What are good web hosting services for a social community platform? should I use AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or Something else? (Needs to be budget friendly)

Sort of depends on what you want to host.

AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are IaaS services. Using them for "web hosting" is probably not a good use of your time or money. AWS does have a number of managed, or semi-managed services but you tend to pay a premium for for them.

• I wouldn't use AWS unless you're building a full stack of resources and are willing to pay a premium for adaptability.
  • Source: I am an cloud systems engineer that specializes in AWS
• Azure is similar in scope and just a bit cheaper (sometimes), also has a steep learning curve (AKA terrible documentation) if you're not already familiar with Microsoft's ideas about system administration.
  • Source: I am an old bitter Linux user and the world of MS is strange and scary for me.
• Don't use Google unless you really need inconsistency and services that will just get shut down or radically change price one day.
• Linode is a bit like AWS-lite and a bit cheaper, but its all Linux all the time
• Dreamhost can be good and cheap for simple stuff but most applications are moving to docker and they don't have any kind of container service.

I imagine that any of them would work. Have you compared services and prices? I believe that at least with Azure, you pay for what you use, but that may be true for all of them.

It depends on how much cpu power, disk space, ram, side databases, backup space, etc. you need. Once you know all of it, just compare prices. Check also hetzner, scaleway, vultr, digital ocean, ovh. Good luck 🤞

I just started using Hetzner recently. I’d definitely check them out

It honestly really depends what your needs are. This is a bit like asking what the best car is. A Ferrari is nice and fast, but wouldn’t be great for a dumpster hauling service. What platform(s) or tech stack are you planning on running?

I run the RBlind.com Lemmy instance at Accuris Hosting. Decent Virtual Machines, easy IPV6 support, and everything works fine. Prices are a bit on the high end, but it's worth it to me to use a provider located in my country, where I understand all of the associated laws and can pay in my own currency via my local bank. Also, I'd rather not give money to big tech if I can help it, and support local business instead. This isn't sponsored or anything, I'm just a mostly contented customer.

Also, of course, the fact that the control panel is screen-reader accessible is super important to me, though I doubt anyone else cares. But unfortunately that's not yet the case with most of the larger cloud providers like AWS. And if they do deploy an inaccessible update, the company is small enough that I can send an email and get an answer from a human who has actually read what I wrote, rather than a corporate AI.

Opalstack is always a great starting place.