Northflank vs Porter (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Northflank grades higher than Porter: 2.6 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Northflank grades higher on value for money, the free plan and features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Northflank
Container platform for services, jobs, databases and GPUs
Which one is for you
Pick Northflank if
- Fits if you want container hosting billed by the second
- Works for teams that want to run in their own AWS, Google Cloud or Azure account
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay on Sandbox: 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database
- Watch out: SAML, SCIM and audit logging need Enterprise
- Watch out: egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud
- Pricey if you size up, as the $12 figure is only the smallest compute plan
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
| 2.6GPANorthflankGood | 1.6GPAPorterWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$12 a month for the smallest plan, billed by the second, with a 2 vCPU, 4 GB plan at $48. Egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud. | 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 | BSandbox is free with no card: 2 services, 2 jobs, 1 database, always on, up to $20 of resources a month. | FNo free plan and no trial on record, so you pay from the start. |
| Features | BServices, jobs, Postgres and Redis, autoscaling, RBAC, GPUs and bring-your-own-cloud. The listing names no core gap. | 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 configure services, builds and cloud accounts. | CYou connect a cloud account and configure apps, with no store rating. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle, Postgres, Redis and an SDK. | BWeb dashboard with a few integrations, built on GitHub. |
| Best for | containers billed by the second, or in 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: Northflank and Porter. How we grade
Price against what you get
Northflank starts at $12 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Porter starts at $13 a month and scores 2.3.
Northflank scores higher and starts $1 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Northflank 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
- Porter also covers workflow automation and job scheduling.
At a glance
| Northflank | Porter | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $12 per month for 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB, billed by the second | Metered: $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU, per month, plus your cloud bill |
| Free plan | Sandbox: free, no card needed, with 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database, up to $20 a month of resources on Northflank Cloud, and 1 bring-your-own-cloud cluster up to 12 vCPU and 48 GB. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Northflank | Porter |
| Price read from | northflank.com | porter.run |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Northflank
- Network egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud, and ingress is free.
- The Sandbox tier is capped at 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database.
- SAML, SCIM and audit logging need the Enterprise plan.
- The price depends on what you run; the monthly figures on the page are for always-on compute.
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
Northflank
- Bring your own cloud
- Workloads can run on Northflank Cloud or in your own cloud account, where compute is billed at $0.02083 per node vCPU hour.
- Per-second billing
- Every resource is billed by the second, with no seat fees and unlimited users on the paid plan.
- GPUs
- GPUs on Northflank Cloud range from an L4 at $0.80 an hour to a B200 at $5.87 an hour, and BYOC GPUs are billed at $1.00 per GB of VRAM a month.
- Databases and storage
- Postgres and Redis databases are listed, with NVMe persistent disk at $0.11657 per GiB a month.
- Autoscaling and RBAC
- Autoscaling, role-based access control and a Platform SDK are included on pay-as-you-go.
- Bill estimator
- A calculator on the pricing page estimates a month's bill from a chosen mix of services, databases and sizes.
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
Northflank
Sandbox$0
2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database, always on with no sleeping, and up to $20 a month of resources.
Pay as you go$12
per month for the smallest compute plan, billed by the second
Unlimited users, deployments and workloads. Compute is $0.01667 per vCPU hour, memory $0.00833 per GB hour; the page shows a 2 vCPU, 4 GB plan at $48 a month.
EnterpriseCustom
Platform fee, usage, support and SLA: your own VPC or air-gapped setup, SAML, SCIM, audit logging and a dedicated Slack channel.
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
Northflank
No public discounts listed.
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, Northflank or Porter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Northflank is cheaper to start with: $12 a month, against $13 a month for Porter. Northflank starts at $12 per month for 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB, billed by the second, 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, Northflank or Porter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Northflank 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.