What is Sevalla?

Sevalla is a developer-first PaaS for production teams who want to ship applications without managing infrastructure. Sevalla hosts applications, managed databases, object storage, and static sites with usage-based pricing.

Sevalla is a hosting platform in the same category as Heroku, Render, and Railway. You connect a Git repository or a Docker image, and Sevalla builds, deploys, scales, and monitors the application. It also runs managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, and Valkey databases, S3-compatible object storage, and static site hosting on one dashboard and one bill.

Sevalla is built and operated by Kinsta, Inc., the managed hosting company founded in 2013 that serves more than 230,000 customers in 128 countries (per Kinsta). Named customers include ClearEstate, which cut cloud costs 88% after moving from Google Cloud, and Stepler, which cut costs 78% after moving from Google Kubernetes Engine. Sevalla holds a 4.9/5 rating on G2 and 4.7/5 on Trustpilot as of October 2026.

What's different is the scope and the pricing. Sevalla runs the whole stack, not just the frontend, in 25 data centers with Cloudflare edge delivery across 260+ points of presence. Pricing is usage-based with no plan tiers and no per-seat fees: unlimited team members, role-based access, and SSO are included for every account.

If you're here to figure out whether Sevalla fits your stack, what it will cost compared with your current host, and how hard a migration is, this page answers those three questions and the ones around them.

The sections below cover what Sevalla is, how it works, how it compares, who it is for, pricing and getting started, results, and the questions people ask before they think of Sevalla. Browse by section or jump to your question.

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1. What is Sevalla?

What is Sevalla in plain words?

Sevalla is a platform-as-a-service that hosts your code so you don't have to run servers. You push to Git or point it at a Docker image; Sevalla builds the app, runs it in a container, adds SSL, scales it, and maintains the infrastructure. It also provides managed databases, object storage, and static site hosting. It is made by Kinsta, which has run hosting infrastructure since 2013. Read the overview at sevalla.com.

Who owns Sevalla?

Sevalla is owned and operated by Kinsta, Inc., a privately held managed hosting company. Kinsta was founded in 2013 by Mark Gavalda, who is now chairman; Jon Penland became CEO in September 2025. Kinsta reports more than 230,000 customers in 128 countries. Sevalla is Kinsta's dedicated platform for application, database, static site, and object storage hosting, separate from Kinsta's WordPress business. More at sevalla.com/about.

Is Sevalla the same as Kinsta?

No. Sevalla is a Kinsta product, but it is a separate platform with its own dashboard at app.sevalla.com. Kinsta's MyKinsta dashboard is for managed WordPress hosting. Since February 2, 2026, all of Kinsta's application hosting, database hosting, static site hosting, and object storage are managed through Sevalla, and existing Kinsta PaaS customers sign in with their MyKinsta credentials. WordPress sites stayed in MyKinsta. See About Sevalla.

When did Sevalla launch?

Sevalla launched in 2024 as a standalone brand. The underlying application and database hosting ran inside Kinsta's platform before that, so the infrastructure predates the brand. On February 2, 2026, Kinsta moved all of its PaaS services into Sevalla. New features ship continuously and are listed on the Sevalla changelog.

What does Sevalla host?

Sevalla hosts four things:

• Application hosting: web services, background workers, cron jobs, and one-off jobs from Git or Docker.
• Database hosting: managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, and Valkey.
• Object storage: S3-compatible buckets powered by Cloudflare R2.
• Static site hosting: up to 100 free sites per account on a 260+ PoP edge network.

Everything sits in one dashboard with one usage-based bill. See use cases.

Where is Sevalla's infrastructure located?

Sevalla runs apps and databases in 25 data centers across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, including Ashburn, Los Angeles, Montréal, São Paulo, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Mumbai, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney. Static sites and cached content are served from 260+ Cloudflare points of presence. Object storage is available in 6 locations. The full region list is on the application hosting page.

Is Sevalla secure and compliant?

