Best DigitalOcean App Platform Alternatives

DigitalOcean's "Droplets" defined an era of cloud hosting. Recently, they introduced the App Platform—their take on PaaS. While robust, its pricing can escalate quickly for growing teams. Here are the top alternatives in 2026.

1. Remoud

Remoud is a dedicated PaaS focused on developer ergonomics. Unlike DO App Platform which can feel bolted onto an older IaaS architecture, Remoud provides exceptionally simple Git-push deployments with an actual generous free tier, making it the perfect home for side projects and scaling startups alike.

2. Railway

Railway handles infrastructure well, offering a unique canvas UI. However, their elimination of the permanent free tier and recent price scaling has left some small developers looking for homes.

3. Render

Render is highly reliable and offers robust Postgres management. Its downside is the notorious "cold boot" wait times on its free web tier, where your app is put to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity.

Why Migrate?

Migrating away from the DO App Platform generally comes down to costs and DX (Developer Experience). Dedicated PaaS solutions often provide better terminal access, snappier build log UIs, and much more predictable flat-rate billing.