# Alternatives to Koyeb

Koyeb lets developers deploy Git- or Docker-based services onto autoscaling microVMs with managed Postgres and multi-region placement. Mistral AI acquired Koyeb in early 2026, closing free-tier signups to new users and shifting roadmap emphasis toward AI/GPU inference, though the platform still hosts general web APIs and services.

Koyeb ranks #10 of 12 in Cloud PaaS, with an Alt Score of 82. It is freemium from $29/mo and available on macOS, Linux and Windows. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/koyeb/
Category: Cloud PaaS

## Where Koyeb stands out

- **Free tier** — 4 of 12 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Developers and teams deploying web applications, APIs, background workers, and AI/GPU inference workloads who want to avoid managing servers or Kubernetes directly.
- **What you get**: A serverless application platform that runs containers on autoscaling, secure VMs across CPU, GPU, and accelerator hardware, plus managed serverless PostgreSQL databases, private inter-service networking, and a CLI/API/Terraform/Pulumi toolchain.
- **How it works**: You connect a GitHub repository or push a container image, and Koyeb either builds it with cloud-native buildpacks (no Dockerfile required) or runs your own Dockerfile, then deploys it to bare-metal-backed Instances in one or more regions with autoscaling, scale-to-zero, and a built-in service mesh for private communication between Services.

