
It's been an year since I wrote the first part of [Hosting Java applications in the web][1]. Since then, the Java hosting arena has become crowded with the so many players, which is a good news to the developers like us.

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/hosting-java-applications-in-the-web "Hosting Java applications in the web"

Hence here I am, with the list of such hosting providers.

Disclaimer: This is just a *list* and not a comparison between the listed cloud providers.

## 1. Google App Engine (GAE)

[![][3]][3]

[]: https://developers.google.com/appengine/

Long term player in the cloud platform services. I've been running my two web apps ([timethetask][3] and [twikural][4]) for an year and haven't faced any issues yet. But you need to change your design strategy in order to abide by the rules put in by this platform (not an show stopper, though).

[3]: http://www.timethetask.com/ "TimeTheTask"
[4]: http://twikural.veerasundar.com/ "Twikural"

## 2. Amazon Web Services / Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2)

[![][6]][6]

[]: http://aws.amazon.com/

Not a platform (i.e. you don't need an SDK in order to develop Java apps) but provides machine that you can have full control over it. There are pre-configured machines with Java environment. Pretty popular in the dev circles.

## 3. Windows Azure - Java

[![][7]][7]

[]: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/java/

From Microsoft. ![:)][7]

[7]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

## 4. Jelastic

[![][9]][9]

[]: http://jelastic.com/

The good thing about Jelastic is you don't need to code to any API (unlike the GAE). You can upload any of your Java web app and Jelactic can run it/scale it for you.

## 5. Heroku

[![][10]][10]

[]: http://www.heroku.com/

I've already covered this news over here: [Heroku runs Java][10].

[10]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/heroku-runs-java

## 6. OpenShift by Red Hat

[![][12]][12]

[]: https://openshift.redhat.com/app/

Haven't personally used it, but from the reviews around the web, it seems like the platform that you can get started very easily. Try it out and tell me if its true.

**Would you like to add anything to the above list? Feel free to comment.**


Java web application hosting in the cloud


Note: This post is written by/for the Java web developer who is using Google App Engine. Even if you are not an Java developer, but interested, you are welcome to read further.

![google-app-engine-logo][1]

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/04/google-app-engine.png "google-app-engine"

When you create a new application in Google App Engine, you'll get a domain name 'yourapp.appspot.com'. But, who'll want to host their app with such a suffix (unless you like it!)?

To improve your app branding, the best thing to do is to host your app in '**www.yourapp.com**'. So, how to do this in App Engine?

There are two ways.

1.  You can buy a new domain name with Google partnered sites (such as GoDaddy).
2.  If you have already bought a domain, you can map that domain to 'yourapp.appspot.com'.

I'm going to explain the second method in this post.

## Steps to host GAE app in your own domain

### 1. Buy Hosting Space and Signup for Google Apps

1.  The first step, obviously, is you should buy a **domain hosting**. You will be adding CNAME entry in the DNS mapping to make things work and some hosting providers wont let you to add CNAME if you just bought only the domain name from them. So, it is good to buy the domain name as well as the hosting space so that you have full control over it.
2.  Then you need to signup for **Google apps** with your domain name. You can get a [free Google Apps version][2] which is pretty much sufficient for a small company/individual. You'll be asked to verify the ownership of your domain. Just follow the steps given there. You'll be also creating a admin account to manage Google Apps.

[2]: https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new "Free version of Google Apps - Signup page"

### 2. Add your application to Google Apps account

1.  Next, login to and go to the Dashboard of your app and choose '**Application Settings -> Domain Setup -> Add Domain**'.
2.  In the '**Add Domain**' screen, enter your domain name. You'll be asked to login to Google Apps with the admin account which you would have created during the second step. Once you login, your application will be added to your Google Apps account.

### 3. Add 'Ëœwww.yourapp.com' sub-domain mapping to yourapp.appspot.com

1.  Now login to **www.google.com/a/yourapp.com **with your admin account (if you are not logged in already). There you can see you app engine application listed in the Google Apps dashboard. Click on your appspot application.
2.  In the next screen, enter **www** in the text box to add a URL in the form of **www.yourapp.com**. As Google app engine does not support naked domains, you have to map the sub-domain, in our case **www**, to the appspot application. Once you add the URL you'll be given steps to add the CNAME record in your domain. After adding the CNAME record (explained in next steps), you should come back to this page and click complete.

