Go to any Django or Wagtail support forum and you’ll probably find one question coming up over and over again: “How the heck do I deploy this thing?” OR “Help! I deployed it and now have 100 yaks to shave!”

Python is not exactly the easiest thing to deploy to a web server, compared to say PHP which has a deployment process of: copy files and boom it’s live.

Over the years, new platforms and deployment strategies have come along: notably Heroku and Docker. Heroku abstracts some of the hard part away by providing a platform that gives you lots of knobs and levers to fine-tune your billing and your app’s infrastructure without actually having to manage the infrastructure. Docker provides similar abilities for do-it-yourself-ers.

But let’s be honest, while that kind of technology is really cool and really cutting-edge, it is still not simple. When you look at app-level hosting platforms such as WP Engine, Kinsta, or Flywheel — you can see they are building on top of these cutting edge technologies in order to abstract away virtually everything and leave you with a pure, push-button experience. While no one is going to try and run a complicated site like healthcare.gov on WP Engine, it is an excellent platform for loading up your organization’s marketing website and then never having to worry about it again. Once again, this is an area where PHP has excelled in simplicity but Python still struggles.

Until now.

I am beyond excited to announce our new hosting platform: CodeRed.cloud.

We at CodeRed are die-hard Django developers. Everything we do is Django. We love the framework, love the community, and are excited by the growth of Python. Adding to this is Wagtail — a truly excellent CMS that has rightfully become the #1 Python-based CMS on GitHub (by number of stars).

CodeRed.cloud is inspired by platforms like WP Engine. Finally, there is a literal push-button Django or Wagtail CMS deployment. Everything is managed behind the scenes: database, media storage, backups, uptime monitoring, even Python+pip package security updates. You can go from polls tutorial or Wagtail bakery demo — to live site ready to handle droves of traffic — by literally copying your code and clicking a button, no other steps or configuration required, no AWS or 3rd party accounts required, not even a GitHub Action or Travis CI required (we do support git integration, but it is not required).

Our goal is to provide the simplest possible platform for hosting your organization’s website. We love the other platforms out there: Heroku, Divio, PythonAnywhere, etc. — but we want to fill the gap that WordPress users have long enjoyed with managed app-level hosting.

I will add one last note: we are not funded by venture capital, not fueled by an accelerator, and not building on data-mining schemes. This is a bootstrapped effort based on years of professional experience with many current happy customers. We want to invest in Django and grow our business symetric to the growth of the Django and Wagtail communities.

OK, enough blabbering — let’s get to the good stuff: JOIN THE BETA and help us make this platform the best it can be.

JOIN THE BETA