Making the decision.
WHAT TO ASSESS
What the application actually requires What the team knows What the hosting supports What can be maintained Who maintains it afterwards
WHAT TO WEIGH MOST
That last question.
WHY
A stack nobody can maintain is a liability regardless of its merits.
WHAT TO ESTABLISH ABOUT HOSTING FIRST
Whether persistent processes are supported What runtimes are available Whether background workers can run What the database options are
WHY FIRST
It eliminates options before you invest in evaluating them.
WHAT SHARED HOSTING GENERALLY SUPPORTS
PHP, readily Python and Node, with limitations Little else
WHAT A VIRTUAL SERVER SUPPORTS
Anything, with the responsibility of administering it.
WHAT TO PREFER
Established, widely used and well documented.
WHY
Answers exist, libraries exist, and people can be found.
WHAT NOT TO CHOOSE ON
Benchmarks unrelated to your workload Novelty Preference without reasons
WHAT TO DOCUMENT
The decision and its reasoning.
