6 ms·

WordPress on Heroku

80 points by tiefenb 12y ago

andreash 12y ago
pros and cons vs wpengine.com?
- swombat 12y ago
  One obvious con will be that you have to set it up yourself while WPEngine is hands-off.
  - thenomad 12y ago
    Also, WP Engine do all the updates for you, which is not the case for this setup. That's one of the major reasons I run most of my WP sites on a managed service - I'm a bit too busy to keep on top of all the updates that come out.
- nly 12y ago
  Price maybe? $29/mo is pretty expensive for a personal blog.
  - wodenokoto 12y ago
    It's not the type of website that decides what hosting price is expensive, it is the amount of visitors. If your site is visited enough to require non-trivial optimization, then 30 dollars a month is probably the least of your worries.
gottarts 12y ago
any performance comparison?
- tiefenb 12y ago
  yup here vs. LAMP: http://www.xyu.io/2014/06/wordpress-on-nginx-hhvm-with-heroku-buildpacks/ http://www.xyu.io/2014/06/wordpress-on-nginx-hhvm-with-herok...
  - gottarts 12y ago
    Nice article, thx
javipas 12y ago
So Heroku makes the setup pretty automatic, right? Otherwise you'd have to setup and configure each of those elements one by one, right?
brian_herman 12y ago
I would love to see a performance comparison with php-ng and this setup. https://wiki.php.net/phpng https://wiki.php.net/phpng
sirji 12y ago
Will this work on the Free plan
- tiefenb 12y ago
  yes, I think so
hashtree 12y ago
Where content is semi-static (e.g. blogs, informational sites like WebMD, sites in which the information updates infrequently on a per-page level), we have flipped the approach/architecture and it has proven to be a HUGE boon for us. With the approach, we get performance that is essentially unmatched via any traditional server setup, nearly unlimited read scalability, vastly reduced infrastructure costs, improved usability for end users with direct benefits to engagement and SEO, and much more. It certainly is not a fit for every site. For instance, Twitter could not work at all this way. But, for semi-static sites it works like a charm: - Host all content via CDNs, which is dynamically managed via backend servers (see below). - Allow user interactivity via events being pushed to pub/sub event servers. On the other side, in other DCs entirely, are the more traditional servers which await said events. Said events are processed, aggregated, and then pushed back up, via CDN APIs, to the CDN servers. - Use eventual consistency concepts to simulate real-time interactivity for users. For instance, when a user posts a review/comment we show it client-side to them, knowing that the CDN update should be coming momentarily. Besides the pub/sub servers, servers can be housed just about anywhere across the globe (latency isn't a huge issue any longer). If you are based in the US, you might be surprised to find out just how competitive/cheap the European market is for servers. Previously, it would have been insane to consider them, but now we can leverage them for a large reduction in costs. For example, compare Rackspace dedicated servers to OVH dedicated servers. It is roughly one order of magnitude less costly.
- anonymousDan 12y ago
  This sounds interesting. What are you using for your pubsub servers might I ask? And what are the scalability and fault-tolerance requirements on them? Are pub/sub servers in different data centres essentially independent with consistency handled by other servers colocated in an origin datacenter?
- warrenm 12y ago
  I've been using servers wherever they're cheapest for some time - currently I run most of my work out of Germany, with spin-up/spin-down of ad hoc systems from various cloud providers, distributed around the world
dangoldin 12y ago
Another suggestion is to use Varnish. It's extremely easy to set up and just put in front of your Wordpress install, regardless of whether you're using Nginx/Apache.
- cheald 12y ago
  Unlike most technologies which promise it, Varnish is magical webscale sauce. It's awesome.
  - dangoldin 12y ago
    Definitely. Only thing I wish is being able to use logic other than regex to handle which urls get cached and which don't.
thisisdallas 12y ago
Why not add MariaDB to that also?
matthijs_ 12y ago
A credit card entered @ Heroku is required in order to do this. It won't be billed if you follow the readme.
- ihuman 12y ago
  For which parts would you need to enter a credit card? The addons? I've used Heroku for some assorted Ruby and Python programs, but I have not had to enter a credit card. However, what I have done has only scratched the surface of what Heroku offers, so I am not surprised if I missed the the parts that require credit card info.
  - matthijs_ 12y ago
    When I tried to add cleardb, it said I had to fill in the CC information
jsmoov 12y ago
An alternative that worked well for me and seems a bit more streamlined to install: http://mchung.github.io/heroku-buildpack-wordpress/ http://mchung.github.io/heroku-buildpack-wordpress/
- fjcaetano 12y ago
  I'm also using it and it works perfectly for me: http://blog.flaviocaetano.com http://blog.flaviocaetano.com (no spam intended)
dylanlacom 12y ago
Where is the wp-admin directory and the files in wp-includes?
- andrewryno 12y ago
  It's installed through Composer. In composer.json it sets up a custom repository to download the latest version of WordPress, and then uses the "extra" section to install it to a custom directory (in this case the public directory).
  - dylanlacom 12y ago
    ah I see. Thanks andrewryno.
aalamir 12y ago
For easier experimentation, I have created a Terminal.com snapshot with this setup. https://atharwat.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/wordpress-on-terminal-com/ https://atharwat.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/wordpress-on-termi...
- ljlolel 12y ago
  No credit card required!
drunkcatsdgaf 12y ago
you could always use heroku's postgres instead of mysql, avoiding having to put in a CC.

