Trust me, Heroku is not costly compared to setting up a server:
$ git push master heroku
is a lot cheaper then:
Setup a machine. Then setup mysql, nginx, REE 1.8.6, or did you go with MRI 1.9.1? You're not gonna launch on Rails3 right? Because then you can't do 1.9.1, you have to go to 1.9.2. And you know how to setup nginx to pipe requests through to a Rails app. Are you going with Passenger or Unicorn? Oh make sure to bring up another machine to act as a MySQL slave. You know how to do that right? And you're dumping your DB to disk and backing up to S3 regularly right. Just write a simple script/cron job to handle that. And when you setup your machines you made sure to setup 2 so that if one goes down, the other will still be around, and you setup a load balancer that will realize when one of those machines goes down right?
I could write a similarly disingenuous how-to on using linux and vi to write c vs writing visual basic on my HP desktop from costco.
Is there a learning curve to mastering these things? Of course. But there is a huge reward in learning them. Otherwise, woe be unto you the first time you want to do something heroku does not allow (or gets acquired, or folds up, etc etc etc).
Those aren't the same thing at all. You can't write C in visual basic. The guy you were responding to was comparing what it would take to get your application working with Heroku vs. what it would take to set up your own server providing some of the same services that Heroku does.
If you were trying to set up a similar question, it'd have to be more like: "Should I use gcc or should I write my own C compiler?" Clearly the correct answer here is "Use gcc" if you're trying to get work done, but that doesn't mean nobody should ever write their own compiler, either. It's just not the right choice for most people, even though I'm sure there is a huge reward in learning how to do it.
Exactly right - and even if you CAN setup your own VPS it doesn't necessarily make it a valuable use of your time. I've setup probably 3 slices for various projects and it's annoying/time-consuming enough that I use Heroku now.
Also - their free plan levels the playing field a bit on price since it's free the entire time you are developing and up until you have a handful of users. On a VPS you pay up front for that.
Setting up your own server gives you full flexibility as to your application architecture/tech stack. Want to go with Redis? Tokyo Cabinet? MogileFS? S3? A pile of files in a zillion small directories? something else? Your choice.
If your startup has any challenging technical elements, I think having 100% full control over your app architecture is quite important. You can live without it, but it's a potentially costly trade-off.
Granted, but if your team doesn't have experience setting up a server, I question whether they have the required skills to run a startup's technology. A startup CTO should be able to set up a server reasonably quickly, effectively, and securely...
$ git push master heroku
is a lot cheaper then:
Setup a machine. Then setup mysql, nginx, REE 1.8.6, or did you go with MRI 1.9.1? You're not gonna launch on Rails3 right? Because then you can't do 1.9.1, you have to go to 1.9.2. And you know how to setup nginx to pipe requests through to a Rails app. Are you going with Passenger or Unicorn? Oh make sure to bring up another machine to act as a MySQL slave. You know how to do that right? And you're dumping your DB to disk and backing up to S3 regularly right. Just write a simple script/cron job to handle that. And when you setup your machines you made sure to setup 2 so that if one goes down, the other will still be around, and you setup a load balancer that will realize when one of those machines goes down right?
etc.... :)