Pick Elestio if
small teams who will start on a $11 / month dedicated VM while they open a first PostgreSQL card, then buy Level 2 at $50 / month when they want a printed SLA and 14-day backups.
Read the Elestio pageElestio vs Render
Our take
Pick Elestio if small teams who will start on a $11 / month dedicated VM while they open a first PostgreSQL card, then buy Level 2 at $50 / month when they want a printed SLA and 14-day backups. Pick Render if teams who will stay on Hobby at $0 / month + the free 512 MB web service while they deploy a first project, then buy Pro at $25 / month when they need unlimited seats and full-stack previews.
Best for
Elestio A catalog VM you do not patch yourself
Render Web services and a Postgres you start at $0
Free plan
Elestio No free plan
Render $0 · / month + compute. Deploy up to 25 services. 5 GB bandwidth. Single-service previews
Lowest paid
Elestio Disk $0.15
Render Pro $25
Next step up
Elestio BYO cloud $5
Render Scale $499
Runs where
Elestio Hosted
Render Hosted
Watch out
Elestio $11 / month is a starting VM, not unlimited software
Render Hobby $0 is the workspace tile, not unlimited RAM
Last checked
Elestio 2026-10-23 · elest.io/pricing
Render 2026-10-23 · render.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Render if
teams who will stay on Hobby at $0 / month + the free 512 MB web service while they deploy a first project, then buy Pro at $25 / month when they need unlimited seats and full-stack previews.
Read the Render page