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Managed PaaS · by DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean's managed app platform: flat monthly container prices with bandwidth included, free static sites, and DigitalOcean's managed databases and Droplets on the same bill.

Visit digitalocean.com ↗ Alternatives Free tier EU region
DigitalOcean App Platform homepage
§1

Overview

App Platform is DigitalOcean's Heroku-style layer on top of its cloud. You point it at a Git repository or a container image, and it builds (with buildpacks or your Dockerfile) and runs components: web services, background workers, jobs and static sites, with HTTPS, a global CDN and DDoS mitigation. Preview, staging and production environments are supported.

Pricing is by container size rather than usage. A fixed shared container is $5 a month for 512 MiB with 50 GiB of transfer; scalable shared containers start at $12 for 1 GiB, and each instance brings its own bandwidth allowance, with overage at $0.02/GiB. The free tier covers up to three static-site apps with 1 GiB of transfer each.

Databases come from DigitalOcean: a $7 development Postgres for testing, or managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey, Kafka and OpenSearch clusters for production. There is no persistent volume support in App Platform itself, so files belong in Spaces object storage.

Scale to Zero, which bills idle web services at 10% of their price, is in private preview and must be requested from support. CPU-based autoscaling needs dedicated CPU sizes.

§2

Pricing and plans

Free tier

3 static-site-only apps with 1 GiB outbound transfer each per month, custom domains, HTTPS, global CDN and DDoS mitigation; extra static apps $3/month each. No free containers.

At the limit Bills overage Outbound transfer past 1 GiB per static app is billed at $0.02/GiB.

Plan Price What you get
Free (static) $0/mo 3 static apps, 1 GiB transfer each
Shared fixed 512 MiB $5/mo 1 vCPU, 50 GiB transfer, single instance only
Shared fixed 1 GiB $10/mo 1 vCPU, 100 GiB transfer, single instance only
Shared 1 GiB $12/mo 1 vCPU, 150 GiB transfer, can scale out
Shared 2 GiB $25/mo 1 vCPU, 200 GiB transfer
Shared 4 GiB $50/mo 2 vCPUs, 250 GiB transfer
Development database $7/mo 512 MiB PostgreSQL, not for production

Transfer allowances add up across all container instances and are prorated per second; overage is $0.02/GiB. Dedicated egress IP $25/month per app. Static sites inside a paid app are free but add no bandwidth. Dedicated CPU sizes cost more. We could not find a compliance list on the App Platform pages we read, so compliance is empty.

Source: www.digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Component types
Web services, workers, scheduled and pre/post-deploy jobs, and static sites in one app spec.
Bandwidth included
Each container size includes 50 to 250 GiB of transfer; overage is $0.02/GiB.
Managed databases
Attach DigitalOcean managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey, Kafka or OpenSearch, or a $7 dev Postgres.
Autoscaling
CPU-based autoscaling on dedicated CPUs and request-based autoscaling on shared and dedicated plans.
Rollbacks and environments
Up to 10 revisions for rollback on paid apps; staging, production and preview environments.
Dedicated egress IP
A fixed outbound IP per app for $25/month, useful for allowlisted APIs.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Flat container prices with generous bandwidth make bills predictable.
  • 13 regions including Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London and Bangalore.
  • Same account and bill as DigitalOcean Droplets, Spaces and managed databases.
  • Unlimited team members, even on the free tier.

Limitations

  • No persistent volumes; the local filesystem is lost on each deploy and capped at 4 GiB.
  • Free tier covers static sites only.
  • Fixed $5 and $10 containers cannot scale beyond one instance.
  • Only AMD64 Linux images are supported; no IPv6 outbound connections.
  • Scale to Zero is a private preview, not generally available.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Small production apps that need a predictable monthly bill
  • Teams already using DigitalOcean Droplets or managed databases
  • Free hosting for a few small static sites

Look elsewhere if

  • Apps that need persistent local disks
  • Free hosting for a dynamic backend
§6

Alternatives to DigitalOcean App Platform

Tool From Free option Stages
Cloudflare Workers (incl. Pages) Edge serverless platform
$5/mo Free tier
Railway Usage-billed PaaS
$5/mo Free tier
Sevalla Managed PaaS
$5/mo Free tier
alwaysdata European managed hosting
€5/mo Free tier
Render Managed PaaS
$7/mo Free tier
Northflank Kubernetes-based PaaS
$2.70/mo Free tier

All app hosting and PaaS →

§7

Questions

Is DigitalOcean App Platform free?

Only for static sites: up to 3 static-site apps with 1 GiB of transfer each per month. Containers start at $5/month.

How much bandwidth does App Platform include?

It depends on the container: 50 GiB for the $5 size up to 250 GiB for the $50 size, summed across instances; overage is $0.02/GiB.

Can App Platform apps scale to zero?

Scale to Zero exists as a private preview for web services, billed at 10% of the normal price while asleep; you must ask support for access.

Does App Platform support databases?

Yes, a $7/month development Postgres or any DigitalOcean managed database cluster (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey, Kafka, OpenSearch).

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