Hosting banking and workforce services has connected our team with customers across Africa
What is our primary use case?
I last used Netlify Platform in March 2022 for hosting web services on the platform.
My main use case was to create a full stack application for workforce management and banking services, using Netlify Platform as a third-party integration through GitHub to host these services to clients and customers. I was part of a team of ten software engineers building a full stack application for workforce management and banking services. The company was based in Detroit, Michigan, with operations for an African company based in Nigeria. We had to provide banking services to the customer base across all of Africa. We developed a full stack application providing banking services including credit and debit card functionality, online banking, and a separate application for growing and managing the workforce. All of this was developed using React JS on the front-end and Python on the back-end. We successfully connected GitHub third-party integration with Netlify Platform to host our services in Africa and successfully connected with clients and customers across all of Africa.
What is most valuable?
Netlify Platform offers various integration features where you can use multiple languages and change the environment. We were not connected to any cloud services, as this was managed through GitHub integration, which worked like a cloud. We paid a subscription on GitHub that was paid by the company to host our services. There were many features to connect with clients and customers, to host them, provide services, gather customer feedback, conduct customer calls, and update features and downtime information, with timelines for customer bases in the US and Africa. This was very helpful and Netlify Platform is a very good platform which should be recommended.
Netlify Platform was very feasible and we did not have to pay a very large sum of money to host our services. It was just a monthly subscription. This saved cost significantly. Deployment speed was improved, and GitHub was very efficient as it connected us to databases and different containers. This improved the hosting services and database management. The web application has been working efficiently since the launch of the company in Africa.
What needs improvement?
Netlify Platform could be improved if they hosted their independent services apart from GitHub. There are many cloud containers and services like AWS and Microsoft, and connecting with cloud services would make it more efficient. It could be a good efficient platform to host bigger and better services for clients with good spread across the UAE and other small regions in Asia. Cloud services should be connected to Netlify Platform. It is a hosting platform which provides services online and helps host web services. If cloud could be connected to Netlify Platform, which could help host a different web server with security, that would keep it from a perfect 10.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Netlify Platform is a very stable platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Netlify Platform scalability is very good. If I could give it a number, it would be nine out of ten. It is very efficient, very smooth, and very feasible. It helps you avoid any errors or bugs in the application, which helps you fix errors too, with automatic testing rather than manual testing. Netlify Platform is a very good platform.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is great. Customer support is connected through chatbot and email. For the African region, there would be chatbot and email support with a broad base in Africa that would respond. For the US, there would be a separate US application for US customer support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not use any solution before Netlify Platform.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Netlify Platform was very efficient as it was feasible and the application was a huge success. It could really help many clients and customers in Africa.
What about the implementation team?
I was part of a team of ten software engineers.
What was our ROI?
There was a huge return on investment. Regarding relevant metrics, we were not using metrics like Datadog, though I wish we had. There was a lot of money saved, as we were building the application from scratch and paying employees using our own technical skills to build the application. There was a lot of time saved as we built this application within a week or two. There were hardly ten software engineers working in our team with a CTO and CEO.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Netlify Platform was very feasible and we did not have to pay a very large sum of money to host our services. It was just a monthly subscription.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate any other option. This option was chosen by our CTO, and he was very confident that Netlify Platform could really help us host our web services.
What other advice do I have?
Netlify Platform is a very good platform for someone who is not adopting a cloud platform like AWS or Microsoft. It is a good investment and return for a startup that is just starting out with no capital and trying to grow into a company from Series A to a public service. This is a good start to building an application from scratch and hosting it online. Small startups should take up Netlify Platform. I would rate this review an 8 out of 10.
Flexible web deployments have simplified personal projects and streamlined domain management
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Netlify Platform is mostly for the deployment of websites and domain exchanges from Cloudflare or any host platform.
A quick, specific example of a project I've deployed using Netlify Platform is a recent project where the backend was deployed in an AWS instance and I had to add the subdomain for that particular website. I routed the DNS from Cloudflare and since I bought the domain from Namecheap, I routed the DNS and deployed in the same way through Netlify.
I use Netlify Platform mostly for my side projects and personal use, so I utilize it for deployment and related services.
What is most valuable?
The best features Netlify Platform offers, in my opinion, include the free tier that they provide for deployment and the analytics for a particular website. We can choose from a couple of deployed ones to see how they are performing, who is actually using the website, which geographic region they are from, and the threshold, among many other things.
Between the free deployment tier and the analytics, I mostly use the free deployment tier. I have deployed more than ten websites out of my free projects. I love that free deployment tier. Talking about the analytics, I just use it for a very specific use case, like for the recent project that I was very excited about, I just turned on the analytics for that one. After some days, I deployed another website and I just moved that analytics part around. I mostly use the free deployment tier.
Since I mostly use Netlify Platform for my personal projects, I don't have much insight about positive impacts on my organization regarding workflow, speed, or collaboration.
What needs improvement?