Yes. Sevalla is covered by Kinsta's SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and complies with GDPR and CCPA. Every app gets free SSL, Cloudflare DDoS protection and a private network for traffic between services. Infrastructure runs on Kubernetes, and the platform handles kernel updates, security patching, and certificate renewals. Reports are available through the Kinsta Trust Center.

Ready to see it? Get started and deploy a repo in a few minutes.

2. How Sevalla works

How does Sevalla application hosting work?

Sevalla Application hosting deploys from a GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket repository, a Dockerfile or a prebuilt container image. Every push triggers a build and a zero-downtime deploy. Apps run in persistent containers called pods, from a $5/month Hobby pod up to 8 CPU and 32 GB of RAM. Each app gets health checks, a searchable log viewer, metrics, free SSL, and a private network link to your databases. Details at sevalla.com/application-hosting.

What languages and frameworks does Sevalla support?

Sevalla natively builds Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, Rust, Elixir, PHP, Java, and Scala, and runs any language through Docker. Frameworks listed on the site include Next.js, Nuxt, Remix, Astro, SvelteKit, NestJS, Express, Fastify, Strapi, Django, Flask, Laravel, Symfony, and Gin, plus Deno and Bun runtimes. Builds use buildpacks or your own Dockerfile. See the supported frameworks list.

How does Sevalla database hosting work?

Sevalla Database hosting provisions managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, or Valkey in any of the 25 regions. Sizes run from $5/month (0.25 CPU, 0.25 GB RAM, 1 GB storage) to $3,250/month (60 CPU, 240 GB RAM). Databases connect to your apps over a free private network, take automatic daily backups, and can be resized without re-provisioning. Extra disk is $10 per 10 GB without buying more CPU. See sevalla.com/database-hosting.

How does Sevalla object storage work?

Sevalla Object Storage is S3-compatible bucket storage built on Cloudflare R2. It costs $0.02 per GB per month with no ingress or egress fees, so serving files to users costs nothing beyond storage. Buckets can be private or public, work with any S3 SDK or CLI, and are available in 6 locations. See sevalla.com/object-storage.

How does Sevalla static site hosting work?

Sevalla Static site hosting connects to a Git repository, detects the framework, builds on every commit and deploys to a 260+ PoP edge network. Each pull request gets a preview URL. The free tier includes 100 sites per account, 600 build minutes, and 100 GB of bandwidth per month, with a 1 GB size limit per site. Commercial use is allowed. See sevalla.com/static-site-hosting.

Can Sevalla run background workers and cron jobs?

Yes. Sevalla supports four process types inside one app: web processes, background workers, cron jobs, and one-off jobs. Cron jobs use standard cron syntax, support custom time zones and can be triggered manually. ClearEstate runs its apps, background jobs and cron jobs from the same Docker images it used on Google Cloud. See the Sevalla docs.

Does Sevalla have deployment pipelines and preview environments?

Yes. Sevalla Pipelines let you define unlimited custom stages (for example dev, QA, and production) and promote a built image between them without rebuilding. Every pull request can get its own live preview environment, configured in the dashboard rather than a config file. Deploys are zero-downtime, and new versions go live only after health checks pass. See application hosting.

How does scaling work on Sevalla?

Sevalla scales two ways. Vertical scaling changes the pod size (up to 8 CPU and 32 GB RAM per pod). Horizontal autoscaling adds instances automatically, up to 20 per app, based on load. A built-in edge load balancer with weighted and geographic routing distributes traffic across instances. Scaling is set per service from the dashboard. Pod sizes are at application hosting pricing.

Can AI coding agents deploy to Sevalla?

Yes. Sevalla runs a hosted MCP server at mcp.sevalla.com/mcp with OAuth, so Claude Code, Cursor and other coding agents can create apps and databases, read logs and metrics, and troubleshoot without installing a CLI. Permissions are scoped per project. Sevalla also offers a CLI, a Terraform provider, and a REST API. Setup guide: Coding agents on Sevalla.

