# Hosting picker: find where to host your app

> Answer four questions and get three hosts that fit your project, with a monthly price and the main catch. 21 providers, prices checked October 1, 2026.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2026-10-05 | Topics: [Web Platform](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/platform/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/

This post is an app. Answer the four questions at the top and you get the three hosts that fit your project best, each with a realistic monthly price and its main catch.

Under the picker you'll find every host with its plans, catches and features, and a tool to compare any two of them side by side.

It started as a separate site, hostingpicker.dev. I moved everything here, so the data and the explanation live on the same page.

## How the picks are ranked

The picker first drops every host that can't run your kind of project, or can't give you the database you asked for.

Then it looks at your budget. It keeps the hosts whose estimate fits, and adds hosts above the budget only when fewer than three fit. Those are marked "over budget".

What's left is sorted by how easy the host is to deploy to. When two are equally easy, the cheaper one at your traffic goes first, and when they also cost the same, the one that stays cheaper as traffic grows wins. You get at most one option per provider.

The order is the same for everyone. Nobody pays to be in it, and none of the links in the app are affiliate links.

## What the prices mean

Every price comes from the provider's own pricing page. I checked all 21 providers on October 1, 2026, and each host shows that date in its details.

"Paid from" is the cheapest paid plan. The monthly estimates are what a small app would cost at three stages: just starting, steady (real users every day) and growing.

The estimates cover the app itself. A managed database usually bills on top, and the picker reminds you when you ask for one. Email, payment fees and the model API calls of an AI app aren't included either.

A few hosts price in euros. The app shows those prices in euros, and converts them at 1.1 only to compare them with your budget.

## Quick answers for common projects

Each link opens the picker with the answers already set for that kind of project.

| Project | What to keep in mind | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A Next.js app, with a database from a service like Neon or Supabase | Next.js runs anywhere Node.js runs. A managed platform builds and deploys on every push, while a VPS leaves the server, updates and backups to you. Vercel's free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial projects only. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=fullstack-js&db=byo&traffic=steady&budget=any#pick) |
| A static site, a blog, an Astro site or a client-side React app | You can almost always start for free. Bandwidth and build limits matter more than server power, and Cloudflare doesn't charge for bandwidth. If you add server rendering, pick a full-stack host instead. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=static-site&db=none&traffic=starting&budget=free#pick) |
| An API with a database | The app and the database are two bills, and the database can cost more than the app. Add both before you compare. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=backend-api&db=managed&traffic=steady&budget=any#pick) |
| A SaaS app | Optimize for easy operations first. The cheapest compute isn't always the cheapest system to run once you add backups, jobs and logs. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=saas&db=managed&traffic=steady&budget=any#pick) |
| An AI app that calls a model API | Look for response streaming and generous time limits. The model usage will probably cost more than the host, so set spending limits before you launch. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=ai-app&db=byo&traffic=starting&budget=10#pick) |
| A side project for $10 a month or less | Free plans come with daily request caps, credit pools and rules against commercial use. Read them before you rely on one. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=fullstack-js&db=byo&traffic=starting&budget=10#pick) |
| A Docker container | A managed container platform and a VPS run the same image. The real choice is how much server work you want to do. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=docker-container&db=byo&traffic=steady&budget=any#pick) |
| A self-hosted tool like n8n, Ghost or Umami | Starting it is the easy part. Decide where the data lives and how you'll restore it before you deploy. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=selfhosted-tool&db=self&traffic=steady&budget=10#pick) |
| A background worker or a bot | You need a process that keeps running and restarts after a crash, so request-only functions are out. A worker costs money even when the queue is empty. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=queue-worker&db=byo&traffic=steady&budget=25#pick) |
| Scheduled jobs | Don't keep a server running for a script that runs for a minute. Cron triggers on serverless platforms charge only while the job runs. | [Picks](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-picker/?project=cron-jobs&db=none&traffic=starting&budget=10#pick) |

## Which kind of host do you need?

The hosts in the app come in three types.

Serverless platforms like Vercel, Netlify and Cloudflare serve your static files and run your code on each request. App platforms like Railway, Render and Heroku run your app as a long-lived process and deploy it from Git. A virtual server (VPS) from Hetzner, DigitalOcean and the others is a small Linux machine where you set up everything yourself.

A VPS usually gives you the most machine for the money, and also the most work.

I explain each type, with my own picks by project, in [where to host your web app](https://flaviocopes.com/where-to-host/). If you want to start at $0, [every hosting provider's free tier, side by side](https://flaviocopes.com/hosting-free-tiers/) goes through the limits of each free plan. And for the other half of the bill, [where to run Postgres or SQLite for a side project](https://flaviocopes.com/database-hosting-options/) compares ten database options and what each costs.