What specific features has Ruby on Rails hosting?

[merop]

Can you give me some references to learn more about Ruby on Rails hosting? What are the features of this hosting?

[Mittineague]

I imagine most hosting features are not related to RoR. eg. bandwidth use, database, email accounts, FTP, etc. As for specific Ruby/Rails differences, the only thing I can think of is what versions are offered and what GEMS are installed.

[Arlen]

Can you give me some references to learn more about Ruby on Rails hosting? What are the features of this hosting?

I'm assuming you're asking about the features to look for in a web hosting company for a Rails web app.

First thing is what the server arrangement itself is. Apache is the more popular choice among general hosting providers, but it can't host rails without help. At the low end of this approach is supporting rails through fastCGI. (At least I see this as low-end. I've not seen a setup with these yet that wasn't dog-slow and buggy.) High-end performance involving apache generally involves using apache as a front-end to a cluster of mongrel servers (mongrel is a ruby-based server originally written by Zed Shaw, and it doesn't suck). These arrangements generally require at the least a virtual private server, rather than a simple shared hosting plan. Here's one discussion of this approach.

In between is Phusion's Passenger. It's a pretty decent attempt at something similar to mod_php for apache. It can run in a shared hosting environment and seems in my experience to be more solid and faster than fastCGI. If you're stuck in a shared hosting environment, then look for your host to support this option for you.

Another popular configuration is a russian web server named NginX ("engine X") which has a lot of fans, especially as (here it comes again) a front-end to a mongrel cluster.

One other thing you'll want to look for is experience. How much experience does your proposed host have with rails apps. They don't just drop in to any old server configuration, they can be a little picky about the environment they're in. You're best off with a host that has a lot of experience in Rails, especially if you're expecting high traffic levels. Scaling Rails apps is currently as much an art as a science (let's face it, as the new kid on the block, rails doesn't have a lot of past experiences we can draw on for accurate knowledge -- yet).