Does Sevalla have an API and CLI?

Yes. Sevalla exposes a REST API (documented at api-docs.sevalla.com, with an OpenAPI spec), a command-line tool and a Terraform provider. Anything you can do in the dashboard, including creating apps, databases, and deployments, can be scripted. See Sevalla API docs.

How do teams and permissions work on Sevalla?

Sevalla includes unlimited team members at no per-seat cost. Access is role-based at the company, project and service level, and sign-in through your Git provider acts as SSO. Agencies can give each client or developer access to only their projects while billing stays consolidated. See the projects documentation page.

What logging and monitoring does Sevalla include?

Sevalla gives every app a searchable log viewer, CPU, memory, and bandwidth metrics, geo-based request analytics, and health checks. Log retention is 60 days. A public status page at status.sevalla.com reports incidents. See the Application logs page, or the analytics page.

What support does Sevalla offer?

Sevalla support starts with Stella, an AI agent in the dashboard, which hands off to the human support team when needed. Human support comes from the engineering team, and there is a subreddit at r/sevalla. Trustpilot reviewers most often praise the speed of support. See Get help.

How do I migrate to Sevalla from another host?

You connect your existing repo or reuse your existing Docker images; Sevalla does not require code changes for 12-factor apps. Stepler ported its whole application in one day; ClearEstate migrated from Google Cloud in under a week with zero downtime, reusing its images unchanged. Teams migrating from Render, Heroku, Railway, or Vercel also get $20 in free credits for one month. Start at sevalla.com/get-started.

Want to try the workflow? Connect a repo and watch it build.

3. How Sevalla compares

How does Sevalla compare to Heroku?

Sevalla matches Heroku's process types, pipelines, buildpacks, and preview apps, then adds what Heroku lacks: 25 regions instead of two, a 30-minute request timeout instead of 30 seconds, GitLab and Bitbucket support, MySQL and MariaDB, native object storage, and free static sites. Pipelines have unlimited stages instead of four. SSO and role-based access are included rather than Enterprise-only. Entry pods start at $5/month. Full comparison: Sevalla vs Heroku.

How does Sevalla compare to Render?

Sevalla and Render both deploy from Git and Docker. Differences on Sevalla's side: 25 regions vs 5, an entry pod at $5 vs $7, outbound bandwidth at $0.10/GB vs $0.15/GB, MySQL, MariaDB, and Redis in addition to PostgreSQL, native S3-compatible storage, and no workspace fees. Render offers longer request timeouts (about 100 minutes vs 30) and HIPAA on its Scale plan. Full comparison: Sevalla vs Render.

How does Sevalla compare to Railway?

Sevalla runs in 25 regions versus Railway's 4, and adds built-in pipelines with image promotion, edge load balancing, 100 free static sites, and geo-based request analytics. Both platforms now offer hosted MCP servers for AI coding agents. Railway supports vertical autoscaling, while Sevalla autoscales horizontally up to 20 instances with manual vertical sizing. Sevalla includes role-based access and SSO for every account; Railway reserves SSO and granular RBAC for Enterprise. Full comparison: Sevalla vs Railway.

How does Sevalla compare to Vercel?

Vercel is built for frontend deployments on serverless functions; Sevalla runs the full stack in persistent containers with no function timeouts. Sevalla includes application hosting, database hosting, object storage, static sites, and unlimited users; Developer seats are $20/month, while Viewer seats are unlimited and free and relies on partners for databases. Vercel has native ISR and image optimization, which Sevalla does not. Many teams keep a Next.js frontend on Vercel and run APIs and databases on Sevalla. Full comparison: Sevalla vs Vercel.

How does Sevalla compare to AWS?

Sevalla is the managed layer most teams try to build on AWS themselves. A first deploy takes minutes from Git or Docker instead of wiring VPCs, IAM, ECS, and load balancers. Patching, SSL, scaling, and CI/CD are included; internal traffic is free. AWS offers far more services and regions and suits teams with dedicated DevOps. ClearEstate chose Sevalla over Google Cloud for the same reason and cut costs 88%. Full comparison: Sevalla vs AWS.