WordPress on Heroku

80 points by tiefenb 12y ago

andreash 12y ago

pros and cons vs wpengine.com?

swombat 12y ago
One obvious con will be that you have to set it up yourself while WPEngine is hands-off.
- thenomad 12y ago
  Also, WP Engine do all the updates for you, which is not the case for this setup. That's one of the major reasons I run most of my WP sites on a managed service - I'm a bit too busy to keep on top of all the updates that come out.
nly 12y ago
Price maybe? $29/mo is pretty expensive for a personal blog.
- wodenokoto 12y ago
  It's not the type of website that decides what hosting price is expensive, it is the amount of visitors. If your site is visited enough to require non-trivial optimization, then 30 dollars a month is probably the least of your worries.

gottarts 12y ago

any performance comparison?

tiefenb 12y ago
yup here vs. LAMP: http://www.xyu.io/2014/06/wordpress-on-nginx-hhvm-with-heroku-buildpacks/ http://www.xyu.io/2014/06/wordpress-on-nginx-hhvm-with-herok...
- gottarts 12y ago
  Nice article, thx

javipas 12y ago

So Heroku makes the setup pretty automatic, right? Otherwise you'd have to setup and configure each of those elements one by one, right?

brian_herman 12y ago

I would love to see a performance comparison with php-ng and this setup. https://wiki.php.net/phpng https://wiki.php.net/phpng

sirji 12y ago

Will this work on the Free plan

tiefenb 12y ago
yes, I think so

hashtree 12y ago

Where content is semi-static (e.g. blogs, informational sites like WebMD, sites in which the information updates infrequently on a per-page level), we have flipped the approach/architecture and it has proven to be a HUGE boon for us. With the approach, we get performance that is essentially unmatched via any traditional server setup, nearly unlimited read scalability, vastly reduced infrastructure costs, improved usability for end users with direct benefits to engagement and SEO, and much more. It certainly is not a fit for every site. For instance, Twitter could not work at all this way. But, for semi-static sites it works like a charm: - Host all content via CDNs, which is dynamically managed via backend servers (see below). - Allow user interactivity via events being pushed to pub/sub event servers. On the other side, in other DCs entirely, are the more traditional servers which await said events. Said events are processed, aggregated, and then pushed back up, via CDN APIs, to the CDN servers. - Use eventual consistency concepts to simulate real-time interactivity for users. For instance, when a user posts a review/comment we show it client-side to them, knowing that the CDN update should be coming momentarily. Besides the pub/sub servers, servers can be housed just about anywhere across the globe (latency isn't a huge issue any longer). If you are based in the US, you might be surprised to find out just how competitive/cheap the European market is for servers. Previously, it would have been insane to consider them, but now we can leverage them for a large reduction in costs. For example, compare Rackspace dedicated servers to OVH dedicated servers. It is roughly one order of magnitude less costly.

anonymousDan 12y ago
This sounds interesting. What are you using for your pubsub servers might I ask? And what are the scalability and fault-tolerance requirements on them? Are pub/sub servers in different data centres essentially independent with consistency handled by other servers colocated in an origin datacenter?
warrenm 12y ago
I've been using servers wherever they're cheapest for some time - currently I run most of my work out of Germany, with spin-up/spin-down of ad hoc systems from various cloud providers, distributed around the world

dangoldin 12y ago

Another suggestion is to use Varnish. It's extremely easy to set up and just put in front of your Wordpress install, regardless of whether you're using Nginx/Apache.

cheald 12y ago
Unlike most technologies which promise it, Varnish is magical webscale sauce. It's awesome.
- dangoldin 12y ago
  Definitely. Only thing I wish is being able to use logic other than regex to handle which urls get cached and which don't.

thisisdallas 12y ago

Why not add MariaDB to that also?

matthijs_ 12y ago

A credit card entered @ Heroku is required in order to do this. It won't be billed if you follow the readme.

ihuman 12y ago
For which parts would you need to enter a credit card? The addons? I've used Heroku for some assorted Ruby and Python programs, but I have not had to enter a credit card. However, what I have done has only scratched the surface of what Heroku offers, so I am not surprised if I missed the the parts that require credit card info.
- matthijs_ 12y ago
  When I tried to add cleardb, it said I had to fill in the CC information

jsmoov 12y ago

An alternative that worked well for me and seems a bit more streamlined to install: http://mchung.github.io/heroku-buildpack-wordpress/ http://mchung.github.io/heroku-buildpack-wordpress/

fjcaetano 12y ago
I'm also using it and it works perfectly for me: http://blog.flaviocaetano.com http://blog.flaviocaetano.com (no spam intended)

dylanlacom 12y ago

Where is the wp-admin directory and the files in wp-includes?

andrewryno 12y ago
It's installed through Composer. In composer.json it sets up a custom repository to download the latest version of WordPress, and then uses the "extra" section to install it to a custom directory (in this case the public directory).
- dylanlacom 12y ago
  ah I see. Thanks andrewryno.

aalamir 12y ago

For easier experimentation, I have created a Terminal.com snapshot with this setup. https://atharwat.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/wordpress-on-terminal-com/ https://atharwat.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/wordpress-on-termi...

ljlolel 12y ago
No credit card required!

drunkcatsdgaf 12y ago

you could always use heroku's postgres instead of mysql, avoiding having to put in a CC.