Show HN: How ShoveBox is Handling MacHeist Traffic

files.dangrover.com

16 points·dangrover··6 comments

This is a followup to this post: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=925592

- The site got almost 100K uniques this weekend.

- I upgraded the server from 256MB to a 2GB slice and it's been handling okay. I also used this as an opportunity to deploy the fancy Django version of the site, at which point it began using a much bigger chunk of the 2GB. I'm gonna try screwing with the settings, caching more, and switching from mod_python to mod_wsgi.

- The iPhone app has risen to the #9th most popular paid productivity app on the US App Store.

- The Mac app buzzed ahead of some competitors on Wakoopa (like Alexa for desktop apps):

http://files.dangrover.com/sbvsyojimbo.png

http://files.dangrover.com/sbvsevernote.png

Definitely switch from mod_python to mod_wsgi. Also try setting up Nginx as a proxy to Apache, using Nginx to serve static media and Apache(+mod_wsgi) for only serving up the dynamic pages.

Yes, mod_wsgi rules. For maintainability, reliability, and performance, everything else pales when it comes to serving up Python apps.

Okay, got it on wsgi. You're right. Muuuuuuch better

That's some amazing traffic. I take it that the rise in iPhone sales makes it worth giving away the app for free[1]? How many people got a free license for the desktop app through MacHeist?

I also want to chime in with the fact that ShoveBox is one of my favorite apps and was installed the day I bought a Mac for the first time. I press Control+Option+Z to open Quick Jot probably 10 times a day. Thanks!

[1] I have no clue how MacHeist gets these apps, so excuse my ignorance if there is some compensation.

That's pretty dramatic. Can we see some graphs?

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