Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best PaaS / App Hosting (2026)
The cheapest paas / app hosting is DigitalOcean App Platform at $0/mo. 3 offer a free tier (DigitalOcean App Platform, Render, Vercel). This page compares 7 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
7 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: DigitalOcean App Platform at $0/mo (Static Sites (Free)).
- Typical paid price: from $5/mo, median $5/mo, up to $29/mo — across 7 with published pricing.
- Free tier: DigitalOcean App Platform, Render, Vercel.
- HIPAA-ready: Render, Vercel, Heroku, Railway, Fly.io.
- Tracked: 7 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.
Comparison
| # | PaaS / App Hosting | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DigitalOcean App Platform | $0/mo Static Sites (Free) | Yes | — | Yes | Static site and frontend deployments on a free tier | digitalocean.com |
| 2 | Render | $0/mo Hobby | Yes | Yes | Yes | Startups wanting unlimited-seat flat pricing | render.com |
| 3 | Vercel | $0/mo Hobby | Yes | Yes | Yes | Frontend and full-stack Next.js / React deployments at global edge | vercel.com |
| 4 | Heroku | $5/mo Eco | No | Yes | Yes | Healthcare and regulated-industry apps needing BAA | heroku.com |
| 5 | Railway | $5/mo Hobby | No | Yes | Yes | Developer teams wanting usage-metered PaaS with high resource ceilings | railway.com |
| 6 | Sevalla | $5/mo Hobby H1 | No | — | Yes | Teams migrating from Kinsta Application Hosting (direct successor) | sevalla.com |
| 7 | Fly.io | $29/mo Support Standard | No | Yes | Yes | Latency-sensitive apps needing global edge deployment across 30+ regions | fly.io |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest paas / app hosting?
DigitalOcean App Platform has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Static Sites (Free)), as of 2026-06-15.
How much does paas / app hosting cost per month?
Across the 7 paas / app hosting with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $5/mo, ranging from $5/mo to $29/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 3 also offer a free tier.
Which paas / app hosting have a free plan?
DigitalOcean App Platform, Render, Vercel offer a free tier.
Which paas / app hosting support HIPAA?
Render, Vercel, Heroku, Railway, Fly.io state HIPAA support (a BAA). Always confirm current scope with the vendor.
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How we compiled this
Published self-serve USD pricing was collected directly from each vendor's official pricing page via live WebFetch on 2026-06-14 (accessedAt field) or from the vendor's official changelog/docs when the pricing page rendered JS-only. Render's pricing page returned JS-rendered content with no prices extractable; current prices were obtained from render.com/changelog (April 23, 2026 entry confirming Hobby free / Pro $25/month flat / Scale $499/month flat). Fly.io operates purely usage-metered with no flat tiers; the lowest published committed compute rate is recorded and unit rates are in notes. Quote-only and contact-sales tiers are recorded with monthlyUsd = null — no figures were guessed. Telephony fields (minutesIncluded, callsIncluded, overagePerMin, overagePerCall) are null on every plan because this is a non-telephony vertical. Heroku has many dyno SKUs; only the primary Cedar platform dyno tiers are recorded to keep the dataset tractable. Railway's free Trial plan is one-time $5 credit (not a recurring plan) and is excluded; the Hobby and Pro recurring plans are recorded. Sevalla (formerly Kinsta App Hosting after redirect) is included as an additional vendor with clear published pricing.
Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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