The success of your Sharetribe platform heavily depends on a foundation that many entrepreneurs often overlook – hosting. While the features, design, and user experience of your marketplace are important, the hosting infrastructure that powers your platform can make the difference between a thriving digital marketplace and one that struggles to retain users.
The importance of choosing the right hosting provider for the Sharetribe marketplace
Selecting the appropriate hosting provider for your Sharetribe marketplace is a strategic business choice that impacts every aspect of your platform's performance. Here's why your hosting choice matters:
Performance and Speed
Your marketplace's loading speed directly affects user engagement and conversion rates. Studies show that a mere 1-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. A reliable hosting provider ensures your marketplace responds quickly, keeping both buyers and sellers engaged.
Scalability Requirements
As your marketplace grows, your hosting solution needs to grow with it. The right provider offers flexible scaling options to handle increased traffic, transactions, and data without requiring complex migrations or causing downtime.
Security Considerations
Marketplace platforms handle sensitive user data and financial transactions. Your hosting provider should offer robust security measures, including:
- SSL certificates
- Regular security updates
- DDoS protection
- Data backup systems
Setting up hosting for Sharetribe
Selecting the right hosting solution is essential for the smooth setup and ongoing success of a Sharetribe marketplace. For those choosing to self-host, AWS EC2 and Heroku stand out as popular options, each with its distinct benefits and trade-offs. Let's explore both platforms and guide you through the AWS EC2 setup process, which we recommend for most marketplaces.
AWS EC2 vs. Heroku: Making the Right Choice
AWS EC2
✓ Complete control over infrastructure
✓ Flexible configuration options
✓ Extensive regional support for global reach
✓ Cost-effective at scale
✓ Advanced monitoring and security features
Heroku
✓ Simpler deployment process
✓ Managed infrastructure
✗ Higher costs at scale
✗ Limited regional configurations
✗ Less control over infrastructure
For most Sharetribe marketplaces, we recommend AWS EC2 due to its balance of control, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.
Comprehensive AWS EC2 Deployment Guide
Prerequisites
Before starting, ensure you have:
- An AWS account
- A registered domain (GoDaddy recommended)
- Basic familiarity with SSH and Linux commands
- SSH key pair generated for secure access
Launching your EC2 instance
a) Select an AMI:
- Navigate to EC2 Dashboard
- Choose Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (HVM)
- This provides a stable, well-supported environment for Sharetribe
b) Choose instance type:
- For small marketplaces: t3.medium (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM)
- For growing marketplaces: t3.large (2 vCPU, 8GB RAM)
- For established marketplaces: Consider t3.xlarge or larger
- Without backend (frontend-only marketplace): t3.small (2 vCPU, 2GB RAM)
c) Configure security groups
Security groups act as a firewall, managing access to your instance. Set up rules to allow:
- HTTP (port 80) for basic web traffic
- HTTPS (port 443) for secure, encrypted access
- SSH (port 22) for secure server access
Connecting via SSH
To manage your EC2 instance securely, you’ll need to connect via SSH. Follow these steps:
- Open a terminal client on your local machine.
- Set the correct permissions for your SSH key to ensure security by running: ssh -i "YourKeyPair.pem" ubuntu@your-ec2-public-dns
- Run the SSH command to connect to your EC2 instance:
- Replace YourKeyPair.pem with the full file path to your private key.
- Replace your-ec2-public-dns with your instance’s public DNS, which can be found in the EC2 Management Console.
This process involves using your terminal to log into your instance with the credentials provided by AWS.
Installing Necessary Software
Once connected to your instance, you will need to install some essential software:
- Update the package lists and upgrade installed packages: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
- Install Node.js: curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
~$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
- Clone the Sharetribe repository from Git to your instance, setting up the foundation for your marketplace: # Install Git
sudo apt-get install -y git
# Clone your Sharetribe repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git
cd your-repo
# Install yarn
npm install -g yarn
# Install packages
yarn install
Domain Configuration
To make your marketplace accessible to users via a custom domain, follow these steps to configure your GoDaddy domain with SSL protection:
- Update DNS records: In your GoDaddy account, point your domain to the public IP address of your EC2 instance. This process may take some time to propagate.
