Top 9 PaaS Hosting Providers for Apps in 2024

A PaaS (Platform as a service) hosting provider delivers hardware and software for app development, deployment, and management without owning the infrastructure and underlying services and tools.

By hosting apps on PaaS, companies can benefit from:

• Faster time to market as it provides pre-configured development environments with a smooth deployment process.
• Simplified management and easy scalability (both horizontal and vertical)
• Cost optimization with no infrastructure or maintenance costs. The pay-as-you-go model also reduces overall costs.

Geekflare team has tested the top PaaS hosting providers for apps based on their key features, use cases, pros/cons, and pricing.

• 1. Google App Engine – Best for Scalable Web Apps
• 2. DigitalOcean App Platform – Best for Developers and Small Businesses
• 3. Kinsta – Best for Beginners
• 4. Platform.sh – Best for Flexible Deployment Workflows
• 5. Virtuozzo PaaS – Best for White-Labeling Option
• 6. Azure App Service – Best for Integration with the Microsoft Ecosystem
• 7. Heroku Platform – Best for Rapid Prototyping
• 8. AWS Elastic Beanstalk – Best for Seeking Automated Deployment
• 9. Engine Yard – Best Managed AWS to Host Ruby
• Show moreShow less

1. Google App Engine

Google App Engine is a Google Cloud product that offers developer tools to build and manage monolith server-side rendered websites. In my analysis, I found that the Google App Engine is best suited for scalable web applications. That’s because the App Engine is fully managed and offers auto-scale options with adjusted pricing on the go.

As a developer, you can take advantage of its two available environments:

• Standard: Ideal for low-cost or free apps that need rapid scaling.
• Flexible: Ideal for apps that use native code, use docker containers with custom runtime or apps that need access to resources residing on the Compute Engine network. It runs within Compute Engine virtual machines (VM).

I also found that development teams can use both environments in parallel to maximize scalability and performance.

As GAE is fully managed, it takes care of server management and configuration deployments. Developers can use programming languages of their choice, such as Java, Ruby, Node.js, Go, Python, C#, PHP, or other programming languages (via custom runtimes).  

Google App Engine Features

• Offers Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging tools that help monitor the app’s performance and health.
• Comes with the Error Reporting tool to help quickly diagnose and fix bugs.
• Offers Google’s Cloud service ecosystem access to developer tools such as Google Cloud CLI, Cloud Code IDE, Cloud Workstations, and others.
• Confidently host and manage different app versions through proper version management systems.
• Supports diverse database solutions, including SQL (such as MySQL) and NoSQL (such as Filestore) databases.

Google App Engine Pricing

Google App Engine offers flexible pricing depending on basic components, including standard environment instances, App Engine APIs, services, and flexible environment instances. To get a proper estimation, refer to its pricing calculator.

I strongly advise using the $300 free credit to explore the platform.

Try Google App Engine

2. DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean(DO) App Platform is a fully-managed PaaS, ideal for developers and small businesses due to its ease-of-use and cost-effectiveness. 

I found the DO App platform excels at faster deployment. It does this by providing automated code analysis and building directly from Git repositories, including GitHub and GitLab. It can also publish containers once uploaded to the DigitalOcean Container Registry.

Furthermore, the DO App platform supports popular programming languages and frameworks such as PHP, Django, Node.js, etc.

I like how easy it is to use DigitalOcean to deploy applications, create droplets, and install applications through the marketplace.

During my research, I found DigitalOcean to offer 12 data centers across the globe including New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, and London.

DigitalOcean App Platform Features

• Built-in SSL certificate and automatic OS patching.
• Provides both horizontal and vertical scaling.
• Ability to seamlessly add functions to apps
• Supports 3rd-party log providers such as Datadog and Papertrail.
• Provides easy setup of alters and monitoring events.

DigitalOcean App Platform Pricing

DigitalOcean offers a freemium price model. Its free plan lets you host static sites (up to 3) with 1 GiB/month outbound transfer. First-time users also get $200 in credit for the first 60 days.

Its paid plan pricing starts at $5 per month, where you get 1 shared vCPU, 512 MiB, and 50 GiB per month.

Try DigitalOcean App Platform

3. Kinsta

Kinsta is an ideal pick for beginners who want affordable, fully-managed web application hosting. 

