Platform.sh

Platform.sh is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution for web hosting. After being impressed by the setup while working with a local Perth based business hosting their Magento 2 website with it, I dediced to migrate most our clients who at the time resided on our Linode servers. While our Linode setup was stable and had almost zero downtime I’m conscious as a small company of the sole responsibility of hosting a companies web business without any other support avenues if something was to happen and no one easily available. e.g. I’m on a long haul flight.

While our security game with Linode was good Platform.sh mounts the projects code on a read only file system adding another layer of security which can be difficult to normally achieve. Things have liked with Platform.sh:

• Security is good
• Spinning up test environments is a breeze
• Deployments are easy and I have them triggered by Jenkins
• Support has generally been fast and friendly
• Performance has been good

Negatives:

• The complexity of their own internal infrastructure sometimes has created more down time than may experience if self hosted. However, It does feel the trend over the last couple years has been less and less.
• Costs and “spec” don’t follow the traditional hosting model, so some clients have been difficult to convince to migrate as they think in terms only of how many GB of memory and CPUs and not in terms of security, actual speed and development ease.

Coupled with CloudFlare Pro accounts and a carefully configured Web Application Firewall. Platform.sh is a good option for small/medium agencies and consultants who need to host client websites with peace of mind and good performance and security.