In this episode of Running in Production, Andy Ide goes over building a
SAAS app for horses with Django and Python. It’s hosted on a single Linode
server and has been running in production since May 2021.

Andy talks about learning Django while building his app, using Django Unicorn,
creating a Django monolith that’s broken up with Django apps, outsourcing
setting up a server, the importance of having a good testing team and more.

Andy was kind enough to give listeners of this podcast 20% off for life if you
use promo code RUNNING20 when signing up, that
includes signing up for free since it carries over to a paid plan.

Topics Include

• 6:11 – About 60ish users signed up about a month after launching


• 8:34 – The process of learning Django while building this app


• 11:29 – Using the Django admin and a bunch of other useful packages


• 14:34 – Django Unicorn is being used for interactive bits w/o having to write a lot of JS


• 18:34 – It’s a Django monolithic with a bunch of Django apps


• 22:27 – How Django Rest Framework is being used for the reporting part of the app


• 28:46 – The app is mostly Django rendered templates with sprinkles of JS and Unicorn


• 34:00 – Stripe is handling payments, their API and docs are great


• 41:02 – (1) $10 / month Linode server hosts everything with 1 CPU core and 2GB of memory


• 45:25 – Picking the most recent version of Ubuntu and keeping deploys simple


• 52:05 – Using Cloudflare for DNS and using their paid plan


• 56:54 – Running tests locally before deploying it


• 59:12 – Handling backups with Django DB Backup and Linode’s backup service


• 1:02:12 – Using Sentry for exception reporting, viewing logs and Uptime Robot


• 1:08:50 – Best tips? Install Sentry and have a good testing team


• 1:13:37 – Check out HorseRecords on Facebook and Andy’s Django Blog

Links

📄 References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stud_farm


• https://djangochat.com/


• https://djangoandy.com/2021/05/14/integrating-django-rest-framework-and-retool/


• https://djangoandy.com/2021/05/02/what-i-learned-in-the-first-2-days-of-launching-my-saas-startup/

⚙️ Tech Stack

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  django →
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  python →