How much can you save by using DollarDeploy?
Below is how DollarDeploy on a server you own (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS and others) compares with managed hosting such as Vercel, Railway, Render, Heroku and AWS. For the current, interactive numbers, use the pricing calculator and the full comparison, which are the source of truth for prices.
The setup used for the comparison
The same reference workload the pricing calculator uses:
- 2 vCPU
- 4 GB RAM
- 40 GB storage
- ~20 TB bandwidth included with the server
How much can you save vs Vercel?
A Hetzner server for that spec is about $7.09/month. DollarDeploy has a free plan, and paid plans start at $5/month (with app and server limits), not a per-host fee. So a typical small app runs about $12.09/month all-in (DollarDeploy $5 + Hetzner $7.09), and about $11.09/month if you pay for the Hobby plan yearly.
For comparison, Vercel Pro starts at $20/month per seat and then meters usage on top. The gap widens with traffic: a Hetzner server includes around 20 TB, while transfer above Vercel's included 1 TB is billed from roughly $0.15/GB. A comparable always-on setup on AWS runs about $66.65/month at 500 GB of traffic.
Always compare the whole monthly bill, not just the DollarDeploy line item. The point is not that our control plane is cheap, it is that the total, including the server, is predictable and usually far lower for small always-on workloads.
The honest caveats
- The right comparison depends on your app. Resource needs, traffic and add-ons vary, so run the calculator for your own numbers.
- VPS capacity is finite. A traffic spike within your server's capacity slows the app rather than raising the bill; outgrowing the server means resizing or adding servers.
- Managed platforms buy you automatic scaling and zero infrastructure responsibility. With DollarDeploy you keep some of that responsibility in exchange for ownership and predictable cost.
Ready to give it a try? Sign up by clicking here!