You want to create a quick prototype of a web application, site or service. Where to host it. If you are a web company, this is trivial, you probably have a bunch of developer servers. If you are a micro-ISV, you probably have servers as well. But in some situations I find it useful to have independent servers for prototyping. Here is my choice.
If you program in Python or Java, and do not need SQL database, use Google App Engine. It is free until you have heavy traffic. Prototypes rarely do. It allows for both Java and Python code to run. GAE, as Google App Engine is popularly known, has had it share of uptime and other issues in the past. That made some developers leave GAE. Warranted or not, it could only be the issue for a production system. For prototype it is as great is it comes.
If you develop in ASP.NET, use DiscountASP.NET. They are not free, but 5 USD/month. It was 10 when I used them when I was into ASP.NET. I used them for almost all my clients. They rock. And a lot of developers seems to like it enough to make it community choice year after year.
I am not sure what to use for PHP. There must be a lot of choices out there. Please comment and recommend.
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