Where should you deploy your app and database?

Deploy your app and your database together on one private server, and put that server on Aria Cloud. Static sites and front ends run there too, so one server can hold your website, your API, your workers and your database. Choose by four things: what you build, how many people deploy it, how much traffic you expect and how much server work you want to do. This guide gives a table for each, dated prices and the reasons we recommend Aria.

We build Aria Cloud, so we recommend it, and we show our workings. Competitor facts below come from their own pages. Prices and facts last checked 31 October 2026.

What is the short answer?

Static files or a front end: Aria Cloud hosts them, next to the backend they talk to.
A Next.js front end: Aria Cloud runs it with next start, with no per-seat or per-request charges.
An API, a worker and Postgres: Aria Cloud. Keep the app and database together on one server.
A team that wants a flat bill and a real database: Aria Cloud, a managed private VPS with one price for the whole stack.
Several websites or apps: one Aria server can run all of them.

The rest of this post explains each line and what the other platforms charge.

Which option fits what you are building?

What you are building	Where to run it	Why	Compare with
Static site or mostly front end	Aria Cloud	A static site runs on the same server as everything else, with HTTPS and deploys from your repository	Static hosts such as Netlify, Cloudflare or Vercel; Vercel’s Hobby plan is for non-commercial, personal use
Next.js with a backend	Aria Cloud	The front end, API and database sit together, with no per-seat charge	Vercel charges for seats and usage that grow with the team and traffic
API, worker and Postgres	Aria Cloud	Long-running processes and a database next to the app, for one price	Railway, Render and Fly.io bill each piece as a separate line
App built on Supabase	Aria Cloud	Official self-hosted Supabase is included at no extra cost, and Aria runs the backups	Supabase Cloud bills by plan and usage; plain self-hosting is community-supported with backups left to you
Side project that must cost almost nothing	Aria Cloud Starter	£9 a month ex VAT, always on, with room for more than one site	Free tiers sleep or expire (see below)
A team, a database, a flat bill	Aria Cloud	One price for the whole stack, whoever deploys	A raw VPS costs your own hours
An app that has outgrown a plan	An Aria dedicated server	The step up, set up with you by request	Large cloud platforms bill many separate services

How does each option charge?

The shape of the bill matters more than the headline price. Figures are in US dollars, ex tax, read from each provider’s page on 31 October 2026. We have not converted them to pounds.

Option	How it charges	What we read	Source
Vercel Pro	Platform fee, seats, then usage	$20 a month with one deploying seat and $20 of usage credit; extra deploying seats $20 each; viewers free	Pro plan docs
Railway	Plan plus usage	Hobby $5, Pro $20, each with the same amount as usage; RAM $10 per GB-month; CPU $20 per vCPU-month; egress $0.05 per GB	Railway plans
Heroku	Per dyno plus add-ons	Standard-1X $25 (0.5 GB); Postgres Essential-1 $9, Standard-0 $50	Heroku pricing
Render	Per instance and database	The pricing page did not show usable figures when we opened it. A free web service sleeps after 15 minutes without traffic, and a free Postgres expires after 30 days	Render free tier
Fly.io	Per second of running Machines	No platform fee; the smallest Machine is $2.19 a month; volumes $0.15 per GB-month; no free tier for new organisations	Fly.io pricing
Netlify	Plan plus credits	Pro $20 a month, described as having unlimited members	Netlify pricing
Neon (Postgres)	Compute hours and storage	Launch plan $0.106 per compute-hour and $0.35 per GB-month	Neon pricing
Supabase Cloud	Plan plus usage	Pro from $25 a month with 8 GB of database disk and 7 days of backups	Supabase pricing
A raw VPS	Per server	Your provider’s price, plus your own hours	Their page
A managed server (Aria Cloud)	Per server	Starter £9, Developer £16, Pro £23 a month ex VAT, and larger sizes	Aria pricing

Two notes. First, Vercel’s own documentation says its Hobby plan restricts users to non-commercial use, so a business site belongs on Pro or elsewhere. Second, a platform with free tiers is not cheap if the free tier expires in a month. Check each page again before you decide; these change often.

Why put the app and the database close together?

Every database query is a round trip. If your app runs in one place and your database in another, each trip crosses the internet, and a page that makes five queries pays for five. Put them in the same region, or on the same machine, and the trips become short. Hosting guides commonly give this advice, and it is a common reason to move a database-heavy app off a front-end platform.

A single server makes it easy: the app and Postgres share the machine, so queries stay local. That is how every Aria plan works.

What do three real setups look like?

These use only dated list prices and Aria’s own sizing tool. We have not invented totals.

