Render
Managed hosting for web apps, APIs and databases.
About
A managed cloud for web services, static sites, cron jobs and managed Postgres, all deployed from git. Free tier for static sites and hobby services; predictable per-instance pricing as you scale.
Pros
- Push-to-deploy web services, static sites and cron jobs
- Managed Postgres and Redis alongside your app
- Predictable per-instance pricing
Cons
- Free-tier services spin down when idle
- Fewer regions than the hyperscalers
What it solves
You want Heroku-style simplicity - push to deploy, managed databases, no server babysitting - without the legacy pricing. Render fills that gap.
When not to use it
Free instances sleep and cold-start, and very large or specialised workloads may be cheaper on raw cloud infra.