Hosting

Misc

  • Packages

  • Benchmarks

    • Overview (source, Interactive)
      • Digital Ocean (DO), Virtual Machines (VMs)
      • The “Total Cost” of ownership (USD/year) covers licensing fees and operating costs for the “Number of Apps” listed in the table.
      • PaaS means platform-as-a-service, i.e. it is a fully managed system without you having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. This also means less control over the infrastructure, i.e. when it comes to choosing the data region where your app is served from.

  • Posit Connect >> ShinyProxy for scaling up even though its free (article)

  • Free options

    • shinyapps.io, heroku, Fly.io
    • Fly.io’s free tier is your best option if you want the apps running 24/7 and under a secured custom domain (none of this is offered for Shinyapp.io and Heroku).
    • Other options
      • If you run out of free builds or usage limits, use multiple emails to create multiple free-tier accounts
      • Build mulitple apps on the same docker image
    • ShinyProxy
      • Benefits
        • Open source – no subscription fee
        • A wide range of Authorization options available (LDAP / Kerberos / SSO / SAML / Open ID / Keycloak / Social Media / Simple (flat file of users & passwords))
      • Costs
        • Higher implementation cost
        • No product support, therefore there is no possibility of SLA guarantees
        • The additional cost of post-implementation support
        • The additional layer of complexity – Docker/Kubernetes
        • Long-term maintenance requiring a large workforce
    • Shiny Server
      • On-Prem
      • Pros - open source
      • Cons
        • Must load it on the server
        • Keep track of security patches
        • Manage dependencies and harmonize them if you have multiple apps on the same server

  • Digital Ocean

    • Digital Ocean Droplet - $4/month and host the apps with shinyproxy or shinyserver
      • For light, intermittent usage

  • Huggingface

  • Shinyapps.io

    • As of 2023, $13 for lowest paid tier.

  • Posit Connect

    • Posit Connect Cloud
    • On Prem: Posit Connect (commercial)
    • Benefits
      • Comes with great integration with R and Python and comes with a lot more than just hosting Shiny apps
      • Ability to deploy R/Python applications, R/Python API, RMarkdown reports that regenerate automatically, etc.
      • Worth it if you’re working with a team and delivering more than shiny apps (e.g. reports, cron jobs, etc.)
      • Stability with Software licensing and Standard Software Support from Posit included
      • Lower implementation costs
      • Easier configuration and deployment of dashboard versions
      • Authorization is included in the Posit Connect Subscription, with a wide range of options to choose from: (LDAP and Active Directory / SAML / OAuth 2.0 using Google Apps accounts / PAM / Proxied Authentication / SLA)
      • Easier maintenance in production
      • Option to add Posit Workbench and Package Manager
      • Automatic scaling – no need to manually trigger new processes
      • An industry standard by Fortune 500 companies working with R
      • Admin panel to manage users and monitor the logs and machine
    • Costs
      • A yearly Posit Connect subscription starts at $14,995/year (USD)