DigitalOcean App Platform Pricing 2026
Plans, hidden costs, and cheaper alternatives compared
Is DigitalOcean App Platform worth the price?
DigitalOcean's App Platform offers a very generous Free Tier, especially for static sites, making it highly accessible.
The Paid Tier at $5/month provides significant value with advanced features like autoscaling and dedicated resources, positioning it as fair and competitive. It's best for developers and small teams looking for an affordable, managed platform.
Pricing Plans
Free Tier
$0 / month
- 3 apps with static sites
- 1GiB data transfer allowance per app with static sites
- Deployment from GitHub and Gitlab
- Automatic HTTPS
- Bring your custom domain
- Global CDN
- DDoS mitigation
- Unlimited team members
Paid Tier
$5 / month
- All Free Tier features
- Shared and Dedicated CPU
- Horizontal Scaling
- CPU-based Autoscaling
- Automatic OS patching
- Application metrics
- Log forwarding
- High Availability
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Resource usage beyond free limits
Additional database services
Data transfer overages
Which Plan Do You Need?
Static site developers
Small teams, startups
Managed app deployments
How DigitalOcean App Platform Compares to Competitors
Compared to Heroku, DigitalOcean's App Platform is significantly more affordable, with Heroku's basic dynos starting around $7/month for similar capabilities. AWS Amplify offers a free tier but can quickly become more complex and expensive for managed app deployments, making DigitalOcean a simpler and often cheaper alternative for many use cases.
DigitalOcean App Platform Pricing FAQ
How much does DigitalOcean App Platform cost?
DigitalOcean App Platform starts at $5/month on the Paid Tier plan. A free plan is also available with limited features.
Does DigitalOcean App Platform have a free plan?
Yes. DigitalOcean App Platform offers a free plan called "Free Tier". It includes: 3 apps with static sites, 1GiB data transfer allowance per app with static sites, Deployment from GitHub and Gitlab.
Is there a cheaper alternative to DigitalOcean App Platform?
Yes. Popular alternatives to DigitalOcean App Platform include Gandi, Ucraft, SimpleSite, Bookmark. Free alternatives include Ucraft, Bookmark, Denovo. Compare them side-by-side on Toolradar.
Cheaper alternatives to DigitalOcean App Platform
3 of 5 direct competitors below offer a free plan. Per-seat pricing varies up to 60% across this set.
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