

Show HN: Static web hosting, CMS, and now blogging - dbla
http://900dpi.com

======
Osmium
Looks like a great service. Just tried the CMS and it works beautifully; much
better than the only other similar CMS I've tried (CushyCMS–which requires
SFTP).

Perhaps a niche request, but are there any plans to add HTTP basic access
authentication to select pages? I'm currently running a super simple static
site for a research group, and I need a way to make a semi-private web page.
Nothing properly 'secure' but more a method to prevent casual snooping. (I
could set up my own web server, but I need to set up a website/system that
other people are still able to look after once I leave.)

~~~
dbla
That's a great question. We're at an interesting spot where we have to decide
whether we want to stick with our basic service and become a company that
provides really good hosting and services for small-business websites, or if
we want to take on the giant behemoth that is WordPress, while still trying to
hold on the the simplicity of the concept. If we go the second route then
we'll be building out a plugin system that would definitely make it possible
to build something like you described.

In the mean time, our blogging system has the ability to create unpublished
posts that are only visible to content editors (individuals that you invite to
manage the website). It's kind of a hacky solution but it might work for you.

~~~
silentrob
@DBLA, It is great to see more services like this. I'm one of the guys behind
Harp.js and Harp Platform. We have a lot in common! Basic Auth was a question
that came up all the time and wasn't to challenging to add, as well as lock in
- which was addressed by Open Source. Hope it goes well.

~~~
dbla
I'm a big fan of what you guys have accomplished with Harp and really respect
the decision to go open source. Great job!

------
elyase
Really well thought product, I can attest that this responds to the basic
needs of a typical web design shop. A couple questions:

1-Does billing work internationally? I imagine you probably accept CC but is
there any associated fee?

2-I see you have a blog an a team of 4, but, is there any other guarantee you
can give related to your stability as a service before I start switching
clients?

3-Can I bill a custom amount(more than 5 USD) every month (to account for
support, etc)

~~~
dbla
Thanks for the questions.

1-Yes we're using Stripe and a good chunk of our current customer base is
international.

2-This is a tough one for a start-up, and it's certainly a question we've
gotten before. If we were to promise to open source the software if we ever
shut down the service would that be sufficient? It's not a promise we have
made yet, but I think it's something we could commit to.

3-Great idea! No, but this is something we should build out. I'm adding it to
our dev backlog.

------
JosephRedfern
"No need for FTP, SSH or any other three letter acronyms." \- other than DPI,
I suppose!

~~~
dbla
Haha good point! We are actually considering supporting FTP as well at some
point but we're still investigating to see if it's something our customer base
would like. That sentence might need some tweaking soon.

------
moinuddinkmu
[http://getsimplesite.com](http://getsimplesite.com) is a very good CMS which
is very help full for designers. And these people also develop websites in a
good price and website is of good quality.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
Hmmm... any interest to declare?

~~~
themegamind
Tried the trial version of getsimplesite.com. It looks quite fast and cheap.
Models look wonderful to accept/display content on website dynamically.

------
funkyy
Just to make this clear - are the files hosted on your platform, or on
dropbox? And what are the limits of your free accounts (if any)?

I see your site says you offer hosting - but I am getting confused a bit as
there is no complete feature list on your website - just lengthy
documentation.

Do you have some traffic limits?

Do you have bandwidth cap/space cap?

Are pictures etc. hosted on dropbox or your servers?

Congrats on front page and good luck!

------
8ig8
>Add the "900-edit" class to any element

I was under the impression that class names could not begin with a digit. Some
discussion on it here...

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/448981/what-characters-
ar...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/448981/what-characters-are-valid-in-
css-class-selectors)

~~~
NewsReader42
Classnames cannot begin with a digit, an oversight these bafoons have not
clicked on yet

------
moinuddinkmu
Simple Site frees you from the restrictions imposed by your hosted content
management system. It allows you to run arbitrary javascript on the server to
build your website. As a developer this means you don't have to jump through
the hoops of a templating language forced upon you by your CMS.

------
stickhandle
I always find these kinds of projects interesting ... then inevitably I'm
reminded that having a server is a playground and can be fun. NGINX is easy
(for 80 of 80/20 part anyway). SFTP/SSH too.

------
tiffanyh
@dbla

Your pricing goes from $5/mo. to Call us for pricing.

Call us for pricing implies super expensive.

That seems like a big jump in pricing.

Just my 2 cents.

~~~
dbla
You're right. We really need to work on our pricing model. Thanks for the
suggestion!

------
bsmith
Aaron & team, congrats on the front page! You guys should do a HN
traffic/signup teardown for us after a few days have passed. I would love to
see your numbers!

~~~
dbla
Will do!

------
pizza_boy
Very similar to CloudCannon
([http://cloudcannon.com/](http://cloudcannon.com/))

------
NewsReader42
They claim fast - all of the websites in "Powered by" are painfully slow.

~~~
dbla
Care to elaborate? I ran some tests and page speeds seem to be quite a bit
faster than what google reports as their global average. Short write-up here:
[http://900dpi.com/blog/Tech-Talk/How-fast-is-900dpi-We-
put-o...](http://900dpi.com/blog/Tech-Talk/How-fast-is-900dpi-We-put-
ourselves-to-the-test)!