I have been observing Netlify Platform improving a lot, noticing a couple of new features every three to six months. However, I would love to see Netlify evolve as a cloud provider. While it also helps with backend deployment, it is not as scalable as AWS or Azure, and I would love to see and explore more features in the future around it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Netlify Platform since my college time, and it has been two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Netlify Platform is stable; I have never noticed any downtime, and while we can expect minute downtime, the system is robust. I personally have never faced any downtime from Netlify.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Netlify Platform has handled my projects' scalability pretty well, as all of those are my personal projects. Although I don't think hundreds or thousands of users ever hit my API or website at a time, I have deployed multiple projects, and for my use case, I have never found any hindrance.
How are customer service and support?
I have fortunately never needed customer support from Netlify. I have faced challenges during the initial stages of my deployment journey and with DNS routing, particularly with SSL certification, but resources like Stack Overflow and Google helped me out.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used different solutions before Netlify, such as GitHub Pages, Vercel, Render, and Railway during my college days. The reason I switched to Netlify was for exploration, and I stuck with Netlify because of its good user experience and deployment steps.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is pretty good. Since I use the free tier, there is no question about pricing or setup costs, but I believe that even in the future, if I go for paid setups, it will be pretty smooth.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Netlify Platform, I evaluated other options, including Vercel, GitHub Pages, Render, and Railway; after exploring them, I found Netlify Platform to be a better option among others.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Netlify Platform is that it has evolved a lot, offering many features to accomplish many things in Netlify itself. Instead of hopping around multiple providers or platforms, it is better to stick to one and do all necessary work. I noticed positive changes for myself using Netlify Platform mainly in terms of saving time and making deployments easier. I have been using it since three and a half years from my college era when Netlify just came into the picture. My main reason for preference over competitors like GitHub Pages and Vercel is its seamless integration with GitHub, where I can deploy directly from my development IDE using CLI commands, making it more efficient without having to manually link things. Even though Vercel offers similar features, I personally prefer Netlify.
I would rate Netlify Platform an eight overall. The reason I chose eight is that, for my personal use, it is fantastic and works as I want. However, I cut two marks due to possible improvements. For instance, Vercel has some unique integrations that I find appealing, such as their streamlined deployment process using Next.js. It would be great if Netlify could explore similar integration opportunities, especially with AI capabilities.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Great tool for quick website deployment
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about NEtlify is how easy and fast is to deploy a website .I can easily connect my github repository and site gets deployed automatically. The dashboard is simple ,and I dont need to setup server or configuration.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes the build and bandwidth limitations in the free plan.Also when a build fails ,the error message are not always very clear for beginners.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Netlify solves problem of deploying and hosting websites quickly without dealing with servers.The free plan and easy setups is best part for students .It handles builds deployments , and updated automatically which save my time.More focus on building my website insted of managing servers.
Automated web deployments have improved my academic projects and personal portfolio sharing
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Netlify Web Development Cloud is deploying my applications, such as deploying my personal applications so that everyone can access my made application through a link.
I use Netlify Web Development Cloud for academic web development projects, personal learning and practice projects, React-based front-end applications, static websites for demonstrations, and portfolio purposes, with these applications hosted publicly for easy access by faculty, peers, and reviewers without any local setup.
How has it helped my organization?
Netlify Web Development Cloud has positively impacted my organization and projects as once deployed, applications remain live without manual intervention, with downtime being very rare and performance remaining consistent due to its global CDN, allowing me to focus completely on building the application rather than managing deployment processes or hosting complexities while noting many changes in efficiency, speed, and excellent feedback from my reviewers regarding low latency compared to other platforms.
Regarding specific outcomes or metrics, the deployment with Netlify Web Development Cloud is completed within seconds, making it faster than other platforms such as Vercel and GitHub Pages, and my feedback cycle with reviewers is excellent with their experience of very fast tab switching and component analysis.
What is most valuable?
In my experience with Netlify Web Development Cloud, it is very beginner-friendly, offering automatic continuous integration and continuous deployment from Git, containing the fastest global CDN, providing free SSL certificates and easy custom domains, excellent support for modern front-end frameworks, and a quick rollback capability if any issue occurs, requiring little effort and containing a minimal learning curve.
For me, the aspect that stands out as the most valuable in Netlify Web Development Cloud is its beginner-friendly setup, which I highly recommend for beginners and students, front-end developers, and those learning CI/CD workflows due to its easy adoption.
For me, the most valuable feature of Netlify Web Development Cloud is its automation and ease of use, where once a GitHub repository is connected, every code push automatically triggers a build and deployment, rollbacks to previous versions are instant and fast, HTTPS is enabled by default, and applications are served through a global CDN, significantly reducing deployment time and effort.
What needs improvement?
Netlify Web Development Cloud does have limitations as it is not suitable for back-end heavy or long-running server applications, and its free tier imposes usage limits on bandwidth, build minutes, and functions, with advanced features such as analytics and background functions being paid features while offering limited infrastructure-level customization compared to container-based platforms which can be more restrictive for large-scale or enterprise applications.
