[mangeletti]

I've always preferred this (using Django):

1. Local development is done with the simplest of everything (local memory cache, SQLite3 database, console based email backend, local static file storage (vs S3, etc.)). The result is that there is very little overhead and everything is easy to work on and test quickly. This also gives me the ability to quickly wipe out things locally (erase and make new migrations for trivial changes, delete the database file, clear cache more quickly by just restarting the Django server, etc.).

2. Final testing takes place on a staging server (Heroku), which is free, and which can contain all the production-level backing services that production will have. This server will be treated like production (no in-place hot-fixes and database wipes / restarts). Separate dev accounts will of course be used for things like APIs, email, etc.

3. Production (Heroku).

This gives me the best of both worlds; the simplicity of local development with simple backing services, with the comprehensiveness of a staging server with better parity.

[acveilleux]

This makes sense when you use an ORM that will transparently work. You trust the ORM to insulate you. If you have needed to go direct to SQL for something then you're looking at putting in test-specific code in your production code to simulate/fake/disable the custom SQL bit...

Just run postgres on a ramdisk, or on an SSD with sync disabled and a scripted setUp/tearDown.

[mangeletti]

To expand on this further, my primary objective is to be able to develop without regard for backing services for which I have a proper abstraction layer (e.g., ORM). In my opinion, it is a mistake to think you can mirror production in a local env, because, no matter what, there will be at least one difference that catches you off guard, not to mention the cost of maintaining a golden setup and teaching debs how to use it (even with the advent of Docker, etc.). If you decouple your application from its backing services by design, you will save many man months down the road.