- Install Nginx: This web server software will help manage incoming traffic to your marketplace.# Install Nginx
sudo apt-get install -y nginx
# Install Certbot for Nginx
sudo apt-get install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
- Obtain an SSL certificate: Use a tool like Certbot to secure your marketplace with an SSL certificate, ensuring that all communication is encrypted and safe.
# Obtain and install SSL certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
Scaling and Maintenance
AWS EC2 offers scaling solutions to help your marketplace handle varying traffic:
- Set up auto-scaling: Configure EC2’s auto-scaling features to dynamically add or remove instances based on demand, ensuring a consistent user experience.
- Enable load balancing: A load balancer distributes traffic evenly across instances, enhancing performance and reliability.
- Monitor with AWS CloudWatch: AWS CloudWatch allows you to monitor the health and performance of your instances, making it easy to detect issues and optimize resources.
When considering hosting options for your marketplace, it’s important to explore providers that balance reliability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. While many marketplace owners opt for platforms like AWS, another excellent option is DigitalOcean. Known for its straightforward setup and user-friendly interface, DigitalOcean offers robust performance at a competitive price, so it is a practical choice for startups and growing marketplaces alike.
DigitalOcean’s scalable infrastructure and variety of plans allow for easy adjustments as your marketplace expands, and it supports popular tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and managed databases.
Pricing plans and hosting features of Sharetribe
Build plan
Price: $39 per month (14-day free trial available)
The Build plan is ideal for marketplace creators who want a low-cost option to explore Sharetribe’s capabilities before committing to a live setup. Hosting on this plan supports a complete no-code environment, streamlining setup for quick experimentation.
Lite plan
Price: $99 per month (billed annually)
The Lite Plan is crafted for those ready to enter the marketplace arena with a live, albeit basic, version. Hosting support for this plan covers essentials for small-scale marketplaces.
Pro plan
Price: $199 per month (billed annually)
With the Pro plan, hosting is enhanced to support business-grade features like custom domains and integrations. This plan empowers businesses to maintain a more polished, professional look while enhancing the user experience with easy social logins.
Extend plan
Price: $299 per month (billed annually)
The Extend plan’s hosting environment is the most advanced, accommodating users who need access to their marketplace’s backend code for unique design or functionality requirements. With API access, this plan provides businesses with the flexibility to develop custom features or build a companion mobile app, ensuring long-term scalability and adaptability.
Hosting Features Across Plans
Each Sharetribe hosting cost plan includes essential hosting features designed to streamline marketplace creation and management, with options for no-code users as well as those who need access to custom code. Here’s a breakdown of hosting features common across the plans:
- No-code mode: All Sharetribe hosting pricing plans support a no-code setup, empowering users without technical expertise to launch and manage their marketplaces effortlessly.
- Custom code mode: Available in the Extend plan, this mode gives developers the flexibility to implement custom features and integrations, enabling advanced modifications as the business scales.
- Transaction management: Each plan includes a monthly transaction quota, allowing marketplace owners to manage a base level of transactions without additional fees. Additional transactions are offered at a standard rate, making it simple to predict hosting costs as traffic grows.
Conclusion
Finding the right hosting mode is, therefore, one of the most important steps to long-lasting success for your Sharetribe marketplace. The hosting environment impacts it all - from performance and scalability to customization potential and user experience. Sharetribe hosting plans provide a wide range of options you could use to fit your marketplace goals and technical capacity, from no-code solutions that make launching easy to advanced, custom-coded environments where almost anything can be tailored.
Whether you want to get up and running quickly via a no-code solution or need the flexibility of a custom code solution, there is a hosting path to support your vision. Take the time to explore both options and understand the unique needs of your business; this will equip you with the ability to create a robust and engaging marketplace that meets users' needs while growing with ambitions.
