Render, at the price of the server.
Keep push deploys, preview environments, Postgres and Redis. Run them on one server you rent, where four services share the RAM instead of paying four plans, and 20 TB of traffic is included.
Same app, two bills.
A web service, a background worker, Postgres and Key Value cost $38 a month small, $197 medium and $806 large on Render's list prices. The same four services run on one rented server for $16, $28 and $45, including $9 for custom domains on Ployz Cloud. Render prices by memory, per service: 4 GB is $85 on a web service and 1 GB of Key Value is $20. Move the sliders to match your app. The full breakdown is in Render pricing in 2026.
- RAM Render allocates
- 9 GB
- Render workspace
- Pro, $25 flat
- Render (Hobby for one person, Pro for a team)$197/mo
List prices. Postgres storage at $0.30/GB, bandwidth past 5 GB (Hobby) or 25 GB (Pro) at $0.15/GB.
- Your own server + Ployz$28/mo
Cheapest Hetzner CX23/CX33/CX43/CX53 with the same RAM and a disk twice the database, $0.60 IPv4, $9 for Ployz custom domains. Shared vCPUs. 20 TB of traffic included.
Server prices are Hetzner's in Europe. In the US, a DigitalOcean Droplet or Netcup's Manassas datacenter is the cheap option; see Hetzner vs DigitalOcean.
Everything you run on Render has a place to go.
Render's services map one to one. The difference is that they share one machine and one bill.
| What you need | Render | Ployz on your server |
|---|---|---|
| Web services | From $7 (512 MB) to $175 (8 GB) each, per instance | One service per process on your server; push to GitHub and it builds there or in your own GitHub Actions |
| Background workers | Same price list as web services, no free plan | Another service on the same server, sharing its RAM |
| Postgres | From $6, plus $0.30/GB storage that never shrinks; point-in-time recovery included | One-click Postgres on your server, a plain service with a volume. No backups from Ployz |
| Key Value (Redis) | $10 for 256 MB, $20 for 1 GB, $100 for 5 GB | One-click Redis, limited by your server's RAM |
| Preview environments | Single-service on Hobby; full-stack needs the $25 Pro workspace, billed like any service | A preview environment for every pull request, with its own HTTPS address, on your servers. Unlimited and free |
| Disks | $0.25/GB; a service with a disk can't run multiple instances and has brief downtime on deploys | A volume is a disk on one server with a storage limit you set. A service with a volume runs one replica and has a short gap on deploy |
| Bandwidth | 5 GB (Hobby) or 25 GB (Pro) included, then $0.15/GB | Whatever your server includes: 20 TB on Hetzner in Europe |
| Price | Workspace fee plus a plan per service | Your server, plus $9 a month for custom domains. Free on your own servers |
What you give up.
Render is a fair deal for not running anything. Leaving it means taking these jobs back:
- Backups. Paid Render Postgres has point-in-time recovery, 3 days on Hobby and 7 on Pro. Ployz doesn't back up databases, so you run a
pg_dumpon a schedule to another machine (how, in the docs). The Postgres hosting guide has the script. - Cron jobs. Render has a cron job service type. Ployz has no built-in cron; use your framework's scheduler as a worker, or an external cron.
- Failover and autoscaling. One server is one server. Ployz runs up to 50 replicas across servers you add, but it doesn't autoscale, and a database volume lives on one machine.
- OS updates. The server's operating system is yours to keep patched.
- Team roles. Ployz is built for one operator today. Render's Scale plan has SSO and advanced roles.
- GitHub only. Ployz deploys from GitHub or any Docker image, not GitLab or Bitbucket.
If those are dealbreakers, stay on a managed platform. Railway vs Render compares the two closest hosted options on the same app.
Moving is a short checklist.
Put Ployz on a server, recreate each Render service as a service, copy the database, then switch DNS. Keep the Render services running until the new ones pass your checks, so going back is a DNS change.
$ curl -fsSL https://ployz.sh | sh
Installs the ployz CLI on macOS or Linux.
$ ployz login
Signs in to Ployz Cloud in your browser.
$ ployz up --server root@your-server
Installs Ployz on the server, builds this directory and gives it an HTTPS address.
Then add Postgres and Redis from the dashboard, copy your environment variables across, and restore a pg_dump of your Render database (from its external connection string) before you switch DNS. Your build and start commands carry over; no Dockerfile is needed for Node, Python, Ruby, PHP, Go, Rust, Java or Elixir. The quick start shows the same first deploy from the dashboard.
Questions
What is a cheaper alternative to Render?
A server you rent. A web service, worker, Postgres and Redis that cost $197 a month on Render Pro fit on a $18.49 Hetzner CX43, about $28 with Ployz custom domains. Among hosted platforms, Railway and Fly.io usually come in under Render once you serve real traffic, because Render charges $0.15 per GB past 25 GB.
Is Render still free?
Partly. The Hobby workspace is $0 and web services, Postgres and Key Value have free plans. Free web services spin down after 15 minutes idle and take about a minute to wake, free Postgres expires after 30 days, and free Key Value loses its data on restart. The always-on fix is $7 a month per service.
Why is Render so expensive?
Render prices memory, per service. Each service holds its own plan, so four small services pay four minimums, and unused RAM in one can't be lent to another. Pro includes 25 GB of bandwidth, then $0.15 per GB. On one server, all four share the RAM and the traffic is included.
What does Ployz cost?
Ployz is free on your own servers, with unlimited servers, projects and preview environments. Custom domains on Ployz Cloud are $9 a month. You pay your server provider for the servers.
What do I need?
A Linux server with systemd, amd64 or arm64, with a public IP address and root or sudo access (Ubuntu LTS is best: there, volumes get size limits). Builds run on it too, so give it 2 GB of memory or more. And a GitHub repository. Ployz doesn't rent or create servers for you.
What happens if Ployz Cloud goes down?
Your servers keep serving your apps. You can't deploy until Ployz Cloud is back. The CLI and the software on your servers are open source (Apache-2.0).
Your servers. The whole platform. Free on your own servers.
Deploy your appFacts checked 2026-10-02.