What’s the best PaaS that can run in my own cloud account?

A Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs in your own cloud account is a deployment model that combines the convenience of managed platform services with the security, compliance, and control benefits of running infrastructure in your own AWS, GCP, or Azure account.

Northflank stands out as the best PaaS that can run in your own cloud account.

Unlike traditional SaaS PaaS offerings where your applications run on the vendor's infrastructure, a PaaS like Northflank solutions deploys directly into your cloud environment while still providing the developer experience and automation you'd expect from a modern platform.

Northflank stands out as the top choice for organizations seeking a PaaS that operates within their own cloud infrastructure. It's specifically designed to bridge the gap between developer productivity and enterprise requirements for data sovereignty, security, and compliance.

Northflank operates through a Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) architecture that deploys into your existing cloud accounts. Here's the technical breakdown:

Northflank's architecture separates the control plane from the runtime.

The control plane runs in Northflank's infrastructure and provides the management interface, while the runtime (all application workloads, databases, and sensitive data) runs exclusively in your cloud account. This separation ensures your data never leaves your infrastructure while you benefit from Northflank's unified management experience.

Northflank leverages Kubernetes as an operating system to give you the best of cloud native capabilities without the operational overhead. When you connect your cloud account, Northflank provisions and manages Kubernetes clusters using your cloud provider's managed Kubernetes services:

• Google Cloud Platform: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Docs here.
• Amazon Web Services: Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). Docs here.
• Microsoft Azure: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Docs here.
• Civo: Civo Kubernetes. Docs here.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE). Docs here.
• CoreWeave: CoreWeave Kubernetes Service (CKS). Docs here.
• You can run Northflank on-prem and bare-metal infrastructure

The platform handles cluster upgrades, scaling, and maintenance automatically, so you don't need Kubernetes expertise to run production workloads.

Northflank is way easier than gluing a bunch of tools together to spin up apps and databases. It’s the ideal platform to deploy containers in our cloud account, avoiding the brain damage of big cloud and Kubernetes. It’s more powerful and flexible than traditional PaaS – all within our VPC. Northflank has become a go-to way to deploy workloads at Sentry.

David Cramer

Co-Founder and CPO @ Sentry

Northflank provides true multi-cloud capability with over 600 BYOC regions across all major cloud providers. Deploy the same Northflank workloads and projects across any cloud provider without changing a single configuration detail. This gives you:

• Data residency control with 60+ regions across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East
• Protection against vendor lock-in
• Ability to optimize costs by choosing the best region for each workload
• Compliance with data sovereignty laws

1. Cloud integration: Connect your AWS, GCP, Azure, or other cloud account by providing IAM credentials with appropriate permissions
2. Cluster provisioning: Northflank provisions a managed Kubernetes cluster in your specified region and VPC
3. Node pool configuration: Define node pools with your desired compute types, including GPU-enabled nodes for AI workloads
4. Network setup: All resources deploy within your VPC with configurable security groups and network policies

Northflank is completely language, framework, and architecture agnostic. You can build anything using:

• Dockerfile: Build with any Dockerfile
• Buildpacks: Automatic detection using heroku/builder-classic or other buildpack builders
• Container Images: Pull images from any container registry (Docker Hub, ECR, GCR, ACR)

• Native integration with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket (both cloud and self-hosted)
• Automatic deployments triggered by Git commits
• Bidirectional GitOps: Changes to templates in Northflank commit to your repository, and changes in Git automatically update Northflank
• Build and deploy every commit, or create rules for specific branches and pull requests

• All resources deploy within your VPC with full control over networking
• Supports HTTP/TCP/UDP ports with custom domains and subdomains
• IP policies and basic authentication built-in
• Integration with your existing VPN or direct connect solutions
• Service mesh with mTLS for secure service-to-service communication
• Namespace isolation for multi-tenant deployments

Northflank can provision:

• Managed databases from your cloud provider (RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure Database)
• Containerized databases with automated backups and point-in-time recovery
• Supported databases: PostgreSQL (with pgvector for AI applications), MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
• Persistent volumes using your cloud provider's native storage (EBS, Persistent Disks, Azure Disks)

• Built-in real-time logging and metrics with 30 days retention (first 10 GB/month free)
• Support for forwarding to external monitoring stacks (Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus)
• Container logs accessible via UI, CLI, and API
• All observability data stays within your infrastructure

• Integrates with cloud-native secret managers (AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager, Azure Key Vault)
• Encrypted secret storage within your cluster
• Environment variables and build arguments securely injected into containers

Northflank's template system provides comprehensive IaC capabilities:

