That buddy who said 'just use free hosting' cost me 6 months of work

My friend Dave told me to put my first web app on a free Heroku tier to save cash, but I woke up one morning and all my data was gone because they changed their policy. Spent half a year rebuilding from scratch while trying to remember every feature I coded. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from a well-meaning friend that totally derailed your project?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

rowan5932mo ago

Did you back up your data at all before trusting a free service with it?

8

betty_barnes2mo ago

Honestly @rowan593, that's the thing nobody thinks about until it's too late. I've seen this pattern everywhere - people treat free services like they're indestructible, but nothing is. It's like leaving your toolbox in the bed of your truck overnight and getting mad when it rains. I always tell folks to keep a local copy of anything important, even if it's just on a thumb drive in your drawer. The free stuff is fine for casual use, but for anything you'd actually miss? That's on you to protect.

1