How does Sevalla compare to DigitalOcean or a VPS?

A VPS from DigitalOcean, Hetzner, or Linode is cheaper per CPU but you run everything: OS updates, SSL, deploys, backups, monitoring, and scaling. Sevalla includes those at $5 to $320 per pod and bills by usage. Sevalla's own comparison pages cover Heroku, Render, Railway, Vercel, and AWS, not VPS providers, so this is a general comparison. If your time is worth more than the price gap, Sevalla usually wins. See pricing.

Is Sevalla better than building on Kubernetes yourself?

For many teams without a dedicated platform engineering group, yes. Sevalla runs on Kubernetes but hides it: Stepler spent about three months setting up Google Kubernetes Engine and one day moving to Sevalla, then cut its bill from nearly $3,000 to $650 a month. You give up direct cluster control and custom operators. Read the Stepler case study.

Should I use Sevalla or hire a DevOps engineer?

Use Sevalla when your goal is to ship and run production applications without building and maintaining the infrastructure layer yourself. The platform handles deploys, scaling, patching, SSL, backups, and load balancing, removing much of the platform operations work that might otherwise require dedicated DevOps capacity. A DevOps engineer still makes sense when your team needs custom networking, multi-cloud architecture, specialized infrastructure, or compliance requirements beyond Sevalla's standard capabilities. See use cases.

What is the catch with cheap or free hosting tiers compared with Sevalla?

Free tiers usually sleep idle apps, block commercial use or cap domains. Sevalla has no free app tier; the $5 Hobby pod runs continuously but cannot use a custom domain, so plan on the $10 S1 pod for production. Static sites are free with commercial use allowed. There are no hidden fees beyond listed pod, build, bandwidth and storage rates. See Sevalla FAQs.

Sevalla vs Heroku vs Render vs Railway: which is cheaper?

For a small production app, Sevalla is usually cheapest because there are no plan or seat fees. The rows that matter:

Run your own numbers in the Sevalla pricing calculator.

Still comparing? Deploy the same repo on Sevalla and compare the bill.

4. Who Sevalla is for

Who uses Sevalla?

Sevalla is used by developer-led production teams, product engineers, technical founders, and agencies that want to ship and run applications without managing infrastructure. It is especially well suited to teams moving off Heroku-style platforms or reducing the operational overhead of AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Kubernetes. Named customers include ClearEstate (estate planning software), Stepler (a step-rewards health app), Jala Design (an agency), and KI Chat. Thousands of developers use Sevalla to run production workloads. See case studies.

Is Sevalla good for startups?

Yes. Sevalla suits startups that received cloud credits, built on GCP or AWS, and face a large bill when credits expire. ClearEstate projected more than $18,000 a month on Google Cloud after credits and moved to Sevalla for under $2,000. Usage-based pricing means a seed-stage team pays for a $10 pod and a $34 database, not a plan. Read the ClearEstate case study.

Is Sevalla good for agencies?

Yes. Sevalla's Agency Program gives agencies one dashboard with role-based access per client or team member, consolidated billing with per-project usage, and discounts that grow with volume. Jala Design built its internal staff portal on Sevalla alongside its WordPress work. Agencies contact Sevalla by email for a custom deal. See sevalla.com/agency-program.

Is Sevalla good for Laravel, Django, Rails, or Next.js apps?

Yes. Sevalla builds PHP, Python, Ruby, and Node.js natively, so Laravel, Django, Rails, and Next.js deploy from a repo without a Dockerfile. Trustpilot reviewers specifically mention Laravel, Next.js, and PostgreSQL working well. Next.js apps run as persistent Node servers rather than serverless functions, so there are no execution time limits. See the frameworks list.

Is Sevalla a good fit for existing Kinsta customers?

