Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It is very expensive to work with Grails

Just to make disclaimer immediately at the beginning. I don't really thing that working with Grails is really expensive, I would display it as expensive from the funny point of view.

This post is more advertisement then real post. So if you don't want just don't read it.

Small ad. One of my latest expenses, please have a look at http://www.flexiblefeeds.com.

So lets go to the point. Some time ago I discovered Grails. I tried to write few simple applications. Then I tried to write more complex applications. Then I was investigating advance features.
And very soon, less than a month after discovery, I realized that one is able to write real web applications with Grails more or less within minutes.

But if writing web applications is so easy, why not create real web application and put it on line. And there came the first idea. I wrote http://www.grailstutorials.com, payed subscription 20$/month and put it online. Visitors are coming, site is I believe well known within Grails/Groovy community so it stays online and I am still paying 20$/month. But these money can not be compared with satisfaction having real, visited web site online.

But writing web applications with Grails is still easy. So why not try another application. I implemented (actually still implementing) http://www.flexiblefeeds.com, payed subscription 20$/month and put it online.

Now I have two Grails based applications online, still trying to improve both of them. More or less I have idea about two or three more projects that I want to implement with Grails. What I am missing is time.

So why is it expensive to work with Grails:
  • You develop web applications very fast so you will need lot of money to pay web hosting
  • You develop web applications very fast so you will need most of your free time just to try all ideas you get
  • Grails is growing so fast that you will need lot of free time just to read all the blogs and nice things you can do with groovy/grails
So if you don't want to write web applications fast and easy just ignore Grails. If you want to write web applications fast and easy than it would be wise to try Grails.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post. What hosting provider are you using? $20 a month is quite affordable.

Thanks!

jan said...

I am using eapps.com and am very happy with them.

Amr Ellafy said...

great! I don't think there are effortable hosting plans for any java-based web solutions

Anonymous said...

You are insatiable. Maybe next time you'll complain about lacing up boots for time saved by Grails.

http://gfrison.com

Roshan Shrestha said...

I use kgbinternet.com for my web application PilotPal.com


Are you paying $20 each for your two application, or are you paying $20 for both?

jan said...

I am paying 20$/month for each application.

20$/month is actually price for one hosting plan and I have one hosting plan for each application.

Anonymous said...

This is the *biggest* issue continuing to hold back adoption of Java apps in the public web space. And it should be addressed. For too long the opinion of Java 'elite' is that "Java is for *enterprise* apps". Well, guess what? Many smaller companies that start off with Ruby/PHP/whatever (because hosting and hosting expertise is prevalent everywhere) *grow in to* large enterprises. I know of multiple companies right in my local area that have grown in to multi-million dollar concerns and have done it via PHP.

If that's not 'enterprise' level (100+ people, 8 figure income), then the definition of 'enterprise' is in danger of being redefined to the point where 'enterprise' ends up meaning *only* the Fortune 500, and eventually, enterprise will become a synonym for 'legacy'.

Grails, especially with the Spring acquisition, has an opportunity to address the low-end shared hosting market. It may be decided that it's "not worth it" by many people, but ignoring the low end encourages developers to continue to adopt non-Java tech for web development.

Dale said...

Just wondering about eapps and hosting plans. You had to pick the $20 plan (versus $10) for Java and Tomcat right? Any cheaper options out there? $20 is very reasonable, but I'm thinking of experimenting with a few apps where they talk to each other with services. So I wouldn't really need a lot of space or bandwidth requirements for each.

jan said...

@Dale
Yes due the Tomcat and Java I had to buy 20$ plan. And I believe this is good price for resources I get.
There are little bit cheaper plans for Java and Tomcat but you don't get enough resources for real applications.