I like your idea of explainer/demo video. I think that would go a long way to clarifying the product. What format would be best for that kind of thing do you think? A walk through of the product or something a bit faster pace that clips together previews of each of the main features?
Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate the encouragement
My big focus for Codemason is simplicity, so building hosting into Codemason ("Codemason Servers") was a way to simplify things even further - just click a button and a server is ready to run your app. In the future, I hope to take it even further and let people spin up "sandbox" versions of apps so they can test things out really quickly. Convenience and simplicity is probably the key draw there.
Just as a general comment on the entire space: It's very competitive and there are plenty of solid options but I feel like there's a couple of things that uniquely set Codemason apart:
- Being able to "cluster" servers from multiple cloud providers easily
- Autoscaling capabilities on the cloud provider of your choice (e.g. DigitalOcean or Vultr)
- A focus on simplifying things from development to production
As the product matures, I'm hoping the focus on simplicity will pay off in differentiating Codemason in an already competitive market
I appreciate this feedback. The home page is definitely something I've been trying to, somewhat clumsily, put together for awhile now.
The workflow is similar to Heroku's except it's all Docker based: 1. Write code, 2. Git push (your code is containerized), 3. Create your app/services via the CLI/UI. 4. Running in the cloud
I'll set some time aside to work on improving the home page and adding a features page -- thanks again!
I'm a solo founder who's been hacking away on Codemason for awhile now. I built it to scratch my own itch after falling in love with Docker but also getting frustrated with how much effort getting things set up “right” required.
I’ve really tried to focus on simplifying the entire pipeline from development to production. I think I’ve done a reasonably solid job on that so far but would love some feedback or suggestions for how I could take it further.
Providing hands-on one-on-one support via a Slack I’ve setup has become one of my “things that don’t scale” that I’ve really enjoyed adopting and offering to people (even if they aren’t necessarily a Codemason user). If you’re interested in taking me up on that, let me know (here or via ben[at]codemason.io) and I’ll send you an invite.
You are probably right, I should have probably mentioned them
But none of those options give you choice when it comes to your server provider and since the post was about servers and my opinion on the fact that servers have been left behind while the rest of the developer facing market moves to simplify things, I do feel somewhat justified in not mentioning them.
Regardless, I’ve added a clarification to the post.
I've been working on a Docker Cloud alternative for awhile now. I'm aiming for something that kind of balances the convenience of Heroku with the Docker experience.
It's still in beta but if anyone wants to check it out it's at: https://codemason.io/
Big fan of Materialistic here. By far the best Android HN app I've found. Didn't realise this but I must have downloaded it just after you put it on the play store. Even the first versions were solid.
No shopping list of features :). Just wanted to say good job (posted with Materialistic)
I'm working on one of those Docker powered Heroku "competitors". This post and your post both rung true for me.
It's a constant balancing act. Too flexible, it becomes overwhelming. Too constrained and you sacrifice a bunch of the perks of using Docker.
The conclusion I've come to is the only way to do it is to be unashamedly opinionated about keeping things simple for the average user. Otherwise you end up having that exact conversation
I like your idea of explainer/demo video. I think that would go a long way to clarifying the product. What format would be best for that kind of thing do you think? A walk through of the product or something a bit faster pace that clips together previews of each of the main features?