$0.015
CPU	2	1	1	1	1	The system differs a lot and, thus, is tough to compare
Mem**	2 GB	2 GB	1.7 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Disk	should be purchased	10 GB	10 GB SSD	20 GB SSD	50 GB
Traffiс	pay as you go	pay as you go	pay as you go	20 TB	2 TB
Free deals	Some features can be used for free to a certain point	–	Some features can be used for free	–	It does have promo codes	Has a simple free plan

* VPS prices are taken for Germany as each service works in this region
** Comparison of CPU performed for minimal rates

In taking stock of these Python & Django-compatible web hosting services, it is vital to emphasize that they tap potential at different levels. While you can go with Heroku and DigitalOcean in the middle or even entry-level, Hetzner might need you to be savvier. The same goes for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Services: with a wide range of features and hefty fees, these are better for bigger companies with advanced needs.

If you need to consult on developing your Django project, including the choice of hosting, let the Django Stars team know.