Rails Hosting 2009 - back to home
1. How many years have you been developing with Ruby on Rails?
  answered question 1,248
 
skipped question
3
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Less than 1 year
12.8% 160
1-2 years
29.0% 362
2-3 years
34.7% 433
More than 3 years
23.5% 293
2. How many years have you been developing with Ruby?
  answered question 1,245
 
skipped question
6
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Less than 1 year
11.4% 142
1-2 years
27.6% 344
2-3 years
33.3% 415
More than 3 years
27.6% 344
3. How many Ruby on Rails applications have you deployed?
  answered question 1,247
 
skipped question
4
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
None (yet)
3.8% 47
1
10.3% 129
2-5
47.4% 591
More than 5
38.5% 480
4. How would you describe yourself?
  answered question 1,206
 
skipped question
45
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Web Designer
18.4% 222
Web Developer
94.6% 1,141
System Administrator
36.3% 438
Project Manager
27.1% 327
PHB (point-haired boss) ;)
8.5% 102
viewOther (please specify) 98
5. Have you deployed any dynamic web applications with any other languages/frameworks?
  answered question 1,244
 
skipped question
7
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
No
12.7% 158
Yes
87.3% 1,086
6. If yes, would you say that it has been easier or harder to deploy Ruby on Rails applications compared to other languages/frameworks?
  answered question 1,095
 
skipped question
156
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Easier
49.3% 540
Harder
50.7% 555
7. How often do you deploy updated versions of your Ruby on Rails applications?
  answered question 1,239
 
skipped question
12
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Almost daily (a lot)
13.1% 162
A few times a week
29.3% 363
A few times a month
37.9% 470
Less than once a month
12.1% 150
Very rarely
7.6% 94
8. How many applications are you currently responsible for deployment management?
  answered question 1,241
 
skipped question
10
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
1
19.7% 245
2-5
62.6% 777
6-15
13.1% 162
15+
4.6% 57
9. Do you use a source control management system (SCM)?
  answered question 1,241
 
skipped question
10
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
No
3.1% 39
Yes
96.9% 1,202
10. If yes, which SCM do you use?
  answered question 1,184
 
skipped question
67
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
CVS
0.3% 4
SVN
36.1% 427
Git
63.0% 746
SourceSafe
0.3% 3
Team System
0.1% 1
Darcs
0.3% 3
viewOther (please specify) 104
11. Where is your source code hosted?
  answered question 1,146
 
skipped question
105
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Self-hosted repository
66.4% 761
Github
32.5% 372
Beanstalk
1.1% 13
viewOther (please specify) 138
12. Do you use an automated deployment tool?
  answered question 1,238
 
skipped question
13
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Yes
77.4% 958
No
22.6% 280
13. If yes, which deployment tool do you use?
  answered question 943
 
skipped question
308
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Capistrano
97.3% 918
Vlad (the deployer)
2.7% 25
viewOther (please specify) 40
14. Which database do you typically use in production?
  answered question 1,224
 
skipped question
27
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
MySQL
82.5% 1,010
PostgreSQL
14.7% 180
SQLite
1.8% 22
Oracle
0.7% 9
CouchDB
0.2% 3
viewOther (please specify) 44
15. Which database would you prefer to use in production? (some hosts don’t offer many options besides MySQL)
  answered question 1,194
 
skipped question
57
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
MySQL
64.5% 770
PostgreSQL
28.3% 338
SQLite
2.3% 27
Oracle
1.5% 18
CouchDB
3.4% 41
viewOther (please specify) 22
16. Which operating system do you develop your applications on?
  answered question 1,234
 
skipped question
17
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Mac OSX
68.0% 839
Linux/Unix-variant
25.4% 314
Windows
6.6% 81
viewOther (please specify) 32
17. How would you rate your competence with working from the command line (BASH, SSH, etc.)?
  answered question 1,244
 
skipped question
7
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Novice
4.0% 50
Competent
28.5% 355
Proficient
44.1% 548
Expert
23.4% 291
18. How would you rate your competence with Unix-based operating systems (Linux, BSD, etc)?
  answered question 1,241
 
skipped question
10
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Novice
6.4% 79
Competent
31.2% 387
Proficient
40.9% 507
Expert
21.6% 268
19. How many people have access/credentials to deploy your application(s)?
  answered question 1,242
 
skipped question
9
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
1 person (just me)
42.9% 533
2-4 people
51.9% 644
5+
5.2% 65
20. Do you catch and track Application Exceptions in production?
  answered question 1,231
 
skipped question
20
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
No
30.9% 380
Yes
69.1% 851
21. If yes, which tool do you use?
  answered question 795
 