### 4. Using CPanel, add a CNAME entry to ghs.google.com

1.  Now login to your domain admin panel. Since most of the hosting providers support CPanel, i'm giving the steps for CPanel.
2.  Login to **yourapp.com/cpanel **and go to '**Advanced DNS Zone editor' **where you can see the DNS mappings.
3.  Click the 'Edit' link against the **www.yourapp.com **and type '**ghs.google.com**' against the CNAME field. Leave other fields as it is. Save the changes.
4.  Thats it. It will take some time for the DNS propagation to happen. After that you can start accessing your appspot application with the URL **www.yourapp.com**!


Hosting Google App Engine application in your own domain


As a Java developer, I always choose Java as my first programming language to develop any of my ideas into a real application. If I want this application to be available for the world, then I have to put it on the web. But, when you compare with the options available for hosting a PHP application, with the Java's options, you can see a whole lot of difference. Usually, the Java hosting providers charge too much which you can not afford if your app is going to be a FREE service.

One of the main reason for Java not catching up with PHP in web programming, is the hassles that are involved in hosting a Java web application. As your Java web application is going be on a shared server, which will also shared by some other applications as well, maintaining your application on this environment becomes hard. You can not release a new version of your app, with out affecting other applications. If a change in your web app needed a re-start of server which may not be possible at all in a shared environment. But for PHP, none of these matters. That's the reason you can see a n-number of [PHP hosting][1] providers, but very few for Java.

[1]: http://www.webhostingsearch.com/php-web-hosting.php "PHP hosting"

So, In order to host your Java application in a **lower cost** you have the following options (as of today) in your hand.

## 1. Hosting Java application in Google App Engine

[![Google App Engine Logo][3]Google App Engine][3] is a free service from Google that [allows the Java applications][3] to be hosted on the cloud. And, it is completely free for starters. You only need to pay if you want more bandwidth or storage space, etc. But if your application is going to be a small one, you hardly need to pay anything for hosting your Java web applications in Google App Engine.

[]: http://code.google.com/appengine/ "Run your web apps on Google's infrastructure."
[3]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/google-has-brought-the-java-to-appengine "Google has brought the Java to AppEngine"

## 2. Amazon EC2 - Cloud Hosting

![Amazon EC2 Logo][4]Another hosting service from a biggie. Amazon provides this **[Elastic Compute Cloud][5]** (EC2) for all kind of computing resources. You can host your Java application in EC2 in very cheap rates. Hosting on EC2 costs you on-demand basis. i.e. if your web application is going to get lot more hits, which means increased bandwidth and computing on cloud, you get to pay more. Otherwise, you get to pay less. Pay for what you use, that's the advantage of EC2 (off course, there are lot more than this one!).

[4]: http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x201/talktoveera/logo_aws.gif
[5]: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ "Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers."

## 3. JavaProvider.net - Cheap Java Hosting

\**  
[![JavaProvider.net Logo][7]JavaProvider.net][7] is one the cheap Java hosting provider that I could find on Google. At around 5$/month, this service provides some competitive plans with good number features. They are using *CentOS\* as their operating system and they even allow you to start/stop tomcat, which will be a good thing.

[]: http://javaprovider.net/ "Hosting JSP/Servlets should not be expensive. We provide cheap but high quality Java hosting for developers from around the world."

## 4. Lot more Java hosting providers

![Java Hosting Provider Directory][7]Not content with the above list? You can always check this BIG [directory of providers supporting Servlet][8]. The website claims that the list contains the ISPs who support Servlet. But I'm not sure whether they provide proper Java application environment or not. You need to enquire the ISP properly if you are going to choose one from this list.

[7]: http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x201/talktoveera/servlets_logo_rnd-90short.jpg
[8]: http://servlets.com/isps/servlet/ISPViewAll "List of ISPs who support Servlet hosting"

I hope this list gives you the starting point for your [Java hosting provider][9] search. Are you aware of any of the ISP provider which is not listed here? **Do leave a comment, then!** Your input will be very much appreciated.

[9]: http://www.google.co.in/search?q=java hosting provider "Google Search - Java Hosting Provider"

If want to learn java for the web then join [test king][10] web development course and get free [testking 70-680][11] tutorials and [testking 642-825][12] demos to learn how to use java applications in web development.

[10]: http://www.testking.com
[11]: http://www.testking.com/70-680.htm
[12]: http://www.testking.com/642-825.htm


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