Regarding improvements for Netlify Web Development Cloud, I find that documentation and everything is not required to have much improvement as they are easily understandable for beginner levels.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Netlify Web Development Cloud for three to four months, mainly for learning, academic work, and deploying my personal projects.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Netlify Web Development Cloud is very stable and reliable, with applications remaining live without manual intervention, rare downtime, and consistent performance due to its global CDN.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have never faced scalability issues with Netlify Web Development Cloud because I have only worked on the free tier for my personal projects, with scale up, down, or handling more traffic maintained by Netlify support, requiring payment only if I need my project to be on a larger scale, while interacting positively with the friendly Netlify support team who assist with any issues quickly.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate customer support of Netlify Web Development Cloud an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Vercel and GitHub Pages for deployment, but I switched to Netlify Web Development Cloud due to its ease of use, automation, rollback support, and additional features.
How was the initial setup?
Netlify Web Development Cloud runs on its own managed cloud infrastructure, backed by global CDN providers, so I do not need to choose a separate cloud provider.
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Netlify Web Development Cloud has been favorable as I have used the free tier, which is sufficient for beginner levels and personal projects, with a pricing structure that is fair, and the initial setup being extremely easy, requiring no installation, just creating an account and connecting a Git repository to complete deployment within minutes using a beginner-friendly UI.
Regarding relevant metrics, the deployment is completed within seconds and everything is updated on the platform with the proper beginner-friendly UI, saving me more time and money since unlike using AWS cloud or any other cloud platform where a domain is required, Netlify provides free domains that help beginners enhance their skill set by deploying personal projects.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Netlify Web Development Cloud, I evaluated other options including Vercel and GitHub Pages, but selected Netlify because of its ease of use and automation.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Netlify Web Development Cloud is to highly recommend it for beginners and front-end developers wanting to understand modern deployment and CI/CD workflows, though for full-stack, back-end intensive, or large-scale applications, it is better to combine Netlify with external back-end services or migrate to container-based or cloud platforms such as Docker or AWS.
Netlify Web Development Cloud is primarily designed for beginners and students, for front-end developers, and mainly focuses on personal and portfolio projects for beginners. I rate Netlify Web Development Cloud an eight out of ten overall.
Building websites without headaches
What do you like best about the product?
What I love most is how simple it is to push changes. For example, I updated my portfolio with new project screenshots, committed to Git, and Netlify had the new version live almost immediately. I don’t have to touch hosting or SSL certificates which I often struggle, it just works.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes, especially on bigger projects, the free tier can hit limits on build minutes or bandwidth, which slows things down. Also, the error messages aren’t always obvious if something unusual happens during deployment,it took me a couple of tries to figure out a domain redirect issue
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Netlify solves the headaches of manual deployment and server management. Before, I had to spend hours configuring hosting, SSL, and deployment scripts for my portfolio and small web apps. Now, I can push changes from git and the site updates automatically. It saves me a lot of time, and I can focus on designing and building the actual projects. I built a reading diary app and a portfolio site in just a few days, something that would have taken me much longer before
Perfect Platform for Frontend Developers
What do you like best about the product?
Netlify makes frontend deployment unbelievably smooth, love the instant deploy previews on each PR, and the clean UI makes managing multiple projects simple.
What do you dislike about the product?
Advance backend integration is limited , But for frontend-heavy apps or JAMstack projects, it’s not a big deal.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
used to waste time setting up CI/CD manually. Now, I push code and within seconds, the live site is updated.
Great CMS. simple, quick and versatile
What do you like best about the product?
Netlify Connect enables the implementation and production of high quality, accessible websites which are easy to use, and with the use of Git to manage changes in a manner that does not require much customer support. I use this most days and find it easy to integrate with my other roles, and the features are comprehensive, and I haven't needed to use Customer Support very often, but when I do, the response has been prompt and helpful.
What do you dislike about the product?
I haven't found many downsides to using Netlify Connect so far.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It enables a number of content authors across the country to access, create and update content.
User friendly platform to host your live projects
What do you like best about the product?
The feature to log in with our GitHub account makes it a lot easy to work with our files from GitHub and host our projects directly from GitHub. The website hosting features are also greatly personalised.
What do you dislike about the product?
The interface it provides to work with is cluttered and overwhelming. Some updates can be made to improve on that to provide a client friendly workspace.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The projects me and my team works on need to be hosted on live cloud for it to be functional and netlify serves that need for us. It makes our job easier by being in sync with GitHub, which allows for smoother flow of work and faster response.
Easy to use hosting service with lot of features for free
What do you like best about the product?
It's easy to get started with Netlify, you get a lot of features even with the free plan. Forms work, Github integration works for basic sites. It has Let's Encrypt integrated, so getting SSL certificates is super easy.
What do you dislike about the product?
We've had some issues with Flutter web builds when deploying from Github, so we have to do manual builds which is not ideal.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Netlify solves the hosting of our Flutter Web app
Connecting the Dots with Netlify
What do you like best about the product?
- User-friendly UI for easy deployments & pipelines this makes it Easy to use and easy to integrate your websites.
- Also fast loading times for websites and customizing deployment pipelines in Netlify.
- Also version control for deployment is there, So you can manage it with GitHub or GitLab
What do you dislike about the product?
- The first thing is its high pricing for High-traffic sites
- For the free tier the build time is limited so in small projects it is a headache for developers
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
- Website deployment.