I recommend Kinsta to developers who want to build full-stack apps.  Natively, it supports 19 programming languages (PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, etc.) and 4 database types (Redis, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Valkey). However, developers can use any programming language or framework (using a custom Dockerfile setup).

During my research, I found that Kinsta matches industry performance standards. My findings include:

• Utilizes 25+ high-performance Google Cloud servers, including Sydney, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Paris.
• Offer 99.9% uptime SLA and SOC2 compliance. 
• Uses Cloudflare for optimal site delivery with benefits such as enterprise-grade security and DDoS protection.

Kinsta also offers 24/7/365 real-time chat support, where you get replies in under two minutes.

Kinsta Features

• Offers Git-based workflow, build cache, and persistent storage support
• API support and SSH access with a web terminal.
• Complete DevOps automated
• Offers runtime logs and app analytics for easy troubleshooting.
• Monitor performance with proper resource utilization and request times.
• Supports unlimited users and unlimited concurrent builds.

Kinsta Pricing

Kinsta uses a pay-as-you-use model with different pricing for server resources. These include:

• Application Pods: starts at $10/month (0.5 CPU, 1 GB RAM)
• Build Machines: starts at $0.02/minute (1 CPU, 4 GB RAM)
• Bandwidth: starts at $0.10/GB (internally free)
• Optional Persistent Storage: starts at $3/month (10 GB)

I recommend trying out Kinsta through its free trial, which gives access to $20 server resources.

Try Kinsta

4. Platform.sh

Platform.sh offers efficient, secure, and reliable PaaS cloud computing services, making it a great choice for flexible deployment workflows.

During my testing, I found Platform.sh to offer DevOps teams the freedom to choose their own language, framework, or development tool without worrying about the underlying architecture. 

Additionally, Platform.sh supports Git-based workflows and automated infrastructure provisioning (with declarative YAML templates) – improving ease of deployment.

I also found Platform.sh to offer CLI and REST API for easy integration and task accomplishment. 

Development teams also get DDEV local development, a third-party Git repository, custom domains for preview environments, and proper backups (two daily automated backups).

Platform.sh has a global data center presence with 17+ servers in Australia, Canada, the United States, France, Sweden, Germany, and Ireland.

Platform.sh Features

• Highly customizable and configurable.
• Offers proper disaster recovery with a Business Continuity Plan.
• Supports auto-scaling, vertical scaling, horizontal scaling and load balancing.
• Supports multiple architecture models (Grid, Split and Dedicated) and Flexible permission model (to allow only authorized access).
• Comes with excellent observability with performance monitoring, blackfire profiling, log forwarding and health notifications.

Platform.sh Pricing

Platform.sh offers freemium pricing. Their paid Enterprise and Elite plans as they offer benefits  like 45 mins to 1-hour urgent support SLA, dedicated account manager, Single Sign-On, etc. You need to contact their sales team for pricing info.

However, I strongly recommend checking their free Professional plan, which offers a 30-day trial (no credit card required) and includes CI/CD pipelines, a multi-cloud option, access to global regions, and more.

Try Platform.sh

5. Virtuozzo PaaS

Virtuozzo PaaS is an excellent cloud service provider for businesses looking for white-labeling options to offer their customers a virtual private cloud. It also fits the needs of companies that need multi-branding or provide local currency support.

Virtuozzo supports the most popular programming languages, such as Go, .NET, Python, etc. Furthermore, it also supports GIT, SVN, and Docker for easy deployment. As for management, Virtuozzo offers an intuitive dashboard with an application topology wizard, log access, config files, CI/CD tools integration, and team collaboration functionality.

As for data centers, Virtuozzo has over 100 data centers in 36 countries, with the option to choose servers from Massive Grid, ScaleForce, Planeeta, and others. The server locations include Dallas, Manchester, Frankfurt, and others.

Virtuozzo Features

• Manage traffic spikes using the load balancer and triggers (with horizontal or vertical scaling)
• Automatic provision using API or user interface within minutes.
• Deploy legacy monolithic and cloud-native microservices without changing code
• Marketplace that offers prepacked templates for WordPress, PostgreSQL, Docker Swarm, and others.
• Supports integrated CI/CD for automation and easy deployment.

