Best practices for hosting app binaries for non-App Store macOS apps?











up vote
0
down vote

favorite












I'm working on a macOS app that will not be distributed through the App Store, and will be self-updating via Sparkle.



I'm looking for any recommendations or best practices for hosting the app binaries. They will be distributed as zip files and will be approximately 20 MB in size.



These are two options I'm considering, but I'd love to hear if anyone has a better approach:




  1. Hosting the binaries on the same web server as my website

  2. Hosting the binaries on S3 and linking to them from the website


Doing #1 is the simplest and most obvious choice, but I have no idea if that's a good approach? Each app binary download is many times larger than one page of my site, do I need to worry about causing problems? E.g., how is this additional bandwidth accounted for in the hosting company billing?



Using S3 seems like a standard solution to the above problems, but frankly it's not clear to me if those are real problems. I'm also concerned about the S3 pricing model not being capped.



Finally, a big question that concerns both #1 and #2 is how does using a CDN factor into this? Can I really just use Cloudflare in front of either option above, and then the majority of the time my 20 MB zip files will be served from Cloudflare without even hitting S3 or my web server? If that's the case then am I correcting in assuming that S3 then offers minimal additional benefits over just hosting the assets on my web server?



Anything else I may not be considering?



Thanks in advance for any suggestions!










share|improve this question


























    up vote
    0
    down vote

    favorite












    I'm working on a macOS app that will not be distributed through the App Store, and will be self-updating via Sparkle.



    I'm looking for any recommendations or best practices for hosting the app binaries. They will be distributed as zip files and will be approximately 20 MB in size.



    These are two options I'm considering, but I'd love to hear if anyone has a better approach:




    1. Hosting the binaries on the same web server as my website

    2. Hosting the binaries on S3 and linking to them from the website


    Doing #1 is the simplest and most obvious choice, but I have no idea if that's a good approach? Each app binary download is many times larger than one page of my site, do I need to worry about causing problems? E.g., how is this additional bandwidth accounted for in the hosting company billing?



    Using S3 seems like a standard solution to the above problems, but frankly it's not clear to me if those are real problems. I'm also concerned about the S3 pricing model not being capped.



    Finally, a big question that concerns both #1 and #2 is how does using a CDN factor into this? Can I really just use Cloudflare in front of either option above, and then the majority of the time my 20 MB zip files will be served from Cloudflare without even hitting S3 or my web server? If that's the case then am I correcting in assuming that S3 then offers minimal additional benefits over just hosting the assets on my web server?



    Anything else I may not be considering?



    Thanks in advance for any suggestions!










    share|improve this question
























      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite









      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite











      I'm working on a macOS app that will not be distributed through the App Store, and will be self-updating via Sparkle.



      I'm looking for any recommendations or best practices for hosting the app binaries. They will be distributed as zip files and will be approximately 20 MB in size.



      These are two options I'm considering, but I'd love to hear if anyone has a better approach:




      1. Hosting the binaries on the same web server as my website

      2. Hosting the binaries on S3 and linking to them from the website


      Doing #1 is the simplest and most obvious choice, but I have no idea if that's a good approach? Each app binary download is many times larger than one page of my site, do I need to worry about causing problems? E.g., how is this additional bandwidth accounted for in the hosting company billing?



      Using S3 seems like a standard solution to the above problems, but frankly it's not clear to me if those are real problems. I'm also concerned about the S3 pricing model not being capped.



      Finally, a big question that concerns both #1 and #2 is how does using a CDN factor into this? Can I really just use Cloudflare in front of either option above, and then the majority of the time my 20 MB zip files will be served from Cloudflare without even hitting S3 or my web server? If that's the case then am I correcting in assuming that S3 then offers minimal additional benefits over just hosting the assets on my web server?



      Anything else I may not be considering?



      Thanks in advance for any suggestions!










      share|improve this question













      I'm working on a macOS app that will not be distributed through the App Store, and will be self-updating via Sparkle.



      I'm looking for any recommendations or best practices for hosting the app binaries. They will be distributed as zip files and will be approximately 20 MB in size.



      These are two options I'm considering, but I'd love to hear if anyone has a better approach:




      1. Hosting the binaries on the same web server as my website

      2. Hosting the binaries on S3 and linking to them from the website


      Doing #1 is the simplest and most obvious choice, but I have no idea if that's a good approach? Each app binary download is many times larger than one page of my site, do I need to worry about causing problems? E.g., how is this additional bandwidth accounted for in the hosting company billing?



      Using S3 seems like a standard solution to the above problems, but frankly it's not clear to me if those are real problems. I'm also concerned about the S3 pricing model not being capped.



      Finally, a big question that concerns both #1 and #2 is how does using a CDN factor into this? Can I really just use Cloudflare in front of either option above, and then the majority of the time my 20 MB zip files will be served from Cloudflare without even hitting S3 or my web server? If that's the case then am I correcting in assuming that S3 then offers minimal additional benefits over just hosting the assets on my web server?



      Anything else I may not be considering?



      Thanks in advance for any suggestions!







      macos amazon-s3 hosting native






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked Nov 19 at 22:33









      robenk

      372616




      372616





























          active

          oldest

          votes











          Your Answer






          StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function () {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function () {
          StackExchange.snippets.init();
          });
          });
          }, "code-snippets");

          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "1"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          convertImagesToLinks: true,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: 10,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fstackoverflow.com%2fquestions%2f53383606%2fbest-practices-for-hosting-app-binaries-for-non-app-store-macos-apps%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown






























          active

          oldest

          votes













          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes
















          draft saved

          draft discarded




















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





          Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


          Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fstackoverflow.com%2fquestions%2f53383606%2fbest-practices-for-hosting-app-binaries-for-non-app-store-macos-apps%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          Costa Masnaga

          Fotorealismo

          Sidney Franklin