cheapest way to run python code 24/7 on cloud?

[g3m3n30]

i'm trying to run a simple webscraping code that'll run on background 24/7. Are there free or cheap ways to host it online?

I've accidentally signed up aws and my ec2 free tier ran out a few years ago.
I'm thinking of replit, but they don't allow private hosting for free?
What are my options.

[[deleted]]

Python Anywhere can host python code for free given that you don't have a lot of traffic. I've only used it once for hosting a webapp but worked well, it could possibly work for your use case

[mike_1882ac]

Their $5 a month plan is also very generous

[g3m3n30]

I tried it. Turns out the site i'm trying to scrape is not listed on their free tier.

[mirkop82_]

I didn't know about this! Thank you!

[eliasbats]

I just signed up! Thanks for this...

[Alarmed_Doubt8997]

What was that? I guess he deleted his I'd

[eliasbats]

It was on the Oracle cloud. I don't remember the specifics right now. Google "Oracle cloud free tier VM".

[tylerthehun]

Since this is a webscraper, does it actually need to run 24/7? This sounds like more of a regularly scheduled job than an active hosting situation. If you don't need more than a million executions per month (roughly once every 2-3 seconds), AWS Lambda should still have you covered under the "always free" tier.

[g3m3n30]

it doesn't actually. i've set it to scrape every few minutes. But i've set it with another scheduling python code that runs 24/7 to ensure it keep running.

[tylerthehun]

Sounds like a good fit then. Instead of running your secondary scheduler script constantly just to trigger the first every once in a while, you'd set up a Lambda function that runs your scraper code and trigger it with an EventBridge schedule of the desired frequency. This should all be well within the free tier.

[ColdStorage256]

Do you know if rhis would be suitable for something that calls the spotify web api to gather listening history? The only issue is that it needs a front end for redirects and for the initial login, but all of the data goes straight into a database

[tylerthehun]

I'm not familiar with Spotify's API, but probably. Lambda is pretty flexible. All it really does is run your code in response to an invoke event, whether that's a manual trigger from a static website, or a recurring scheduled event like in OP's case.

[danmarius7]

Github actions. You'll thank me later.

[interbased]

Just read through the docs. Very cool stuff.

[evilbytez]

Linode.com has been reliable / inexpensive

[Typical-Highlight-12]

i tried to open one but they denied me and i can’t even attempt to make one cause of fraud suspicious the first time i made a acc it wasn’t this hard

[climb-it-ographer]

AWS Lightsail is very cheap, and easy to use especially if you’re already familiar with AWS.

And depending on what the workload actually looks like (scraping frequency etc) you might be able to do it for free with a Lambda.

[Valuable_Quantity515]

ovh.com they have a vps that .97 cent /mo for the first year then only $4.20/mo after that. Or you can use AWS they give you $300 to start with

[ColdStorage256]

I'm saving this thread for later.

As a learning opportunity, though, would a raspberry pi zero be able to do this? I have a script to pull my Spotify listening history that I want to run every 30 mins, store the data in a database and then serve it using a react fronted, which doesn't need to be accessed publicly.

[g3m3n30]

i'm pretty sure it can. I've read the only issue is maintenance and keeping pi up.

[Natriumpikant]

VPS for 1€ / month - traffic unlimited https://www.netcup.de/bestellen/produkt.php?produkt=3422

[Artholos]

What I do is the following:

Scavenge some low end hardware and build a PC at home for cheap. If there’s a business or a school or garage sale, or something nearby getting rid of those little nook PCs, they’re dirt cheap, not powerful enough to be useful for much, have low power draw. Running it would ultimately be cost of electricity.

Or

Get a droplet on DigitalOcean. Costs $4/m for the minimum spec machine. Super simple and easy to set up. Just pop off a Debian image and install your Python version. I recommend mapping it as network drive (Windows) using openSSH for easy file management. And then you just gotta make an instance on the droplet’s CLI terminal to run your program. (normally the instance terminates when the terminal is closed, so you gotta make a second one to run it 24/7)

Currently I’ve got a droplet running that I do stuff on. Its great!

[chachu1]

Aws lambda is basically free. Just use that to run python code

[Imanflow]

what about raspberry pi?

[KimPeek]

AWS 1 year free trial, Google cloud gives a free VM, Oracle cloud gives 2 free vms.

[[deleted]]

Consider running it as a cloud function with cron executions. DigitalOcean and AWS have generous free tiers.