Do you host development with a hoster or in your home office

Question

When you are developing at home and need to cooperate with others, do you open up your homenetwork, or do you rent a virtual server somewhere?

Where are good places to look?

Can you get around Microsoft license costs with trial versions and SQL Express editions the way you can at home?

I think requirements are a bit different than a live hosting when it comes to security, uptime, traffic, geography etc. Also it should be virtual servers rented by month.

This is for low budget WLAMP, sometimes ASP.NET/SQL Server development.

• Added * Practically I only have laptops at home. So if I wanted to do this from home I would have to buy a home server, I might do that anyway, but in principle it should be better to rent what I need out there. Though at home I do everything with free and trial versions (Windows 7 for example).

I need to actually run on the server, easily set up databases and new web sites etc. I need Subversion both out of the server and internally on the server.

Answer 1

It depends on what subsystems you want to open up. Generally speaking, for development you need a bug tracker and a version control system running. This requires nothing more but an average PC and an external IP address (plus possibly hardware router at your house).

Answer 2

It depends on the project: for personal project it's ok running a home based network. You talk about low budget, a development you get paid for. So the budget should contain costs for the development environment. Then try to get the best tools for that money (or even a little more). That means look for a hoster with good reputation and a wide range of products (backup, restore, changing OS). I never had hired a craftsman that use a 20$ WalMart drilling machine.

Answer 3

I would recommend using an external service.

Your job as a developer is to develop, not administer servers/services. Using an external service would allow you to focus on development work and not worry about uptime, security, and what nots.

There are plenty of free services available. I don't have any specific recommendations but Google is a good place to start looking.