# Porter review (2026): is it worth paying for? > App deployment into your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Porter deploys applications into the customer's own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account without hands-on DevOps work. It bills for the CPU and memory an app requests, and the cloud provider's charges for the underlying infrastructure are billed separately by that provider. An Enterprise tier adds volume discounts, advanced roles, SSO and on-premise installation. - **Category:** Web Hosting - **Made by:** Porter - **Website:** https://www.porter.run - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you add it up: the fee comes on top of your cloud provider's bill. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Porter is a paid product, starting at Metered: $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU, per month, plus your cloud bill. - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Standard | Custom | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | Volume discounts above 40 vCPU or 80 GB RAM, premium support, advanced RBAC, SAML SSO, custom alerts and on-prem installation. Sold through sales. | Read from https://www.porter.run/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Porter before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **50% discount for non-profits** (Nonprofit): The pricing FAQ states Porter offers non-profits a 50% discount. Source: https://www.porter.run/pricing - **Startup deal through accelerators and investors** (Startups): 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. Source: https://www.porter.run/pricing ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Startups that want Heroku-like deploys inside their own cloud account - Teams using cloud credits to pay for infrastructure - Companies with growing usage that want a volume discount ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Porter deploys from GitHub into your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, billed on the memory and CPU you request. Its fee comes on top of your cloud bill, and there is no free plan. - **Value for money: 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: F.** No free plan and no trial on record, so you pay from the start. - **Features: C.** GitHub deploys, autoscaling, monitoring, logs, alerts and a Heroku migration path. It relies on a cloud account you supply. - **Ease of use: C.** You connect a cloud account and configure apps, with no store rating. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web dashboard with a few integrations, built on GitHub. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Porter's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among web hosts - Porter's GPA of 1.6 is higher than 5 of the 122 other web hosts we grade, and level with 23. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 57 of 122) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $13 a month, against a middle price of $9.69 for the category: 67 of the 107 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 4 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/web-hosting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Porter you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 94 of the 122 other web hosts grade higher. It costs $156 a year. - You could make: Job scheduling: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: single sign-on and roles and permissions. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, GitHub **Tags:** Job scheduling, Workflow automation ## Alternatives - [Qovery](https://toolgpa.com/tools/qovery): Self-service deployment onto your own cloud or Kubernetes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/porter-vs-qovery) - [Render](https://toolgpa.com/tools/render): Cloud hosting for web services, databases and workers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/porter-vs-render) - [Heroku](https://toolgpa.com/tools/heroku): Platform for deploying apps in containers called dynos. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/heroku-vs-porter) - [Railway](https://toolgpa.com/tools/railway): App and database hosting billed by the second for usage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/porter-vs-railway) - [Northflank](https://toolgpa.com/tools/northflank): Container platform for services, jobs, databases and GPUs. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/northflank-vs-porter) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://www.porter.run/pricing Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/porter Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).