Virtuozzo Pricing

Virtuozzo offers a pay-as-you-use model. It uses granular resource units of 400Mhz CPU and 128 MiB RAM for resource allocation, ensuring minimal cost increases when auto-scaling.

Try Virtuozzo PaaS

6. Azure App Service

Azure App Service is best for projects that use Microsoft ecosystem. It lets businesses host enterprise-ready web and mobile apps with ease via its fully managed service.

The Azure App Service benefits from excellent Microsoft infrastructure, offering reliable and scalable services. Developers are free to customize, build, and deploy their apps as per their needs.

As Azure is Microsoft’s service, it offers good support for programming languages such as .NET and .NET core. It also supports Python, Node.js, and Java. As for operating systems, it supports both Windows and Linux.

I won’t suggest Azure App Service if you are a beginner, as its range of services and options can easily confuse you.

Azure App Service Features

• Offers zero-downtime deployments with built-in CI/CD with GitHub, Git, Azure DevOps, etc.
• Comes with top-notch security with PCI and SOC compliance
• High availability (99.5% SLA) with automatic security patching and maintenance.
• Azure Web Application Firewall, Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM), and Microsoft Defender ensure high security.
• Built-in diagnostic operations with App Service diagnostics
• Ability to keep tabs on app health and performance with Application Insights and Azure Monitor.

Azure App Service Pricing

Azure App Service offers flexible pay-as-you-go (with savings of up to 55% compared) pricing, starting as low as $13.14 per month. They offer a free F1 plan with 1 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, and a shared CPU (60 CPU minutes/day).

Try Azure App Service

7. Heroku Platform

Heroku is an excellent PaaS choice for rapid prototyping as it offers a powerful ecosystem with integrated data services such as Heroku Postgres, Apache Kafka, and Heroku Key-Value store. This also makes Heroku ideal for building data-driven apps.

I recommend Heroku because it shows care and precision with its multiple key components as follows:

• Heroku Runtime: Offers fully managed Dyno smart containers that are continually patched, monitored, and upgraded. 
• Heroku Developer Experience(DX): Provides an app-centric approach to software delivery with a CI/CD philosophy.
• Data Services and Ecosystem: Offers add-ons to easily extend and customize application stack.
• Heroku Operation Experience (OpEx): helps in issues troubleshooting and remediation.
• Security and Compliance: maintains popular compliance certificates, including ISO, HIPPA, PCI, and SOC.

Furthermore, you can choose a server of your choice from 12+ locations including Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Sydney, etc.

Heroku Features

• Supports various programming languages including Ruby, PHP, Node.js, Go, Python, Clojure or Scala.
• Directly deploy from tools like Continuous Integration (CI), GitHub or Git.
• Offers an easy way to manage apps via its intuitive web-based Heroku Dashboard.
• Supports data services add-ons including Heroku Postgres, Apache Kafka on Heroku and Heroku Key-Value Store.
• Automatically scale web dynos when needed

Heroku Pricing

Heroku pricing depends on the app type:

• Eco and Basic: starts from $5 per month, best for testing ideas
• Production: starts at $.0.035 /hr, ideal for business apps
• Advanced: starts at $0.347/hr, ideal for mission-critical apps
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team, which is best for large organizations.

Try Heroku

8. AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk offers easy app deployment and scaling with access to the AWS ecosystem of tools and services.

I found Elastic Beanstalk’s biggest strength is its automated deployment. All you need to do is upload the code, and it’ll take care of auto-scaling, load balancing, capacity provisioning, and so on. This makes it ideal for the following use cases:

• Launch web apps quickly using your favorite programming language such as Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Java, Go, Python and Docker.
• Create mobile API backends using your programming language.
• Move apps from legacy infrastructure to Elastic Beanstalk and make it work with the private cloud.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk users can take full advantage of AWS ecosystem and infrastructure with access servers across 33 cities across the world including Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Portland, and others.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Features

• Deploy code via different options such as Elastic Beanstalk CLI, AWS Management Console, Eclipse and Visual Studio.
• App health monitoring via unified user interface with 40+ key metrics
• Offers integration with Amazon CloudWatch and AWS X-Ray
• Easily scale your app with Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing
• Offers compliance for PCI, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO and HIPPA.
• AWS Gravitation support that offers best price performance

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Pricing 

AWS Elastic Beanstalk pricing depends on the resources utilized, including Amazon EC2 and the AWS database. To get a clear picture, I suggest you check out their AWS Pricing Calculator. They use a pay-as-you-use model.

