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DigitalOcean App Platform

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646 points digianarchist | 8 comments | 06 Oct 20 14:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.005s | source | bottom
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onion2k ◴[06 Oct 20 15:38 UTC] No.24698869[source]▶
Like all DigitalOcean products, the App Platform provides predictable, easy-to-understand pricing that allows you to control costs to prevent surprise bills.

I can't see any features listed that enable me to control costs to prevent surprise bills. If a site got submitted to HN and hugged to not-to-death-because-it-autoscales then I'd wake up to a bunch of alerts and massive outbound bandwidth bill. I don't want that. I want something that stops that happening.

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pomatic ◴[06 Oct 20 17:35 UTC] No.24700352[source]▶
This is laughable - billing is logically separated from droplet use, so unlike other providers DO charges for the potential to use a capability, rather than actual use, regardless of whether it is consumed. I got stung badly by this - charged for X droplets capability when zero droplets capability was being used for several months. Explained the misunderstanding to DO, got no sympathy & no refund. Won't touch them again, don't trust them further than I could throw them.
replies(2): >>24700752 #>>24700952 #
WrtCdEvrydy ◴[06 Oct 20 18:19 UTC] No.24700752[source]▶
This is what makes "the cloud" profitable.

If your droplet isn't using all of it's resources (CPU, RAM, DISK), they are able to oversell their capacity.

replies(1): >>24700828 #
1. pomatic ◴[06 Oct 20 18:26 UTC] No.24700828[source]▶
To be clear, I had no deployed resources, but was still charged as if I had. As it turns out, it's impossible to cancel the "standing charge" without recourse to support.

There's a difference between load balancing of shared resources and (what I believe must be) deliberately deceptive practices. A customer-centric company would send an email to notify you of this kind of over-charging.

It's premeditated and dispicable.

replies(2): >>24701054 #>>24701109 #
2. WrtCdEvrydy ◴[06 Oct 20 18:49 UTC] No.24701054[source]▶
I didn't say it wasn't a shitty outcome, but this is what people advocate for when there's a push "for the cloud" or "how aws is doing great things"
3. tidepod12 ◴[06 Oct 20 18:54 UTC] No.24701109[source]▶
What you call "premeditated and despicable" is actually a huge value proposition for others. Whereas AWS/GCP have pricing structures based on usage and you never know until the end of the month how much you owe, DO instead has defined "you will pay $50/mo for this regardless of if you do or do not use it" and from what I've seen, many people really value and appreciate that, and specifically choose DO over AWS/GCP because of that.

The pricing model for App Platform seems antithesis to that, though, which is interesting. DO is becoming more like AWS/GCP with every feature release, which I don't necessarily find to be a good thing.

replies(1): >>24701210 #
4. pomatic ◴[06 Oct 20 19:06 UTC] No.24701210[source]▶
The problem I have is not with the model, but with the fact it is so difficult to cancel the standing charge. If it could be done from the web UI, and/or there was an interlinked pop-up when zero droplets are deployed, fine.
replies(1): >>24703989 #
5. dkersten ◴[07 Oct 20 00:15 UTC] No.24703989{3}[source]▶
Wait, I'm confused. What standing charge? What exactly did you get charged for? I've been using DO for a few years and I have no idea what you are referring to. When I delete my unused resources, I don't get charged.
replies(1): >>24704849 #
6. WrtCdEvrydy ◴[07 Oct 20 02:46 UTC] No.24704849{4}[source]▶
He probably forgot to turn off the instances and kept getting charged.
replies(2): >>24705923 #>>24708894 #
7. ◴[07 Oct 20 06:56 UTC] No.24705923{5}[source]▶
8. dkersten ◴[07 Oct 20 14:54 UTC] No.24708894{5}[source]▶
Ah, right, shutdown but not deleted. DO are upfront about that charge though and its not like its any different on any other cloud provider.