Ask HN: Windows Hosting for Multiple Side Projects

[Jackypot]

I have a few side projects which I am tinkering with and am ready to launch MVPs for. Everything is written in dotnet core MVC. Ideally I would like to have my own server and run each site behind IIS as a reverse proxy (do this at work, familiar with it). I also like being able to spin-up/decommission sites quickly and easily, and a dedicated VM would allow me to do that. I also want to run SqlExpress locally on the same box for the sites to talk to, which you don't get with e.g. Azure App Service, nor do I want to have to administer each one separately.

Running a non-minuscule Windows VM in Azure seems to cost around $90 per month which seems pricey to me, when that over the course of a year would pay for a server with similar spec twice over. But, I don't want to touch a physical machine here.

Is hosting multiple sites on a dedicated VM the wrong approach here? Anyone else running multiple sites on windows have a better hosting solution?

[karmakaze]

Is there any particular reason why dotnet core and perhaps SQLite (or PostgreSQL) couldn't be used in place of SqlExpress and run the app on Linux?

[Jackypot → karmakaze]

Nothing in particular, I guess just because of the learning curve - I'm MSFT top-to-bottom so I would have to learn how to e.g set SQLite up and find tools to administer it (as opposed to SSMS which I can use with my eyes closed). It just seems much easier to have a windows box to tinker on, but then I guess they know that and it's why it's so expensive in Azure.

[karmakaze → Jackypot]

I suspect that the amount of learning required is overestimated and avoided just due to it being an unknown. It shouldn't be much more than learning to use SQLite or PostgreSQL for the first time on another platform.

One thing I'm really looking forward to, and beginning to see is the bridging of the Linux and MS worlds. I'm sure one you've done it, you could write a great blog post for others who didn't realize that this could be easily done.

[fxfan]

Hetzner?