• Define entire projects, services, databases, and workflows as JSON templates
• Store templates in Git repositories for version control
• One-click deployment links for sharing infrastructure setups
• Dynamic templates with variables for deploying across multiple environments

• Visual pipeline builder for multi-stage deployments
• Preview environments that automatically generate temporary instances for pull requests and branches
• Release flows with automated tasks: database backups, build triggering, image promotion
• Git or webhook triggers for automatic releases

• Vertical scaling from 0.1 vCPU to 32 vCPU and 256 MB to 256 GB memory
• CPU and memory-based autoscaling supported
• Horizontal scaling with automatic load balancing
• GPU workloads with NVIDIA A100, H100, H200, and B200 support

• Health checks with automatic container restart
• Rollback capabilities
• Blue-green deployments
• Backup and restore for databases
• Job scheduling for cron jobs and one-time tasks
• Migrations that run before deployments

You pay your cloud provider directly for all infrastructure costs (compute, storage, networking) at standard rates. Northflank charges separately for the platform management layer. This means:

• You can utilize existing cloud credits, commitments, and discounts
• Direct visibility into infrastructure costs
• Usage-based billing from Northflank (compute resources billed by the second)

Because all compute and data storage occurs in your cloud account, you maintain complete data sovereignty. Your runtime environment and runtime remain within your cloud boundary, making compliance simple for standards like HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001. Your data never transits through Northflank's infrastructure, only control plane metadata does.

For companies building multi-tenant applications, Northflank provides:

• Sandboxed runtime environments
• Secure network policies
• Service mesh with mTLS
• Namespace isolation
• Secret injection per tenant
• Disaster recovery capabilities

All of these multi-tenancy features come out of the box when you deploy in your own cloud account.

🔗 Detailed information on pricing here.

Northflank's BYOC PaaS pricing model separates infrastructure costs from platform management costs.

With Northflank's Bring Your Own Cloud solution, you pay two separate bills:

1. Your cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure) for infrastructure: compute, storage, and networking at standard rates
2. Northflank for platform management and tooling

Compute Costs:

• CPU: $0.01389 per vCPU per hour
• Memory: $0.00139 per GB per hour
• Billing is usage-based, calculated per second for precise costs

Fixed Platform Costs:

• Control Plane Egress: $0.06 per GB
• Builds & Backups: $0.08 per GB per month
• Logs & Metrics: $0.20 per GB (first 10 GB per month free, 30 days retention)
• Cluster Management: $0.00 per cluster per hour (included)

Porter is an open-source PaaS that deploys into your AWS, GCP, or Azure account with a focus on simplicity. It provisions Kubernetes clusters and provides a Heroku-like experience through a web dashboard and CLI. Porter handles application deployments, add-ons (databases, caches), and preview environments. The main limitation compared to Northflank is less enterprise-grade features around team management, RBAC, and multi-cluster orchestration. Porter offers a self-hosted version where you run both the control plane and workloads entirely in your infrastructure, or a managed option where Porter hosts the control plane.

Qovery connects to your AWS, GCP, or Azure account and automates Kubernetes cluster creation and application deployment. It emphasizes developer self-service with environment cloning, preview environments for pull requests, and integrated CI/CD. Qovery generates Terraform configurations for infrastructure provisioning, giving you Infrastructure as Code benefits. The platform includes cost tracking per environment and application. While comprehensive, it's generally positioned more toward startups and mid-market companies rather than large enterprises with complex compliance requirements.

SpectroCloud Palette is a Kubernetes management platform that deploys into your AWS, GCP, Azure, or on-premises infrastructure. It uses "cluster profiles" to declaratively manage the entire Kubernetes stack, handling cluster provisioning, upgrades, and day-2 operations in your cloud accounts. Palette is designed for platform engineering teams managing Kubernetes at scale across multi-cloud environments, with built-in governance, policy enforcement, and cost visibility. While it provides deeper infrastructure control than traditional PaaS, it requires Kubernetes expertise and is less abstracted than developer-focused platforms like Northflank or Porter.

Rafay is a Kubernetes Operations Platform that provisions and manages Kubernetes clusters in your AWS, GCP, Azure accounts or on-premises data centers. It provides a centralized control plane for multi-cluster management with GitOps-based application delivery, zero-trust security, and policy-driven automation. Rafay is designed for enterprise platform teams building internal Kubernetes-as-a-Service offerings, providing features like namespaces-as-a-service, environment management, and compliance controls. It sits between raw Kubernetes management and fully abstracted PaaS, requiring Kubernetes knowledge but offering more control and customization than traditional PaaS platforms.