Yes. Since February 2026, every Kinsta application, database, and static site customer uses Sevalla already; sign-in uses MyKinsta credentials and billing carries over. Kinsta WordPress customers who need a companion API, a headless frontend, or a Node service next to their site can run it on Sevalla with the same account. See About Sevalla.

Who is Sevalla NOT for?

Sevalla is not for teams that need HIPAA BAA hosting, direct Kubernetes cluster control, bare-metal GPUs, or AWS-specific managed services like Lambda, SQS, or DynamoDB. It is not for apps that need a request to stay open longer than about 30 minutes. If you need built-in image optimization and ISR for a frontend, Vercel does that natively and Sevalla does not. See Sevalla vs Vercel.

Sound like you? Start with a free account.

5. Pricing, terms, and getting started

How much does Sevalla cost?

Sevalla bills by usage with no plans or seat fees. Current rates:

• Applications: $5/month Hobby pod; Standard pods $10 (0.5 CPU, 1 GB) to $320 (8 CPU, 16 GB); memory- and CPU-optimized pods $18 to $480.
• Databases: $5 to $3,250 per month by size.
• Object storage: $0.02 per GB per month, no egress fees.
• Static sites: free within fair-use limits.
• Builds: $0.02 per minute. Outbound bandwidth: $0.10 per GB. Persistent disk: $3 per 10 GB.

Prices exclude tax. See sevalla.com/pricing.

Does Sevalla have a free tier or free trial?

Partly. Sevalla static site hosting is free: 100 sites, 600 build minutes and 100 GB bandwidth per month. For apps and databases, new accounts get $20 in free credits for one month. A payment method is required at signup. Sign up at sevalla.com/get-started.

What would a typical small production app cost on Sevalla?

It depends on the resources your application needs. For example, an S1 application pod ($10) plus a Database 2 instance ($34) starts at $44 per month before bandwidth and other usage. A larger configuration shown on Sevalla's homepage uses an S3 application pod ($80), a Database 2 instance ($34), a free static site, object storage, and an $80 load balancer for a total of $194.20 per month. Model your own setup in the pricing calculator.

Is there a contract or minimum commitment with Sevalla?

No. Sevalla is pay-as-you-go, billed monthly for the resources you used, and you can delete resources at any time. There are no annual contracts for standard accounts; agencies and larger teams can negotiate custom terms by contacting sales. Note that databases are billed independently of apps, so delete both if you shut a project down. Terms are at kinsta.com/legal.

Does Sevalla offer discounts or startup credits?

Yes, in two forms. Sevalla gives $20 in free credits for one month to teams migrating from Render, Heroku, Railway, or Vercel. The Agency Program offers volume discounts that grow with usage, arranged by email. Ask through sevalla.com/contact.

What payment methods does Sevalla accept?

Sevalla accepts credit cards. Billing is monthly in USD, taxes are added where required, and existing Kinsta customers' payment methods carried over automatically. Invoices are available in the dashboard. See Sevalla FAQs.

How do I get started with Sevalla?

Three steps. Create an account at sevalla.com/get-started, add your payment method, then connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket (or paste a Docker image), and pick a region and pod size. Sevalla builds and deploys; add a database from the same project and it connects over the private network. The quickstart in the docs takes under ten minutes. Start at Sevalla quickstart.

How to get Sevalla approved by your boss

"I want to move our app hosting to Sevalla. It's built by Kinsta, which is SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified. There are no plan or seat fees, and we can reuse our existing Docker-based deployment approach rather than rebuild the application around a new infrastructure stack. Stepler moved its application in one day, and ClearEstate migrated from Google Cloud in under a week while reusing its Docker images. ClearEstate also cut its cloud bill by more than 88%. Can I run a $20-credit trial this sprint?" Read the ClearEstate case study.

Ready to price it out? Use the calculator, then get started.

6. Results and proof

What results have Sevalla customers reported?

