Porter
Heroku-style PaaS that runs in your own AWS or GCP account.
Porter is the answer to "I want Heroku but my CFO says we can't have markups on AWS spend." It runs as a control plane on top of your own EKS / GKE cluster, so the underlying compute is billed at AWS list prices and Porter charges a flat management fee.
For a single-developer side project this is the wrong shape — you want the markup so you don't have to think about Kubernetes. For a 10-person engineering team where AWS Reserved Instances move the needle on the bill, Porter starts to make sense.
Pros & cons
- + Runs on your own AWS/GCP account — no markup on infrastructure
- + Heroku-shaped DX: git push, preview environments, add-ons
- + Owns the Kubernetes layer for you
- + Strong fit when you want PaaS UX with hyperscaler flexibility
- − You pay AWS/GCP separately for infrastructure plus a Porter management fee
- − Smaller team, smaller community
- − No true free tier — billed by app count
Plans & pricing
| Plan | Price | CPU | RAM | Disk | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter 14-day trial, then plus your AWS bill | Free | — | 0 GB | — GB | 0 GB |
| Team per cluster, plus AWS bill | $95/mo | — | 0 GB | — GB | 0 GB |
Features at a glance
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