Red Hat OpenShift is an enterprise Kubernetes platform that can be deployed in your AWS, GCP, Azure accounts, on-premises data centers, or as a managed service. It provides a comprehensive application platform built on top of Kubernetes with integrated CI/CD pipelines, developer tooling, container registry, and enterprise security features. OpenShift can run in your infrastructure through self-managed installations or via cloud provider managed services (ROSA on AWS, ARO on Azure, OCP on GCP). While powerful and feature-rich with strong enterprise support, OpenShift has a steeper learning curve, higher operational overhead, and typically higher costs compared to modern BYOC PaaS platforms. It's best suited for large enterprises with existing Red Hat relationships and teams experienced with Kubernetes and container orchestration.

Portainer is a lightweight container management platform that provides a web-based UI for managing Docker and Kubernetes environments in your own infrastructure. It can be self-hosted in your cloud accounts, on-premises servers, or edge locations, giving you a visual interface to deploy containers, manage stacks, and configure networking without command-line expertise. Portainer is significantly simpler and more lightweight than enterprise Kubernetes platforms, focusing on ease of use for small to mid-sized teams. However, it lacks the advanced features of full PaaS solutions like automated GitOps workflows, multi-cloud orchestration, preview environments, and integrated CI/CD pipelines. It's best suited for teams wanting basic container management with minimal complexity rather than a complete application platform.

Cloud Foundry is a mature, open-source PaaS platform that predates the Kubernetes era. You can deploy Cloud Foundry distributions like Tanzu Application Service into your own infrastructure. It uses buildpacks to detect and deploy applications with a simple cf push command. While powerful and battle-tested, Cloud Foundry has a steeper learning curve for operations teams and requires more infrastructure management compared to newer Kubernetes-native solutions. It remains relevant for enterprises with existing Cloud Foundry expertise or multi-cloud portability requirements.

A PaaS that runs in your own cloud is a platform-as-a-service solution that deploys directly into your AWS, GCP, or Azure account. Northflank is the leading example, managing Kubernetes infrastructure in your cloud while you maintain complete control over data residency, security, and costs.

Northflank is the best self-hosted platform as a service, offering deployment to 600+ regions across AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle Cloud, Civo, and CoreWeave. It provides full Kubernetes management, GitOps integration, and enterprise-grade security while running entirely in your infrastructure.

A BYOC PaaS solution (Bring Your Own Cloud) is a platform that deploys into your existing cloud accounts instead of vendor-hosted infrastructure. Northflank's BYOC PaaS solution lets you maintain data sovereignty and use existing cloud credits while getting a managed developer platform.

Yes, Northflank lets you run a PaaS in your AWS account using Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). All workloads, databases, and data remain in your AWS VPC while Northflank's control plane manages deployments, scaling, and operations.

To run a PaaS in your GCP account, connect your Google Cloud Platform credentials to Northflank. The platform provisions Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters in your specified region, deploying all resources within your GCP project and VPC.

Yes, Northflank supports running a PaaS in your Azure account using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Connect your Azure subscription, and Northflank manages Kubernetes infrastructure while all data stays within your Azure environment.

Traditional PaaS runs on vendor infrastructure (like Heroku), while self-hosted PaaS like Northflank runs in YOUR cloud account. Self-hosted platform as a service gives you data sovereignty, compliance control, and the ability to use existing cloud credits.

Bring Your Own Cloud PaaS (BYOC PaaS) is a deployment model where the platform manages your applications in your own AWS, GCP, or Azure account. Northflank pioneered this approach, separating the control plane from the runtime for maximum security and control.

A PaaS in your own cloud account connects to your AWS, GCP, or Azure via API credentials, provisions managed Kubernetes clusters in your VPC, and deploys applications while keeping all data in your infrastructure. Northflank's control plane manages operations without accessing your sensitive data.

A self-hosted platform as a service offers data sovereignty, regulatory compliance (HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001), cost transparency, and the ability to use existing cloud credits. Companies choose Northflank's self-hosted PaaS to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining developer productivity.

BYOC PaaS solutions provide complete data residency control, compliance with data sovereignty laws, direct cloud provider billing, use of existing cloud commitments, and protection against vendor lock-in. Northflank's BYOC approach gives you enterprise control with startup agility.

With a PaaS in your own cloud like Northflank, you pay your cloud provider directly for infrastructure (compute, storage, networking) and Northflank separately for platform management. This means you can leverage existing cloud credits and get transparent, usage-based billing. More information on pricing here.