Cheapest way to host a full stack app
From €3/month DIY to managed platforms: side-by-side pricing, hidden costs, and when each option actually makes sense for your team.
The real answer: it depends
Yes, you can host a full stack app for €3 to €5/month. A Hetzner Cloud VPS plus Coolify (free self-hosted) gets you there. Docker, git push deploys, persistent databases, the whole stack.
But that €3 number has invisible costs.
Setup takes 4-6 hours. You manage SSL certificates. You troubleshoot server crashes at 2 AM. You handle backups. You monitor memory. You update OS patches. You own the on-call rotation.
For a solo developer or experienced DevOps engineer, that trade-off is fine.
For a team of 5-10 building a product? That labor cost is real. It's not €0.
This guide breaks down every option: the actual price you pay, the hidden hours, and honest talk about when Ship (our managed PaaS) beats both DIY and traditional SaaS.
Full-stack hosting options compared
Monthly cost for a typical small production app: 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, small database.
Ship pricing not published on public page; resource-based model confirmed. Hetzner pricing as of Aug 2026; Coolify self-hosted is free. Setup hours based on Opsily product documentation.
Common hosting options: price vs. effort
Hetzner + Coolify (€3–5/mo)
Cheapest. You own the servers, manage everything. Suits experienced DevOps or solo developers who like tinkering.
Railway, Render, Northflank ($1–25/mo entry)
Easy to start, but usage-based billing can spike. Database storage, egress charges, and auto-scaling costs add up. Good for hobby projects or teams tolerant of surprise bills.
Coolify Cloud (€5–8/mo)
Managed PaaS dashboard on top of bring-your-own infrastructure. Simpler than pure DIY, more control than SaaS. Emerging alternative for teams wanting middle ground.
Opsily Ship (Resource-based)
Fully managed, EU-based, predictable resource billing. No per-seat charges even as team scales 5 to 50 developers. Solves Heroku cost explosion and DIY complexity.
Why €3/month is cheaper than it looks, and more expensive than it sounds
The upside: You own everything. No vendor lock-in. Full control.
The real cost:
- Setup: 4-6 hours getting Docker, SSL, networking, and backups right. For a €50K+ salary, that's €50-75 in labor.
- Maintenance: 30 mins/week patching OS, rotating logs, checking disk space. €130/year in lost focus.
- On-call: When your server is down at 2 AM, you page yourself. That risk has a cost even if you never claim it.
- Incident recovery: One corrupted database or failed backup is €5K in lost productivity.
Total real cost: €500–1,500/year in labor + risk. That's €42–125/month.
Add that to your €3–5/month infrastructure bill: you're at €50–130/month when you count your time.
This doesn't make DIY bad. It makes DIY expensive for teams, not individuals.
Managed hosting trades that labor cost for predictable monthly bills. Ship does that for EU compliance and no per-seat tax.
Why choose Ship for full-stack hosting
The middle path between Heroku lock-in and DevOps burden.
Predictable monthly cost, not usage-based surprises
Ship bills on resources you allocate (vCPU, RAM, storage), not on traffic spikes or database queries. Your bill stays the same whether you get 1,000 or 100,000 requests. No egress charges. No overages.
Zero DevOps overhead. Zero per-seat tax.
We handle backups, SSL renewal, OS patching, monitoring, and recovery. Your bill doesn't explode when your team grows 5 to 50 developers. Heroku charges per user; we charge per resource.
EU-based infrastructure, GDPR-ready by default
100% European hardware. Your data never leaves EU jurisdiction. No US-based SaaS friction for regulated workloads (healthcare, fintech, compliance-heavy). Data ownership included.
Built for teams who need reliability
GDPR and data residency: where Ship differs
Why this matters: US-based SaaS platforms (Railway, Render, Vercel, AWS) often default to American data centers. For EU companies, founders, or regulated data, this creates legal friction.
Your DPO will ask: Where is my customer data stored? What jurisdiction owns it? Can US law enforcement access it?
US-based PaaS answers: We have EU regions, but data may transit through the US.
Ship answers: 100% EU infrastructure. Data residency guaranteed. GDPR compliance baked in, not bolted on.
If you're building for EU users, hold German/UK licenses, or handle healthcare/fintech data, Ship removes one entire category of compliance work. That's worth 5-10 billable hours to your legal team.
Ship pricing: predictable, resource-based
No per-seat charges. No per-request taxes. Pay for the servers you need, not how many developers use them.
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Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions about pricing, setup, and when to choose Ship.
Ship uses a git-based deployment workflow similar to Heroku. Connect your GitHub repo, configure environment variables, and push to deploy. Average first deploy takes 3 minutes. No Docker expertise required—Ship builds and runs your app automatically. You choose the resource tier (vCPU, RAM, storage), and Ship handles the rest: backups, SSL, monitoring, and scaling.
Trust and compliance built in
Ship meets the standards your business needs, from startup to scale.
GDPR compliant
100% EU data residency with full compliance automation. Your data lives in Europe, never transits through US jurisdiction.
99.9% uptime SLA
Monitored 24/7 with automated failover, daily backups, and incident response. Downtime is measured and compensated.
Predictable billing
Resource-based pricing means no surprise overage bills, no per-seat taxes, and no usage-based spikes. Budget with confidence.
Data ownership
You own your database, backups, and all application data. Portable, never locked in to Opsily infrastructure.
Stop trading cheapest for simplest. Choose predictable.
Ship gives you the cost discipline of DIY without the 2 AM wake-up calls. EU-based, managed, honest pricing. No per-seat taxes.