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Cheap Servlet Hosting?
deander2 asks: "I'm a Web developer specializing in Java servlets. I'm looking for a basic Web-hosting solution that can (cheaply) provide e-mail and the ability to test and run my own personal programs. However, everywhere I go the only packages available with servlet options cost $80+/month, MUCH more than justified for a personal Web site. I ask Slashdot: Are there any hosting companies which offer personal Web hosting with servlet capabilities in the sub $20/month category? Am I asking too much here? Is getting a corporate account the only way to go if I want to show off my work?"
Most servlet hosting companies are using a shared VM for all of their hosted accounts. This is really, really bad. If any one account's code crashes, everyone's account goes with it.
It's also extremely insecure to have people sharing the memory space.
This is easily worked around if the hosting company uses JServ, knows about servlet zones and has a boatload of RAM to devote to each account, which is where the expense comes in. To have a secure environment to run your servlets in you need your own chunk of 16+ megs of RAM, which gets pretty expensive for the hosting company.
I've used HostPro http://www.hostpro.com before and found them to be pretty reliable and they have decent features. You get servlets, 200MB space, plus mySQL access for something like $40/mo with a $40 setup.
I used them to actually run a commerical site, but for personal development I just got an old P90 and put RedHat, Apache, jserv and mySQL on it to test my stuff with. It was much easier being able to do anything I wanted to the server and DB for testing, plus I had like 4 GB of space. If you have the time and don't need reliable or fast access, I'd suggest you go that route.
Jason