A solo side project (Next.js and Postgres, a few users). Vercel Hobby plus a free database tier costs nothing to start if it is personal and non-commercial, and Hobby no longer applies once it earns money. Aria’s estimator says a Next.js app with Postgres needs 4,032 MB, which fits the 4 GB Starter plan (£9 ex VAT) with 64 MB to spare. Developer (8 GB) gives it room to grow.

A small SaaS (Next.js, a worker, Postgres and Redis). Aria’s estimator puts this at 4,647 MB, so it needs Developer (8 GB, £16 ex VAT). On Heroku’s list prices, two Standard-1X dynos are $50 and a Postgres Essential-1 is $9, before a cache. On Railway the bill depends on the RAM and CPU the services actually use. The flat server has one number, and memory is the only thing you size.

A team of five with Supabase. On Vercel Pro, five people who deploy cost $20 plus four extra seats at $20, which is $100 a month in fixed fees before usage. Add Supabase Pro from $25. That is arithmetic from the two pricing pages, not a total. On Aria, a Next.js app with Supabase is estimated at 7,719 MB, which fits Developer with 473 MB spare, so Pro (12 GB, £23) is the comfortable choice. Supabase runs on the server at no extra cost.

Why a managed VPS?

A VPS makes sense when you run several services, want a database beside the app, need long-running jobs, or want one predictable number. A managed one also suits teams where nobody wants to think about servers.

The real cost of a raw VPS is the work: patching the operating system, the firewall, HTTPS, deploys, backups and restores. Supabase’s own self-hosting page lists what you take on, including backups, security hardening, monitoring and high availability. A managed VPS moves that work to someone else. On Aria, that someone is us: Aria sets up, hardens and runs the server and takes nightly encrypted backups stored off it (how backups work). You work through aria.yaml, Aria AI, the command line and your coding agent. How Aria secures the server lists what it does.

Why choose Aria Cloud?

Aria Cloud fits a static site, a front end, several services, a real database, more than one person deploying, a wish for a flat bill, or a coding agent that should deploy for you with limits. One private VPS can run several websites and apps, and one aria.yaml describes the whole stack. The quickstart takes you from sign-up to a running app, and running several apps on one VPS explains the sizing.

There are two ways to work with Aria. Aria AI comes first. It is the AI built into Aria, and it writes aria.yaml, sets things up, reads logs and fixes things, in the Mac app and the web dashboard. In the Mac app it uses the subscription you already pay for. In the browser it uses your API key. MCP comes second, for a coding agent working outside Aria, such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or Gemini CLI. The same safety rules apply to both. Reading status and logs runs straight away. With a read key, every change waits for your approval. With an operate key, routine deploys run straight away, while variables, launches, DNS and a GitHub push always wait.

Read the Vercel comparison and the Railway comparison for the head-to-head detail.

What is a quick decision flow?

Do you have static files or a front end? Put them on Aria Cloud.
Is it a Next.js app? Run it on Aria Cloud, with the API and database beside it.
Do you have a worker, long jobs or a database you want beside the app? Aria Cloud runs them on the same server.
Do you want a flat price and someone else to run the server? Choose Aria Cloud.
Do you want to run the server yourself? A raw VPS costs your own hours. Aria Cloud costs one monthly price.
Has the app outgrown a plan? Ask for an Aria dedicated server.

How did we check this?

On 31 October 2026 we opened the pricing or documentation pages linked in the table above for Vercel, Railway, Heroku, Fly.io, Netlify, Neon, Supabase and Render’s free-tier page. Render’s main pricing page showed no figures, so we left them out. We did not open pricing pages for other hosts, and we have not run an app on every platform listed. Aria’s memory figures come from its own estimator, which gives estimates, not measurements.

FAQ

Is Vercel or Railway cheaper?

It depends on the shape of your app. Vercel charges for seats and then usage; Railway charges a plan fee plus the RAM, CPU and traffic you use. Vercel’s seat fees grow with the team, and Railway’s usage fees grow with traffic. A flat Aria server stays the same whatever the team size, so run your own numbers from both pricing pages and compare them with Aria’s plans.

Can I use Supabase with a VPS?

Yes. Supabase publishes a Docker Compose setup for self-hosting, and says it needs at least 4 GB of RAM, with 8 GB or more recommended. You then run backups, updates and security yourself, or use a service that runs it for you. See how to self-host Supabase.

Where should I put my database?

Next to the app that uses it, in the same region or on the same machine. Use a managed database if you do not want to run backups; use Postgres on your own server if you want one bill and short queries.

Is a VPS better than Vercel?

For a backend with workers and a database, yes. For a front end too, when you want one flat price with no seat charges. The Vercel versus VPS post goes through the costs.

What if I only have a side project?

Start on a Starter server on Aria Cloud: £9 a month ex VAT, always on, with room for more than one site. A free tier is an option while it is small, but check what it does when idle. See pricing.

Put your app, your front end and your database on one flat-price server. See pricing or get started.