Try AWS Elastic Beanstalk

9. Engine Yard

Engine Yard is perfect for businesses looking for fully managed PaaS to host Ruby apps. It uses AWS infrastructure to provide a robust DevOps experience with easy-to-use Git push deployments.

As Engine Yard uses AWS, users can enjoy the AWS infrastructure benefits including scalability, high-availability and industry-standard compliances.

Engine Yard Features

• Offers auto-scaling option horizontally based on needed resources.
• Automatically analyzes code and deploys it with a 1-click Git push.
• Ensure consistent performance with a private, fully configured Kubernetes cluster with proper compliance.
• Supports continuous deployment with CI/CD.
• Offers troubleshooting with ELK capabilities (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana).

Engine Yard Pricing

Engine Yard pricing starts at $270 per month per instance, which offers platform and service. The charge can differ depending on the number of AWS EC2 instances.

Note: They offer a 14-day free trial for new users. (no credit card required).

Try Engine Yard

Comparison Table of Top PaaS Hosting Providers for Apps

Here is a quick comparison of top PaaS hosting providers for apps.

Product	Pricing	Database Support	Deployment Methods	Scalability (Auto/Manual)	Staging Environment
Google App Engine	$0.0579 – $0.3474 per hour per instance	SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL etc.) and NoSQL (Filestore, MongoDB, etc. )databases	Deployment via Google App Deploy command. It supports CI/CD deployments and Git.	Automatic (default), basic, and manual	Yes (offers multiple staging environments for different versions)
DigitalOcean App Platform	$4 (1 shared) – $392 (8 dedicated) per month	MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis	Directly from public Git repositories and containers if registered in DigitalOcean Container registry	Horizontal and vertical scaling (only with dedicated vCPUs)	Yes (but it requires a complex setup with one branch for staging and one for releasing)
Kinsta	$10 (0.5 CPU, 1 GB RAM) – $320 (8 CPU, 16 GB RAM)	Redis, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Valkey	Automatic deployment via Git-based workflow	Supports both horizontal and vertical scaling (If the app uses persistent storage, then it only supports vertical scaling)	Yes (but it requires manual creation and management)
Platform.sh	Pricing on request	MariaDB and Oracle MySQL	Git-based workflow, CI/CD	Auto-scaling, vertical scaling, and horizontal scaling	Yes, need to create a staging environment yourself
Virtuozzo	Pricing on request	Both SQL (such as MySQL, MariaDB) and NoSQL databases (such as Couchbase, MongoDB)	Git-based, CI/CD deployment via deployment manager	Both vertical and horizontal scaling (with auto-scaling option)	Yes, but you need to create yourself.
Azure App Service	Starts at $13.14 per month (1 core, 1.75 GB RAM, and 10 GB Storage)	PostgreSQL, Apache Cassandra, and MongoDB	CI/CD deployment with Git, Azure Container Registry, and Docker Hub.	Vertical and horizontal scaling	Yes, need to setup self
Heroku	$5 per month to $250 per month	PostgreSQL, MongoDB, CouchDB, Cloudant, Memcache, and others	CI/CD and Git	Native auto-scaling with support for horizontal and vertical scaling	Yes, provide tools to create and manage staging environment
AWS Elastic Beanstalk	Use AWS Calculator for exact pricing, offers pay as you use model	MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server database, Oracle	Automatic deployment via Git, CI/CD pipelines	Auto-scaling supports both vertical and horizontal	Yes
Engine Yard	$250 – $660 per month per instance	MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL	1-click Git deployment	Supports both horizontal and vertical scaling	Yes

Benefits of PaaS Hosting Provider

The 5 PaaS Hosting Provider benefits include:

1. Cost-effective approach: PaaS offers cost-effective app hosting with no need to own hardware and software required to build and ship apps.
2. Faster time to market: Due to support for automated and continuous deployment.
3. Improved security: Comes with built-in security and proper means for mitigating external threats. It also offers support for compliance with PCI, SOC2, and others.
4. Ability to experiment: PaaS lets you experiment with different setups, including operating systems, programming languages, and tools.
5. Flexibility: Provides teams the flexibility to scale up and down the app when needed.

FAQs