I have a Node.js/Express with MongoDB backend and a React frontend. Sometimes when I go to my site, the backend does not load. I have to wait 30 seconds to a minute and refresh to load. I have the free tier.
This is not an issue with the spin-down after 15 minutes of inactivity, as this happens right when I first visit the site.
It was working okay when I was loading it at home. But yesterday a family member went to the site and it didn’t show any of the flight data (currently there should be data for 2 flights) in the center. I tried it today on my work computer and the same thing happened.
When I load your frontend the behavior seems consistent with the spindown-on-idle limitation. The frontend – a static site – loads quickly but then the backend takes a bit of time to spin back up and begin serving data.
I recommend upgrading the backend to a paid instance type and seeing if that clears up the problem – I think it will. Note that paid services are prorated by the second, so you would only be charged for what you use. You can always downgrade back to free after a day or so.
Regards,
Mike
Render Support Engineer, MT (UTC-6, UTC-7 in Winter)
Great, thank you. I’m thinking of going with the Starter plan. How would the prorated by the second work with this plan? It seems like a flat rate of $7 a month.
When it comes to compute costs you accrue charges by the second based on which instance type you have selected for the service. You would only be charged $7 for Starter if you ran the service on that instance type for the entirety of a month. If you just ran it for a full 24 hours then downgraded back to free, the cost would only be roughly $7 / 31 = ~$0.23.
Hope that helps!
Regards,
Mike
Render Support Engineer, MT (UTC-6, UTC-7 in Winter)
