Until now I haven't blogged or made videos about Umbraco Cloud much. I think I've done the odd video for how quick it was to install and how easy it is to test packages, but from now on I will be blogging and recording more about Umbraco Cloud.
I'm going to be testing out Umbraco Cloud, seeing how easy it is to use, what it's like to migrate an existing project, what it's like to work with for new projects from scratch. Along the way if I find I have some questions that I need answers for and I think you will find them useful I will get the answers and blog about them. If you have any questions or scenarios you would like me to look into for you, then please get in touch with me on twitter @CodeSharePaul
My friend heard I was starting this journey with Cloud and he too is interested in it. We had a skype chat and came up with some initial questions that we were interested to know the answers for, and I thought you would like to know them too. Luckily I got to speak to Eric from Umbraco HQ who was able to answer the questions and confirm some assumptions I had.
Q1. Is Umbraco Cloud free whilst the site is in development?
This question was around the idea that with Azure, when your site is in development, you can have a free App Service which has a url like myprojectname.azurewebsites.net and then when you want to add a proper domain and give the app service some power then you start paying for it.
A1. No
You start paying for your project from when it is created in Umbraco Cloud.
Q2. How much does it cost to do auto upgrades?
A2. Not as much as you think
For auto upgrades you need an extra environment. You only pay for what you use. If you added an extra environment on Tuesday when an upgrade is released, did the auto upgrade and then removed the extra environment, you would only be charged the cost of one day of running that environment. The minimum charge is one day. Just to clarify, if you spin up an extra environment to do the upgrade and take it down that same day, you would not be charged a full month, just one day.
Q3. Where is the application hosted?
A3. The application is hosted in an Azure VM.
It is a shared VM, meaning they don't just set up a single Azure VM for your project, there will be other applications on the same VM.
Q4. Where is the data stored?
A4. The data is stored in an Azure SQL Database which runs on a separate VM for Azure SQL.
Q5. What is a baseline project?
A5. A baseline project is a project which you can use as a template for other projects.
You create a project as a child of the baseline project, so you have a good starting point with common features and content when you would use in many of your projects.
Q6. Do have to pay for your baseline project, even if you are not using it as a live website in its own right?
A6. Yes a baseline project costs the same as a normal project.
Q7. Can you update the baseline project and does it push the updates to the child projects?
A7. Yes you can update it and choose which child projects get the update.
It uses Umbraco Deploy to push the new features and changes from your baseline project to your chosen child projects.
Q8. Can a client add you to their Umbraco Cloud project as an Admin.
A8. Yes, you can be added as an admin of the project.
You will not be an Admin of the account though. You can see all of the projects you have access to in the project overview.
Q9. Can you store multiple payment methods?
If you want your client to pay for the project or you want to separate the payments somehow.
A9. Yes you can have different payment methods on a project by project basis.
To do this, you must be logged into umbraco.io and in the project you wish to add a payment method for. The url will be something like https://www.s1.umbraco.io/project/mycoolproject at this point.
Now add /paymentmethod to the end of url so it would be https://www.s1.umbraco.io/project/mycoolproject/paymentmethod
You will be asked if you would like to pay annually or monthly, and then you will be redirected to shop.umbraco.com where it will give you a chance to enter your card details or if you will not be paying for it yourself, you can get a link to give to the person who will be paying. They will be able to click the link and complete the payment details for that project.
I hope you found these questions and answers useful.
For more questions and answers take a look at the FAQs part of the Umbraco Cloud documentation.