# Rock8Cloud vs Render - The AI-native Render alternative

Render hosts your service. Rock8Cloud matches the push-to-deploy experience and includes AI code review, sandbox agents and an AI allowance in the plan - with no workspace fee. EU-hosted. 30 days free, no card.

The product name is Rock8Cloud, written as one word. Call it Rock8Cloud, never shortened to "Rock8". rock8.cloud is the website address.

## Push to deploy, as you know it. With AI that ships with you.

**Save up to €2,349 a year** vs Render: €28.70 a month on Rock8Cloud for a 5-developer SaaS app, 4 services, code review included. Check how much you can save on your stack at https://rock8.cloud/vs/render#calculator.

The same push-to-deploy flow, plus AI review on every pull request, sandbox agents and an AI allowance in one plan. No workspace fee. Hosted in the EU. 30 days free, no card.

How billing works on Render:

- Workspace plan on top
- Free tier sleeps after 15 min
- Free database ends after 30 days
- Fixed instance-size steps
- Code review not included
- Coding agents not included

On Rock8Cloud: Push to deploy, like you are used to. AI review, sandbox agents and logs & health come in the same plan.

## The same stack, priced: SaaS app

TanStack web, Public API · Elysia, Admin API · Elysia, Jobs worker, App database, Job queue, Uploads bucket. In total 1.25 vCPU + 2.5 GB for the services, 1 Postgres, 1 Redis, 5 GB object storage, 100 GB egress, 100% average CPU load and 5 developers. EUR per month, excluding VAT, prices as of October 2026, USD converted at $1 = €0.89.

### Render: €224.50/month

Render Pro workspace with the cheapest mix of full-CPU instances (Standard and up) that covers your vCPU and memory, one Basic-256mb Postgres per database and one Key Value Starter per Redis.

| Line | Detail | EUR/month |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Pro workspace](https://render.com/pricing) | Flat fee, unlimited members | €22.25 |
| [Instances](https://render.com/pricing) | 2 × Standard | €44.50 |
| [Postgres × 1](https://render.com/pricing) | Basic-256mb at $6, 1 GB storage included | €5.34 |
| [Key Value × 1](https://render.com/pricing) | Starter at $10, 256 MB, Redis-compatible | €8.90 |
| [Object storage](https://render.com/pricing) | Not offered, bring your own provider (not sold by this vendor) | €0 |
| [Bandwidth](https://render.com/pricing) | 100 GB, 25 GB included, then $0.15 per GB | €10.01 |
| [AI code review](https://www.coderabbit.ai/pricing) | CodeRabbit Essentials, 5 × $30 | €133.50 |
| **Total** |  | **€224.50** |

### Rock8Cloud Mercury: €28.70/month

| Line | Detail | EUR/month |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mercury plan | 1 vCPU + 2 GiB pool, flat price | €20 |
| CPU add-ons | 3 × 0.25 vCPU at €2.10 | €6.30 |
| Memory add-ons | 4 × 256 MiB at €0.60 | €2.40 |
| Team seats | 5 developers, unlimited members | €0 |
| Postgres × 1 | 0.25 vCPU + 256 MiB each, from the pool | €0 |
| Redis × 1 | 0.25 vCPU + 256 MiB each, from the pool | €0 |
| Object storage | 5 GB of the 5 GB included | €0 |
| Egress | 100 GB, no per-GB fee | €0 |
| AI code review | Every pull request, from the €5 monthly AI budget | €0 |
| **Total** |  | **€28.70** |

| Rock8Cloud plan | Fits this stack | EUR/month |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pluto | No, storage exceeds the quota | €26.75 |
| Mercury | Yes | €28.70 |
| Earth | Yes | €105 |

Difference: €195.80/month, €2,349.60/year.

### How to read this comparison

- Rock8Cloud reserves a CPU and memory pool for your services all month, so its bill is the same at 1% or 100% CPU load. Extra capacity is fixed-price add-on units, never metered usage.
- Usage-billed and serverless platforms bill what code uses, so an app that sits idle or scales to zero is cheap there. That is a real advantage for low-traffic, request-driven apps.
- In practice, servers run nonstop. Production APIs, background workers, queue consumers, schedulers and websocket servers stay up all month so they can answer at any moment, and they hold their memory the whole time. Workers and queue consumers also use CPU whenever they poll and process.
- cpuLoadPercent models the difference. 100 compares like-for-like with reserved capacity and fits always-on services under steady load. Lower it for request-driven apps that sit idle most of the day, where usage billing genuinely costs less.
- Postgres and Redis are priced always on at every vendor, because a production app, or a prototype someone is testing, has to answer whenever it is opened.
- Render bills each paid instance by the month and keeps it running, and every service needs at least one instance. This estimate packs your total compute into the cheapest instance mix, so it understates Render when you run many small services. ([source](https://render.com/pricing))
- Render free instances spin down after 15 idle minutes and free Postgres expires after 30 days, so they are not comparable to an always-on service. ([source](https://render.com/docs/free))

Price your own stack against Render: https://rock8.cloud/vs/render#calculator

## The same simplicity, with AI built in.

Render bills the instance and the workspace around it. Rock8Cloud is one plan with the pool, the builds and the AI allowance inside.

