Convox vs Porter (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Convox grades higher than Porter: 2.0 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Convox grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Convox
Heroku-style deploy platform that runs in your own cloud account
Which one is for you
Pick Convox if
- Fits if you want Heroku-style deploys inside your own AWS or Google Cloud account
- Makes sense if you are one developer who can stay within the free plan
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are a small team, at $165 a month for 2 users and $99 for each extra
- Tight if you want more than 1 rack or 2 workflows, which the free plan caps
- Skip it if you need RBAC or email support, as those start at Pro at $415 a month
- Watch out: the self-hosted console for PCI or HIPAA is quoted through sales
Pick Porter if
- Fits if you want Heroku-style deploys on your own cloud account
- Works for startups moving off Heroku
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you add it up: the fee comes on top of your cloud provider's bill
- Skip it if you want a free tier, as none is listed
- Tight if you need SSO, advanced roles or volume discounts, which need Enterprise and a sales call
- Watch out: billing is on requested resources, not cloud instance capacity
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAConvoxFair | 1.6GPAPorterWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DBasic is $165 a month billed annually with 2 users, many times the $10.99 middle for web hosting, and each extra user is $99. Your cloud account is billed separately. | D$6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU a month, so 1 vCPU with 2 GB is $25 before the cloud bill, above the ordinary range. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with API throttling. Those caps will be hit by any team. | FNo free plan and no trial on record, so you pay from the start. |
| Features | CAuto-scaling, CI/CD workflows, racks and quick apps, database and cache management and a local rack. RBAC and email support start at Pro, and WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon. | CGitHub deploys, autoscaling, monitoring, logs, alerts and a Heroku migration path. It relies on a cloud account you supply. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You connect cloud accounts and set up racks and workflows. | CYou connect a cloud account and configure apps, with no store rating. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it connects to GitHub, GitLab, Slack, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean. | BWeb dashboard with a few integrations, built on GitHub. |
| Best for | Heroku-style deploys into your own cloud | Heroku-style deploys on your own cloud |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Convox and Porter. How we grade
Price against what you get
Convox starts at $165 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Porter starts at $13 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Porter starts $152 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 12 score higher than Convox for less, and 4 score higher than Porter for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Convox also covers databases.
- Porter also covers job scheduling.
At a glance
| Convox | Porter | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly) | Metered: $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU, per month, plus your cloud bill |
| Free plan | 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with a limited monitoring dashboard. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Convox | Porter |
| Price read from | convox.com | porter.run |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Convox
- Convox's fee covers the console only; infrastructure is billed by your cloud provider, though the FAQ says Convox adds no markup on instances or apps.
- Each user beyond those included costs $99 a month on every paid plan.
- RBAC and email support start on Pro, and the self-hosted console for PCI/HIPAA is quoted through sales.
- WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon.
Porter
- Porter's metered fee does not include the underlying AWS, Azure or Google Cloud cost, which is billed separately by the provider.
- Rates are $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU a month, billed on requested resources rather than cloud instance capacity.
- Volume discounts, SSO and advanced roles are Enterprise features that require talking to sales.
- The pricing FAQ mentions startup deals through some accelerators and investors, and a 50% discount for non-profits.
Key features
Convox
- Runs in your cloud account
- Convox deploys to your own AWS, Google Cloud, Azure or DigitalOcean account, so you keep direct access to the infrastructure.
- Auto-scaling
- The platform ships with pre-configured auto-scaling policies that can be tuned as needs change.
- CI/CD workflows
- Workflow integrations with GitHub and GitLab build and deploy code, with a limit on workflows and concurrent jobs set by plan.
- Racks and quick apps
- Racks are the infrastructure environments Convox manages, and quick apps launch prebuilt applications such as Drupal.
- Database and cache management
- The product pages cover managing databases and caches, plus monitoring and alerts through a dashboard and Slack notifications.
- Local development rack
- A local rack installs on Mac or Linux to mirror staging and production environments on a developer machine.
Porter
- Your own cloud account
- Applications run in your AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, and the servers keep running if you stop paying Porter, according to the pricing FAQ.
- Deploy from GitHub
- Unlimited applications can be deployed from GitHub with preview environments, jobs and cron jobs.
- Autoscaling
- Applications autoscale, including custom autoscaling rules.
- Monitoring, logging and alerts
- Monitoring, logging and alerting are part of the Standard offering, along with certificate management.
- Heroku migration path
- The site has a dedicated guide for moving apps off Heroku.
- Enterprise controls
- Advanced role-based access control, SAML-based SSO and on-premise installation are offered on the Enterprise tier.
Plans
Convox
Free$0
1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows, 1 quick app and 1 deploy key, with some API throttling.
Basic$165
per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
2 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 5 racks, 10 workflows, Slack notifications and 24-hour audit logs.
Pro$415
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
5 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 20 racks, 50 workflows, simple RBAC, email support and 30-day audit logs.
Plus$832
per month, billed annually ($999 billed monthly)
10 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 100 racks, 100 workflows, priority feature requests and 90-day audit logs.
Porter
StandardCustom
Pay as you go for requested app resources: $6 per GB RAM and $13 per vCPU per month ($0.009 and $0.019 per hour). Unlimited apps, preview environments, autoscaling and cron jobs.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume discounts above 40 vCPU or 80 GB RAM, premium support, advanced RBAC, SAML SSO, custom alerts and on-prem installation. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Convox
- Annual discount
2 months free with annual billing
The pricing page marks annual billing as two months free; Basic is $165 a month billed annually against $199 billed monthly.
Porter
- Nonprofit
50% discount for non-profits
The pricing FAQ states Porter offers non-profits a 50% discount.
- Startups
Startup deal through accelerators and investors
The pricing FAQ says funded startups often have access to a deal through investors such as Y Combinator and a16z speedrun, and others can apply for the startup deal.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Convox or Porter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Porter is cheaper to start with: $13 a month, against $165 a month for Convox. Convox starts at $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly), and Porter starts at Metered: $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU, per month, plus your cloud bill.
Which has a free plan, Convox or Porter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Convox has a free plan. Porter does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.