Overview
Northflank is a platform layer on Kubernetes. From one UI, CLI, API or GitOps setup you build code from GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, run it as services or scheduled jobs, attach managed database and queue addons and volumes, and promote releases through pipelines with preview environments per pull request. GPU workloads (L4 to H100 and RTX PRO 6000) run alongside CPU services.
Its distinctive feature is Bring Your Own Cloud: the same platform can deploy into your own EKS, GKE, AKS, Oracle, Civo, CoreWeave or bare-metal Kubernetes cluster, so data stays in your account while developers keep the PaaS workflow. Enterprise customers can run the control plane in their own VPC.
On Northflank's managed cloud you pay per second for vCPU and memory, with preset sizes from $2.70 a month (0.1 vCPU, 256 MB) up to 20 dedicated vCPUs. Teams are free, with no per-seat fees. The Sandbox tier gives two always-on services, one database and two cron jobs at no cost for evaluation. Egress at $0.06/GB is higher than some rivals.
Pricing and plans
checked 28 Sept 2026Free tier
Sandbox tier: 2 free always-on services, 1 free database and 2 free cron jobs, intended for testing the platform.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Sandbox | $0 | 2 services, 1 database, 2 cron jobs, always on |
| nf-compute-10 | $2.70/mo | 0.1 shared vCPU, 256 MB |
| nf-compute-20 | $5.40/mo | 0.2 shared vCPU, 512 MB |
| nf-compute-50 | $12/mo | 0.5 shared vCPU, 1 GB |
| nf-compute-100-2 | $24/mo | 1 dedicated vCPU, 2 GB |
| NVIDIA H100 80GB | $2.74/hr | GPU workloads |
| Enterprise | Custom | Run in your VPC, SSO, audit logs, 24/7 support and SLA |
What it does
- Bring Your Own Cloud
- Deploy into your own AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle or other Kubernetes clusters with the same workflow.
- Pipelines and previews
- Build, deploy and release pipelines with preview environments from pull requests.
- Addons
- Managed databases, caches and queues with backups, provisioned next to services.
- GPU workloads
- On-demand GPUs including H100 80GB at $2.74/hr, plus spot instances and fractional GPUs.
- Jobs
- Cron and one-off jobs billed only while they run.
- Templates and GitOps
- Reusable infrastructure-as-code templates synced from Git.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Can run inside your own cloud account without changing the developer workflow.
- Very small container sizes from $2.70/month.
- No seat-based pricing; teams included.
- Free Sandbox services do not sleep.
Limitations
- Egress is $0.06/GB, more than several competitors.
- The Sandbox tier is limited to 2 services, 1 database and 2 cron jobs.
- SSO, audit logs and SLAs require an Enterprise agreement.
- Kubernetes-based concepts add some learning curve compared with simpler PaaS products.
Who it suits
Good for
- Startups that expect to move into their own AWS/GCP/Azure account later
- Teams running both web services and GPU jobs
- Regulated companies that need workloads in their VPC
Look elsewhere if
- Bandwidth-heavy public sites
- Developers who want the simplest possible click-to-deploy host
Alternatives to Northflank
| Tool | From | Free option | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers (incl. Pages) Edge serverless platform | $5/mo | Free tier | |
| Google Cloud Run Serverless containers | Usage-based | Free tier | |
| Netlify Frontend and serverless platform | $9/mo | Free tier | |
| Render Managed PaaS | $7/mo | Free tier | |
| Vercel Frontend and serverless platform | $20/mo | Free tier | |
| alwaysdata European managed hosting | €5/mo | Free tier |
Questions
Does Northflank have a free tier?
Yes, the Sandbox tier includes 2 free always-on services, 1 free database and 2 free cron jobs.
How much does Northflank compute cost?
$0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB of memory per hour; the smallest preset (0.1 vCPU, 256 MB) is $2.70/month.
Can Northflank deploy to my own AWS account?
Yes. With Bring Your Own Cloud it deploys into your EKS, GKE, AKS and other Kubernetes clusters, with no added Northflank cost for running in your VPC on pay-as-you-go.
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