## Profile

- **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-30)
- **Starts at**: $29/mo (verified 2026-07-30)
- **Platforms**: macOS, Linux, Windows
- **Status**: acquired (verified 2026-07-30)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Northflank](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/northflank.md) | 100 | ? | ? |
| 2 | [Render](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/render.md) | 96 | Proprietary | Web |
| 3 | [Clever Cloud](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/clever-cloud.md) | 91 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| 4 | [Heroku](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/heroku.md) | 91 | Proprietary | Web |
| 5 | [Upsun](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/upsun.md) | 91 | ? | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| 6 | [DigitalOcean App Platform](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/digitalocean-app-platform.md) | 86 | Proprietary | Web |
| 7 | [Porter](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/porter.md) | 86 | ? | Web, macOS, Linux, Windows |
| 8 | [Qovery](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/qovery.md) | 86 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| 9 | [Scalingo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/scalingo.md) | 86 | ? | Web |
| 10 | [Railway](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/railway.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Web |
| 11 | [Fly.io](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/flyio.md) | 68 | Proprietary | Web |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Cloud PaaS checklist | Koyeb | Northflank | Render | Clever Cloud | Heroku | Upsun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Usage-based | Freemium | Usage-based | Subscription | Usage-based |
| Starts at | $29/mo | $0/mo | Free | ? | $5/month | €9/project/mo |
| License | ? | ? | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | ? |
| Platforms | macOS, Linux, Windows | ? | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Autoscaling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Managed databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Regions available | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero-config deploys | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preview environments | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cron jobs | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Private networking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing predictability | Partial | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| CLI quality | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Koyeb. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Starts at**: $29/mo — <https://www.koyeb.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Pro is the cheapest named paid plan; price is +compute usage on top. A free tier (1 web service + 1 Postgres DB) exists with no paid plan required, but is slated for removal for new signups per the Fe
  - Quote: “Pro $ 29 /mo +compute The best way to start, including team and support features for production apps.”
- **Pricing model**: Freemium — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/faqs/pricing> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Beyond the free allowances, billing is usage-based per second, and optional Pro/Scale/Enterprise subscriptions add support and higher limits.
  - Quote: “Each organization has access to: One free web Service in the Frankfurt or Washington, D.C. regions with 512MB of RAM, 0.1 vCPU, and 2GB of SSD. One free PostgreSQL database limited to 5 hours of activ”
- **Platforms**: macOS, Linux, Windows — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/koyeb/koyeb-cli/master/README.md> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Reflects supported Koyeb CLI platforms per the koyeb-cli GitHub README; the product is otherwise operated through a browser-based control panel (app.koyeb.com), but no page explicitly labeled that as
  - Quote: “The CLI can be installed from pre-compiled binaries for macOS (darwin), Linux and Windows.”
- **Status**: acquired — <https://www.koyeb.com/blog/koyeb-is-joining-mistral-ai-to-build-the-future-of-ai-infrastructure> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: IMPORTANT: Announced Feb 17, 2026. Per the same post, 'the Koyeb platform will continue operating' and will 'gradually transition to become a core part of Mistral Compute'; billing stays on Koyeb's ow
  - Quote: “Today, we're thrilled to announce that Koyeb has entered into a definitive agreement to join Mistral AI to advance cutting-edge AI infrastructure.”
- **Free tier**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/faqs/pricing> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Still live as of this page's May 27, 2026 update and confirmed present in the live plan-gating config on the pricing page today, but Koyeb announced in Feb 2026 that the free Starter plan will soon be
  - Quote: “Each organization has access to: One free web Service in the Frankfurt or Washington, D.C. regions with 512MB of RAM, 0.1 vCPU, and 2GB of SSD. One free PostgreSQL database limited to 5 hours of activ”
- **Autoscaling**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/run-and-scale/autoscaling> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Scaling factors include CPU usage, memory usage, requests per second, concurrent connections, and P95 response time; can scale to zero.
  - Quote: “Autoscaling allows you to dynamically adjust the number of Instances within a Service according to configurable targets for resource utilization and request rates.”
- **Managed databases**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/databases> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Serverless Postgres versions 14-17, scale-to-zero, billed by the second.
  - Quote: “Koyeb Database Services are managed PostgreSQL database clusters. Each Database Service can define multiple logical databases that contain tables, indexes, views, and more.”
- **Regions available**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/reference/regions> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: 6 core regions plus 1 preview region (SFO) across US, EU, and Asia; preview regions require a paid plan. Enterprise plan adds 50 on-demand regions and BYOC per the pricing page.
  - Quote: “Koyeb offers the following core regions: FRA: Frankfurt, Germany WAS: Washington D.C., USA SIN: Singapore TYO: Tokyo, Japan PAR: Paris, France aws-us-east-1: AWS US East (N. Virginia, USA) Additionall”
- **Zero-config deploys**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/build-and-deploy> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Supports Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP, Java, Scala without a Dockerfile; Dockerfile builds are also available if more control is needed.
  - Quote: “The buildpack builder uses cloud native buildpacks to automatically detect your application's language and dependencies, then builds a container image without requiring a Dockerfile.”
- **Preview environments**: Partial — <https://www.koyeb.com/tutorials/deploy-preview-environments-on-koyeb-for-github-pull-requests> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Achieved by wiring up a documented GitHub Actions workflow (deploy on PR open, teardown on close/merge) using a Koyeb personal access token; not a native one-click preview-environments feature like so
  - Quote: “In this tutorial, we will explain how to automatically deploy your application using GitHub Actions each time a pull request is made for your GitHub repository.”
- **Cron jobs**: No — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/reference/services> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Only Web Service and Worker service types are documented; there is no native scheduled/cron job type. An official tutorial shows running the third-party Supercronic scheduler inside a Worker container
  - Quote: “For each Service, you choose the type of process you require: Web Service: to run any HTTP, HTTP/2, WebSocket, or gRPC applications. ... Worker: to perform background tasks and asynchronous jobs.”
- **Private networking**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/reference/service-mesh-and-discovery> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Encrypted inter-service mesh with automatic private DNS naming (<SERVICE_NAME>.<APP_NAME>); Free-tier Instances are excluded from the mesh.
  - Quote: “Services deployed in a Koyeb Organization can communicate with each other using a private mesh network. ... No configuration is needed to benefit from the service mesh.”
- **Pricing predictability**: Partial — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/faqs/pricing> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Core billing is usage-based per second (Instances x time x price) with no built-in spending cap or budget alert yet, so costs can be hard to predict precisely; subscription plans include a fixed base
  - Quote: “We are working on a spending limits feature and hope to offer it soon. In the meantime, you can estimate your monthly costs based on our Instance documentation.”
- **CLI quality**: Yes — <https://www.koyeb.com/docs/build-and-deploy/cli/reference> (verified 2026-07-30)
  - Note: Covers apps, databases, deployments, domains, instances, metrics, organizations, secrets, services, snapshots, and volumes, with yaml/json/table output and shell auto-completion; installable via Homeb
  - Quote: “The Koyeb CLI allows you to interact with Koyeb directly from the terminal. This documentation references all commands and options available in the CLI.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/