skipped question
456
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
ExceptionNotifier plugin
59.0% 469
Exceptional (http://getexceptional.com/)
4.3% 34
Hoptoad (http://hoptoadapp.com/)
36.7% 292
viewOther (please specify) 86
22. Do you use any performance monitoring tools in production?
  answered question 1,234
 
skipped question
17
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
No
63.7% 786
Yes
36.3% 448
23. If yes, which performance monitoring tool do you use?
  answered question 395
 
skipped question
856
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
New Relic
74.4% 294
Five Runs
17.5% 69
Scout
8.1% 32
viewOther (please specify) 65
24. Do you use any uptime monitoring tools in production?
  answered question 1,069
 
skipped question
182
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Nagios (self-hosted/managed)
20.4% 218
Pingdom
11.7% 125
I don't use one
67.9% 726
viewOther (please specify) 145
25. Which web server do you typically use in production?
  answered question 1,215
 
skipped question
36
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Apache
71.9% 873
Nginx
25.4% 309
Lighttpd
2.5% 30
Microsoft IIS
0.2% 3
viewOther (please specify) 49
26. Which of the following are you using in production?
  answered question 1,144
 
skipped question
107
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Mongrel
43.1% 493
FastCGI
5.2% 59
Passenger (mod_rails)
51.7% 592
viewOther (please specify) 153
27. Do you use any of the following monitoring tools to keep your application running?
  answered question 1,177
 
skipped question
74
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Monit
26.9% 317
God
13.9% 164
I don't use one
59.1% 696
viewOther (please specify) 44
28. How happy are you with your current deployment process?
  answered question 1,243
 
skipped question
8
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Hate it (need to change this asap)
6.5% 81
Content (it works, but there is room for improvement)
65.3% 812
Happy (it's working great right now)
28.2% 350
29. What type of hosting do you currently have for your application?
  answered question 1,188
 
skipped question
63
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Self-hosted (you manage the hardware, servers, everything)
33.0% 392
Shared hosting (Dreamhost, Site5, etc. - several customers per machine)
10.7% 127
Cloud Computing (Amazon)
6.4% 76
Basic VPS (Slicehost, Linode, etc.)
36.0% 428
Rails VPS (Rails Boxcar, Joyent, Blue Box, etc.)
6.6% 79
Managed hosting (one to many servers per application, paying a hosting company to keep our application up and running)
7.2% 86
viewOther (please specify) 135
30. What is your ideal hosting environment?
  answered question 1,235
 
skipped question
16
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Give me a power cable and an Internet connection and get out of my way!
19.0% 235
Basic OS install only, I'll handle the rest
41.5% 512
Basic Rails stack pre-installed (including a database), I'll handle the gems
21.5% 265
Just tell me what to put in my deploy.rb and let me get back to work
18.1% 223
31. Are you happy with your current hosting provider/solution?
  answered question 1,237
 
skipped question
14
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Yes
83.9% 1,038
No
16.1% 199
viewcare to comment? 220
32. If not, what is your biggest concern?
  answered question 373
 
skipped question
878
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Price
38.6% 144
Customer Support
15.3% 57
Uptime / Stability
30.3% 113
Lack of knowledge with Ruby on Rails
15.8% 59
viewOther (please specify) 40
33. How much are you currently spending on hosting (average per application)?
  answered question 1,202
 
skipped question
49
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Free
6.2% 75
< $25 month
26.3% 316
$25 – 50/month
22.5% 270
$50 – 100/month
14.1% 169
$100 – 250/month
11.1% 134
$250 – 1,000/month
11.6% 139
$1,000 – 10,000/month
7.4% 89
$10,000 – 50,000 month
0.7% 9
More than $50,000/month
0.1% 1
34. How much of your monthly budget is allocated for deployment and hosting expenses?
  answered question 1,154
 
skipped question
97
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Less than 10%
71.3% 823
10-25%
19.1% 220
26-50%
4.0% 46
More than 50%
5.6% 65
35. Who uses your application?
  answered question 1,235
 
skipped question
16
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Consumer-only (public)
30.0% 371
Consumers and internals users
58.6% 724
Internal users only
11.3% 140
36. How many new applications will you be deploying this year?
  answered question 1,239
 
skipped question
12
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
None
5.7% 71
1
18.6% 231
2-5
54.2% 671
5+
21.5% 266
37. How long did it take you to fill out this survey?
  answered question 1,236
 
skipped question
15
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Less than 5 minutes
75.6% 934
5-10 minutes
23.4% 289
More than 10 minutes
1.1% 13
38. So, can Rails scale? ;)
  answered question 1,135
 
skipped question
116
  Response
Percent
Response
Count
Yes
100.0% 1,135

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