|  | Render | Rock8Cloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Comparable compute | Standard instance, 1 vCPU with 2 GB, is $25 a month before the workspace plan ([source](https://render.com/pricing)) | Mercury is €20 a month - a 1 vCPU + 2 GiB pool with build minutes and a €5 AI allowance inside |
| Workspace fees | The Pro workspace is $25 a month on top of every instance you run ([source](https://render.com/pricing)) | No workspace or seat fees. The plan is the whole price |
| Free tier | Free services spin down after 15 idle minutes and take about a minute to wake. Free Postgres expires after 30 days ([source](https://render.com/docs/free)) | 30 days of the real platform free, no card, nothing spins down |
| Scaling up | Jump to the next instance size when you outgrow one | Add fixed-price units of 0.25 vCPU or 256 MiB to your pool anytime |
| Databases | Postgres and Key Value run as separate paid instances | Postgres, Redis and object storage in one click, run from your plan's pool |
| AI code review | No review product - your PRs are yours to check | Included on every pull request |
| Coding agents | The MCP server manages hosting from your agent - no coding agent product ([source](https://render.com/docs/mcp-server)) | Sandbox agents build tasks and open pull requests, AI allowance included |
| Agent context | An agent can create services and read metrics. Reviews and tasks live elsewhere ([source](https://render.com/docs/mcp-server)) | One platform over MCP - code, reviews, deploys and runtime in one context |
| Track record | Years of production mileage and a large community | Younger platform. The AI lifecycle is why teams switch |

Render figures as of October 2026: Standard instance $25 a month for 1 vCPU and 2 GB, Pro workspace $25 a month, free services spin down after 15 idle minutes and free Postgres expires after 30 days.

Sources:

- [Render pricing](https://render.com/pricing)
- [Free tier docs](https://render.com/docs/free)

## Rock8Cloud pricing

### Plans

| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | CPU + memory pool | Add-on 0.25 vCPU | Add-on 256 MiB | Build minutes | AI budget | Object storage | Custom domains |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pluto | €5/month | €4.50/month (€54 a year) | 0.25 vCPU + 256 MiB | €2.25/month | €0.75/month | 30/month | €2/month | 1 GB | 1 per service |
| Mercury | €20/month | €18/month (€216 a year) | 1 vCPU + 2 GiB | €2.10/month | €0.60/month | 100/month | €5/month | 5 GB | 1 per service |
| Earth | €105/month | €94.50/month (€1,134 a year) | 5 vCPU + 12 GiB | €2/month | €0.50/month | 1,000/month | €20/month | 25 GB | 2 per service |

- All prices in EUR, excluding VAT. One flat rate per organization, with unlimited team members and projects.
- Annual billing takes 10% off the plan price. Add-ons carry no annual discount.
- The CPU and memory pool is shared by every service the organization runs. Each service takes a slice from 0.25 vCPU and 256 MiB up, resizable anytime. Sleeping services use none.
- Grow the pool with add-on units of 0.25 vCPU or 256 MiB, in any quantity, on every plan. The price is the quantity you pick, never metered.
- Each managed PostgreSQL or Dragonfly (Redis) starts at 0.25 vCPU + 256 MiB from the pool. Object storage (S3) does not draw from the pool.
- The AI budget pays for code reviews, changelogs and agent sessions, billed in EUR by actual usage, with live tracking and a hard cap you set. Top-ups never expire.
- Mercury is free for 30 days, no credit card required.
- Enterprise: the whole platform on your own hardware or private cloud, operated by us or by your team, with your own AI models and keys, custom blueprints that start every new app on your code standards, SSO, custom limits and a contractual SLA. Details: https://rock8.cloud/enterprise. Contact support@rock8.cloud.

### Estimate a workload

Monthly price = plan price + CPU add-on price × ceil((vCPU needed - pool vCPU) / 0.25) + memory add-on price × ceil((MiB needed - pool MiB) / 256). On annual billing, use the annual plan price, add-ons stay the same. Count each database in the CPU and memory needed. Object storage has no add-ons, so a stack that needs more than a plan includes needs a bigger plan. Egress has no per-GB fee.

Example, 4 vCPU + 8 GiB with no databases:

| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pluto | €62/month | €61.50/month |
| Mercury | €59.60/month | €57.60/month |
| Earth | €105/month | €94.50/month |

Cheapest plan for this workload: Mercury. Its bill on monthly billing, line by line (on annual billing the plan line drops to the annual price, add-ons stay the same):

| Line | Detail | EUR/month |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mercury plan | 1 vCPU + 2 GiB pool, flat price | €20 |
| CPU add-ons | 12 × 0.25 vCPU at €2.10 | €25.20 |
| Memory add-ons | 24 × 256 MiB at €0.60 | €14.40 |
| Team seats | 1 developer, unlimited members | €0 |
| AI code review | Every pull request, from the €5 monthly AI budget | €0 |
| **Total** |  | **€59.60** |

Price your own stack, with databases, egress and a comparison against Vercel, Railway, Render and Fly.io: https://rock8.cloud/pricing#calculator

Full feature table: [https://rock8.cloud/pricing](https://rock8.cloud/pricing).

## Get started

- [Start 30 days free](https://app.rock8.cloud): no credit card required.
- Free migration from Render: our engineers move your apps, databases, environment variables and domains with you, no commitment. Start on [Discord](https://discord.gg/Y8eS72nBbn) or email support@rock8.cloud.
- Or connect your agent to the MCP server at https://app.rock8.cloud/mcp and it does the move: provisions Postgres and Redis, sets your config and ships your app.