Pantheon vs Upsun (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Upsun grades higher than Pantheon: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Pantheon grades higher on ease of use. Upsun grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Pantheon
Managed WordPress, Drupal and Next.js hosting for teams
Upsun
Application cloud priced by provisioned resources
Which one is for you
Pick Pantheon if
- Fits if you run several WordPress or Drupal sites and want staging by default
- Works for teams that need an uptime SLA and SSO
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want one live site: Gold plus a Basic site is $500 + $42 a month
- Skip it if you want a free site that goes live, since sandboxes can't use a domain
- Watch out: Basic's visitor allowance is 25k a month, or 35k on annual billing
- Watch out: Multidev, automated updates and 24/7 support need Gold, and SSO and an SLA need Platinum or Diamond
Pick Upsun if
- Fits if your team wants a preview environment for every branch
- Works for developers who deploy across several clouds
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a simple site host, as projects are configured in files
- Watch out: the total is a project fee plus users plus CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth
- Watch out: Elasticsearch and MongoDB are premium services that need a minimum commitment and sales
- Watch out: the page opened in euros, and object storage is not available on trial projects
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAPantheonFair | 2.2GPAUpsunFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$42 a month for one live site on annual billing, and the Gold workspace is another $500, so $542 for the useful parts. The category middle is $11. | CEUR 9 per project plus EUR 10 per user a month, plus CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth, so one person lands around the top of the category. |
| Free plan and trial | CThe Silver workspace is $0 with 2 sandbox sites, but they can't use a domain, and you need a site plan to go live. | CA 15-day trial with no card, covering 1 project fee and 1 user license. |
| Features | BDev, staging and production environments, Git CI/CD, CLI, Multidev, CDN and WAF. The listing names no core gap, though Multidev and 24/7 support need Gold. | BPreview environments, multicloud deployment, backups and access management cover the whole job. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. There are workspaces, site plans and a Git pipeline to set up. | DNo store rating on record, and projects are set up with configuration files. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no integrations or API listed in the record. | BWeb and API, with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IBM Cloud and OVHcloud as hosts and Okta for sign-in. |
| Best for | WordPress and Drupal for teams | an application cloud for developer teams |
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: Pantheon and Upsun. How we grade
Price against what you get
Pantheon starts at $42 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Upsun starts at about $10.05 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Upsun starts $31.95 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 12 score higher than Pantheon for less, and 3 score higher than Upsun 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
- Pantheon also covers managed WordPress and page speed.
- Upsun also covers databases and workflow automation.
At a glance
| Pantheon | Upsun | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $42 per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly), for one live site | €9 per project / month plus €10 per user / month, plus resources |
| Free plan | Silver workspace: $0 with two sandbox sites; a site plan is needed before going live or connecting a domain. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 15-day free trial with no card; a monthly credit covers 1 project fee and 1 user license |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Pantheon | Upsun |
| Price read from | pantheon.io | upsun.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Pantheon
- Cost is workspace plus one site plan per live site: Gold with a Basic site is $500 + $42 a month on annual billing.
- Sandbox sites on the free Silver workspace cannot go live or connect a domain without a site plan.
- Annual billing raises the visitor allowance by 40%, for example 35k instead of 25k on Basic.
- Multidev, automated updates and 24/7 support need Gold; SSO, multi-zone failover and an SLA need Platinum or Diamond.
Upsun
- The page opened in euros and offers GBP, USD, CAD and AUD; the figures here are the euro prices shown.
- Costs depend on what you provision: a project's total is the project fee plus users, CPU, memory, storage and bandwidth.
- Elasticsearch and MongoDB are premium managed services that need a minimum commitment and contact with sales.
- Object storage is not available on trial projects.
Key features
Pantheon
- Dev, staging and production
- Every plan includes separate development, staging and production environments with built-in version control and backups.
- WordPress and Drupal
- Sites run WordPress or Drupal, and the platform pages also describe Next.js hosting and a serverless CMS option.
- Git-based pipeline and CLI
- A Git-based CI/CD pipeline and a command line interface come with the free Silver workspace.
- Multidev environments
- On-demand environments for testing changes in parallel are part of the Gold workspace and above.
- Autopilot updates
- The Gold workspace adds automated updates and visual regression testing for plugin and core updates.
- Global CDN and WAF
- The platform lists a global CDN with a web application firewall, and Platinum adds an advanced CDN with WAF.
Upsun
- Preview environments
- Every Git branch can get a full-stack environment, and on-demand preview environments are part of the project fee.
- Provisioned resources, billed per second
- Shared CPU is €0.033 an hour and 1 GB of application memory €0.013 an hour, billed per second on what is allocated.
- Multicloud deployment
- Projects can be placed on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IBM Cloud or OVHcloud, with a 3% credit in six greener regions.
- Storage and backups
- Disk is €0.49 per GB a month per environment, backups €0.10 per GB, and object storage €0.0833 per GB with a 512 GB minimum.
- Access management
- Advanced user management adds teams, MFA enforcement and single sign-on through Google or OIDC providers such as Entra ID and Okta.
Plans
Pantheon
Silver workspace$0
per month, plus a site plan to go live
Two sandbox sites, Git-based CI/CD, a command line interface and basic chat support. Sandbox sites cannot use a domain.
Gold workspace$500
per month, billed annually ($600 billed monthly)
Everything in Silver plus on-demand environments (Multidev), automated updates, visual regression testing and 24/7 support.
Basic site plan$42
per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly)
For small, low-traffic sites: 35k monthly visitors on annual billing (25k monthly), 1 app container and 5 custom domains.
Performance Small site plan$160
per month, billed annually ($200 billed monthly)
35k visitors on annual billing (25k monthly), 1 app container and 10 custom domains. Medium is $275 ($350 monthly).
Performance Large site plan$550
per month, billed annually ($700 billed monthly)
210k visitors on annual billing (150k monthly) and 3 app containers. XL is $917 ($1,150 monthly) for 420k visitors.
Platinum and DiamondCustom
Sold through sales for up to 100M visitors: multi-zone failover, SSO, an uptime SLA for elite sites and an advanced CDN with WAF.
Upsun
Project fee€9.00
per project / month, plus resources
Includes preview environments, 30 days of metrics, 10 GB egress and 500,000 ingress requests.
User license€10.00
per user / month
Custom project and environment permissions; Advanced user management adds €9 per user for teams, MFA and SSO.
Ways to pay less
Pantheon
- Annual discount
Annual billing lowers the monthly rate
Site plans are cheaper per month when billed annually, for example Basic at $42 instead of $55, and annual billing also adds about 40% more visitors.
Upsun
- Other savings
First project incentive
The pricing page says the first user license and first project fee, up to $19 a month, are saved automatically, with terms and conditions applying.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Pantheon or Upsun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Upsun is cheaper to start with: about $10.05 a month, against $42 a month for Pantheon. Pantheon starts at $42 per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly), for one live site, and Upsun starts at €9 per project / month plus €10 per user / month, plus resources.
Which has a free plan, Pantheon or Upsun?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Pantheon has a free plan. Upsun does not, though it has a free trial.
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.