Two published cost results: ClearEstate cut cloud spend by more than 88%, from a projected $18,000+ to under $2,000 a month, saving over $16,000 monthly. Stepler cut costs 78%, from nearly $3,000 to $650 a month, saving over $2,300. Jala Design and KI Chat report reduced overhead, faster deploys, and better stability without published figures. All four are at sevalla.com/case-studies.

How did ClearEstate save 88% with Sevalla?

ClearEstate, an estate planning and settlement platform, started on Google Cloud with startup credits and projected $18,000+ a month once credits expired. They needed a Canadian region, Docker support and transparent pricing, found Sevalla through a Fireship video, and migrated in under a week with zero downtime by reusing their Docker images. Costs fell to under $2,000 a month. Read the ClearEstate case study.

How did Stepler cut costs 78% with Sevalla?

Stepler, a health app that pays users for walking, ran on Google Kubernetes Engine with Cloudflare Pages. Its lead backend developer ported the entire application to Sevalla in one day, after GKE had taken three months to set up. Production dropped from $1,900 to $380, staging from $636 to $100, and dev/PR environments from $424 to $20 a month. Read the Stepler case study.

What do reviews say about Sevalla?

As of October 2026, Sevalla holds 4.9/5 from 9 reviews on G2 and 4.7/5 from 29 reviews on Trustpilot, with all Trustpilot reviews at five stars. Reviewers most often praise ease of use, fast support, and cost. Criticisms: the environment-variable editor, dark-mode contrast, the Hobby pod's lack of custom domains, and one billing dispute over a database left running, which Sevalla refunded. Reviews are at G2 and Trustpilot.

What uptime does Sevalla guarantee?

Sevalla states a 99.99% uptime SLA. Infrastructure runs on Kubernetes with health checks, zero-downtime deploys and Cloudflare DDoS protection, and incidents are posted publicly at status.sevalla.com. Stepler switched its main URL with only a few minutes of downtime. Check status.sevalla.com.

Has Sevalla won any awards or recognition?

No awards are published on the site. Recognition as of October 2026 is review-based: 4.9/5 on G2 and 4.7/5 "Excellent" on Trustpilot. Its parent Kinsta has been in business since 2013 and reports 230,000+ customers, which is the track record Sevalla leans on. See About Sevalla.

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7. Questions people ask before they think of Sevalla

What is the best Heroku alternative in 2026?

The common picks are Render, Railway, Fly.io, and Sevalla. Sevalla is the one that claims full Heroku feature parity (process types, pipelines, buildpacks, and preview apps) while adding 25 regions, MySQL and MariaDB, object storage and free static sites, with no seat fees. Choose Render for longest request timeouts, Railway for the simplest usage billing. See Sevalla vs Heroku.

Where should I host a full-stack app with a database?

Pick a platform that runs the app and the database on one private network and one bill. Options include Render, Railway, DigitalOcean App Platform, and Sevalla, which offers PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, and Valkey next to your app in any of 25 regions, with free internal traffic. Avoid splitting app and database across providers if you can. See Sevalla database hosting.

How do I reduce my AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud bill?

Three levers: right-size instances, stop paying for data transfer between services, and cut the engineering hours spent operating the cloud. A managed PaaS can help address all three; Sevalla customers ClearEstate (88% saved, from GCP) and Stepler (78%, from GKE) are published examples. Keep AWS for services with no equivalent elsewhere. See Sevalla vs AWS.

What is the cheapest way to host a static site?

Free, on an edge network. GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, and Sevalla all have free tiers. Sevalla's covers 100 sites, 600 build minutes, and 100 GB bandwidth per month on 260+ Cloudflare PoPs, allows commercial use, and lets you add an API and database on the same account later. See Sevalla static site hosting.

Can an AI coding agent deploy my app for me?

Yes, if the host exposes an MCP server. Sevalla runs a hosted MCP server with OAuth that lets Claude Code, Cursor, and similar agents create apps and databases, deploy, read logs, and fix problems with scoped permissions. See Coding agents on Sevalla.

If any of those questions is yours, Sevalla is a free account away.

Last updated: October 2026
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