Where should I host our team's software for free download?
January 19, 2015 1:57 PM Subscribe
We have a website. It is a simple WordPress install. We have software for Mac, PC, Android, and iOS. The last two game clients are handled by Large Companies With A Cloud. The first two are just on our webserver and this is not a good long-term plan. Where is the best place to post these game clients?
BitTorrent et al is not an option as most of our potential users won't really know what it is. We're just looking for a place that isn't filled with malware/scamware ads (though of course there will be ads).
BitTorrent et al is not an option as most of our potential users won't really know what it is. We're just looking for a place that isn't filled with malware/scamware ads (though of course there will be ads).
Amazon S3 seems like an obvious choice for the files themselves. I've seen some developers share software via Dropbox, and they have decentish per-user bandwidth limits (20GB per day on free accounts, 200GB per day on paid ones) though that's a more rough and ready option.
I don't see any reason why you'd need to go to Softonic or Download.com or all of those software aggregator / syndicator portal sites that are plastered in ads and have a stale whiff of the early 2000s. Host your own software; put it where storage and bandwidth's cheapest.
posted by holgate at 2:13 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't see any reason why you'd need to go to Softonic or Download.com or all of those software aggregator / syndicator portal sites that are plastered in ads and have a stale whiff of the early 2000s. Host your own software; put it where storage and bandwidth's cheapest.
posted by holgate at 2:13 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: It has been a while since I've had to worry about this side of web design and development -- AWS has gotten much easier to deal with than before. Thanks. =)
posted by andreaazure at 2:43 PM on January 19, 2015
posted by andreaazure at 2:43 PM on January 19, 2015
The usual solution to this is to use a CDN like CloudFlare. They cache the data so your servers don't get hammered, and charge a modest fee for bandwidth (less than your web host would).
CloudFlare is a bit coy about their actual prices, but Amazon's CDN is CloudFront, which appears to be 8.5 cents per GB, while S3 by itself is 9 cents per GB. (This is a bit confusing, but CloudFront goes "in front of" S3, and since Amazon doesn't charge for data going from S3 to CloudFront, you only end up paying for CloudFront bandwidth. There are also fees for large numbers of HTTP requests and large amounts of online storage, but you're unlikely to bump up against those.)
This isn't really a huge price difference for moderate bandwidth usage, so it's probably simplest to just stick with S3, especially since you can probably get away with just the free tier (and if you go over, Amazon will just charge you the overage instead of cutting you off).
posted by neckro23 at 10:28 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
CloudFlare is a bit coy about their actual prices, but Amazon's CDN is CloudFront, which appears to be 8.5 cents per GB, while S3 by itself is 9 cents per GB. (This is a bit confusing, but CloudFront goes "in front of" S3, and since Amazon doesn't charge for data going from S3 to CloudFront, you only end up paying for CloudFront bandwidth. There are also fees for large numbers of HTTP requests and large amounts of online storage, but you're unlikely to bump up against those.)
This isn't really a huge price difference for moderate bandwidth usage, so it's probably simplest to just stick with S3, especially since you can probably get away with just the free tier (and if you go over, Amazon will just charge you the overage instead of cutting you off).
posted by neckro23 at 10:28 PM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by DarlingBri at 2:12 PM on January 19, 2015 [2 favorites]