I just finished my Django App. All these months, I have been running the app on a local server using
python manage.py runserver
and it ran on 127.0.0.1 and was accessible only to my computer. Now that I am finished my app, I want it to be accessible to the world. I tried researching how to deploy my django app, and probably like most people in my situation, I am now completely lost. The words 'WSGI, AWS, WebFaction, Domain, Web hosting, Shared hosting, servers, VPS Vendor, RackSpace, Apache2 etc' are all flying around my head.
The first post I cam across was this one: How to setup Django website in Amazon EC2 hosting?
The post says Amazon EC2 servers are good, but recommends WebFaction / Dreamhost instead. I decide to pick Amazon EC2 instead of WebFaction / DreamHost. I google about Amazon EC2, and then I find myself reading comparisons about AWS and VPS Vendors like RackSpace. I then agree to use Amazon EC2 instead of RackSpace. Then I thought to myself, where exactly do I buy the domain name from? I know that goDaddy is really popular for hosting domians so I look into that and I realize that godaddy doesn't support Django. I google'd which web hosting companies support Django, and I came across WebFaction again. So wait, I use WebFaction to register the domain and Amazon to host the site? I look at the prices for WebFaction and they give prices for bandwidth, disk space, server location etc. I google the price for AWS and they talk about the exact same thing: server location, space etc. At this point, I don't even know if WebFaction and AWS accomplish the same thing and if I am supposed to pick one or the other, or if WebFaction is for simply hosting the domain and AWS for the server? I then decide to research about servers, hoping to come across a post of how Amazon servers work and their relation with domain hosting sites. Instead, I find myself reading about Apache. Hm, so Apache is now another option? I google the relationship between the Apache server and AWS, and find that I can set up Apache on AWS? So do I need WebFaction, AWS and Apache to deploy my Django app?
I tried doing more research about deploying a Django app and came across a post talking about WSGI. It seems as if the more research I do, the more confused I get. So this is where I need your help:
The Django Application is basically a 'Blog' site which allows users to create accounts, upload images, comment and like images, follow other users, make posts (which consist of only text and images), comment on posts and like posts.
The Django Application is directed to an audience of about 1500 users (I'm estimating about 1500 users within the first two months). The application will be put up on the Android and iPhone app store as well (through WebView). My hostOS is windows 8 but I downloaded a VM (which runs Lubuntu) and did all my Django stuff in Lubuntu using Django 1.5, Python 2.7 and had to install PIL and Pillow as well. I used a PostgreSQL database. With all these details, how should I host my site?
I don't want to say 'Which servers should I use' because then some will say 'Amazon', some will say 'DreamHost', some might say 'Buy a domain and then user Amazon' and some might even start talking about WSGI and Apache to make me really confused.
What steps do I need to take to host my 1500 user application? Once the application hits 1500 users and starts going higher than that, then I will think about switching to a larger server, but for the first 1500 users, where should I buy the domain name and host the site? The site needs to be live within the next 3 weeks (so if a VPS vendor or Amazon EC2 is highly recommend, I can take out an entire week to learn about them). I just want to know if there is a more recommended, simpler solution rather than jumping right into a VPS vendor or buying a Domain and using Amazon EC2 server.
Edit: Should this go on ServerFault instead?
There are several layers here that you all need, but it can be confusing at first. To set up a Django site in a production environment, you're going to need:
A hosting service gives you access to server hardware. You rent a physical server or a virtual environment on a physical server. Most hosting platforms include domain name registration and managing DNS records, but some might require you to seek these services elsewhere.
In order for the server to actually serve a http response upon receiving a request, it has to run a webserver process. Apache and Nginx are such webservers. WSGI is the standard that allows webservers to communicate with Python applications. You'll need an implementation of this in order to connect to your Django application. Some choices are gunicorn, uWSGI and Apache's mod_wsgi.
With this information you should be able to understand most articles explaining how to deploy a Django application. Everything except the part about WSGI is also applicable to any other website, not just Django.