What is the cheapest of the app platform instances right now?

eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB at Koyeb, $2.68/mo. Read on 17 Sept 2026.

Which platform shows up most in this ranking?

Fly.io holds 4 of the top 10 places here.

What does the price actually cover?

One month of the plan, in the provider's own currency converted to dollars, excluding tax. Outbound transfer, build minutes, persistent disks and extra members are metered on top wherever the provider says so, and none of those rates is folded into the figure on the row: each platform's page carries them under "What the invoice adds".

How is this ranked, and how current is it?

Prices are read every morning from 9 platforms' own public pages and keyless APIs, and this list recomputes with them. A plan whose provider was last read more than three days ago, or that the provider shows as unavailable, keeps its place but cannot be first. Last refresh: 17 Sept 2026.

Cheapest app platform.

prices as of 17 Sept 2026 · re-ranked daily · 85 qualifying plans

The cheapest way to have a platform run your app for you, where the price buys a runtime of a stated size rather than a seat. 85 instances of 512 MB of memory or more qualify, from $2.68/mo against a median of $71.10/mo across every paid instance we read. Free tiers have a list of their own, because a price of zero cannot be compared with a size, and a subscription tier is not on this page at all: 14 of the 103 rows in the index buy an account rather than a server. Prices are what one month costs in each provider's own currency converted to dollars, excluding tax. Outbound transfer, build minutes, disks and members are metered on top wherever the provider says so, and the provider page carries those rates.

Today's pick is eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB at Koyeb, $2.68/mo, read 17 Sept 2026.

1
Koyeb
eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB
0.25 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · Koyeb at $2.68/moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 4 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
$2.68/mo
View at Koyeb ↗every price →
2
Fly.io
shared-cpu-1x · 512 MB
1 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · Fly.io at $3.19/moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
$3.19/mo
Fly.io ↗every price →
3
Fly.io
shared-cpu-2x · 512 MB
2 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · Fly.io at $3.89/moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 61% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
$3.89/mo
Fly.io ↗every price →
4
Heroku
Eco
512 MB RAM · sleeps when idle · Heroku at $5/moDyno, prorated to the second · compute rated 1x-4x by Heroku, which publishes no vCPU count for it · filesystem is ephemeral · sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity · add-ons such as Postgres are priced separately
$5/mo
Heroku ↗every price →
5
DigitalOcean App Platform
apps-s-1vcpu-0.5gb · 1 shared vCPU · 512 MB
1 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · DigitalOcean App Platform at $5/moApp Platform container, billed by the hour with a one cent minimum · 50 GiB outbound transfer included, then metered · no disk included, a managed database is priced separately
$5/mo
DigitalOcean App Platform ↗every price →
6
Koyeb
eSmall · 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB
0.5 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · Koyeb at $5.36/moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 8 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
$5.36/mo
Koyeb ↗every price →
7
Koyeb
Micro · 0.5 vCPU · 512 MB
0.5 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · Koyeb at $5.36/moStandard container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 5 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
$5.36/mo
Koyeb ↗every price →
8
Fly.io
shared-cpu-1x · 1 GB
1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · Fly.io at $5.70/moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 61% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
$5.70/mo
Fly.io ↗every price →
9
Fly.io
shared-cpu-2x · 1 GB
2 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · always on · Fly.io at $6.39/moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
$6.39/mo
Fly.io ↗every price →
10
Render
0.5c-512mb · 0.5 vCPU · 512 MB
0.5 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · Render at $7/moContainer instance for a web service (no OS or root) · flat monthly price, prorated per second · no disk included, persistent SSDs billed per GB · bandwidth allowance belongs to the workspace plan, not the instance
$7/mo
Render ↗every price →

The number beside each plan is what one month costs. Transfer, build minutes, disks and members are metered on top wherever a platform says so, and the platform's own page carries those rates.

Frequently asked

What is the cheapest of the app platform instances right now?: eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB at Koyeb, $2.68/mo. Read on 17 Sept 2026.
Which platform shows up most in this ranking?: Fly.io holds 4 of the top 10 places here.
What does the price actually cover?: One month of the plan, in the provider's own currency converted to dollars, excluding tax. Outbound transfer, build minutes, persistent disks and extra members are metered on top wherever the provider says so, and none of those rates is folded into the figure on the row: each platform's page carries them under "What the invoice adds".
How is this ranked, and how current is it?: Prices are read every morning from 9 platforms' own public pages and keyless APIs, and this list recomputes with them. A plan whose provider was last read more than three days ago, or that the provider shows as unavailable, keeps its place but cannot be first. Last refresh: 17 Sept 2026.