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Cloud · head to head

Buildah vs Qovery

Buildah logo

Buildah

Cloud

Build OCI container images without a daemon or a Dockerfile

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Qovery logo

Qovery

Cloud

Deployment platform that provisions and operates Kubernetes inside your own cloud account

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Buildah has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Buildah linux only, with no native macOS or Windows support; Qovery no plan publishes a price, deployment minute overage rates are not disclosed, and there is a 14 day trial rather than a free tier, so you cannot budget or compare against alternatives without going through sales.
  • They diverge on capability: Buildah covers Daemonless builds, Qovery covers Bring your own cloud.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Buildah and Qovery actually diverge.

Attributes where Buildah and Qovery differ
AttributeBuildahQovery
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinuxWeb, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Buildah

  • Daemonless builds
  • Rootless
  • Dockerfile compatible
  • Scriptable builds

Only in Qovery

  • Bring your own cloud
  • Preview environments
  • Cluster lifecycle
  • Terraform provider
  • MCP server
  • Policy as code

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Buildah

  • Building images in CI without a privileged Docker daemonnot Qovery
  • Producing minimal images with tighter layer control than a Dockerfile givesnot Qovery
  • Scripted image assembly where a Dockerfile is the wrong abstractionnot Qovery

Qovery

  • A regulated business that must keep application data inside its own AWS account but has nobody to build a deployment platformnot Buildah
  • Giving twenty engineers preview environments per pull request without writing and maintaining Terraform and Helm by handnot Buildah
  • Standardising deployment across AWS and GCP when acquisitions have left the organisation on two cloudsnot Buildah
  • Replacing a managed platform when data residency rules put every hosted option out of reachnot Buildah

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Buildah

  • Linux only, with no native macOS or Windows support
  • Scriptable builds are powerful but less portable and less familiar than a Dockerfile
  • Narrow by design: it builds images and does not run them, so it needs Podman or another runtime alongside

Qovery

  • No plan publishes a price, deployment minute overage rates are not disclosed, and there is a 14 day trial rather than a free tier, so you cannot budget or compare against alternatives without going through sales.
  • The GPL-3.0 engine and console do not constitute a self-hostable product, because the control plane and API are closed and the self-hosted option is gated behind Enterprise, so the open licence gives you no exit if the company changes direction.
  • Qovery provisions managed Kubernetes into your account, which means the cloud bill sits on top of the licence and Qovery initiates control plane and ingress controller upgrades on infrastructure your team is accountable for.
  • The company repositioned to agentic infrastructure in June 2026 and now ships a deployment platform, a browser development portal and autonomous coding agents concurrently, so a buyer of the deployment product is not at the centre of the roadmap.
  • Team and Business are capped at two and three connected clusters with fixed 4 vCPU CI runners and no single sign-on on Team, which pushes teams of moderate size onto quoted Enterprise pricing earlier than the plan names imply.

Pricing, plan by plan

Buildah

Free
  • BuildahFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Qovery

On request
  • Team$undefined/year
    • Billed on usage with no published rate card
    • 10 users, up to 100 environments, 2 connected clusters
    • 5,000 deployment minutes and 7 day audit logs
  • Business$undefined/year
    • Billed on usage with no published rate card
    • 20 users, up to 250 environments, 3 connected clusters
    • 10,000 deployment minutes and 30 day audit logs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom users, environments and clusters
    • Self-hosted or air-gapped control plane
    • On-premises and bring-your-own-Kubernetes

Which should you pick?

Choose Buildah if

  • You need daemonless builds.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux.
  • You also want rootless.
Buildah review

Choose Qovery if

  • You need bring your own cloud.
  • You work on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes.
  • You also want preview environments.
Qovery review

Questions people ask

Is Buildah or Qovery better?
Neither clearly leads. Buildah starts at Free and Qovery at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Buildah or Qovery?
Buildah has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Buildah and On request for Qovery.
Does Buildah or Qovery run on more platforms?
Buildah runs on Linux. Qovery runs on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes.
Can I use Buildah for free?
Yes. Buildah has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qovery starts at On request.
What is Buildah best used for?
Buildah is most often used for building images in ci without a privileged docker daemon, producing minimal images with tighter layer control than a dockerfile gives, scripted image assembly where a dockerfile is the wrong abstraction. Of those, building images in ci without a privileged docker daemon and producing minimal images with tighter layer control than a dockerfile gives are not what Qovery is typically brought in for.
What can Buildah do that Qovery cannot?
Buildah covers Daemonless builds, Rootless, Dockerfile compatible, Scriptable builds. Qovery covers Bring your own cloud, Preview environments, Cluster lifecycle, Terraform provider.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Buildah: Is Buildah free?

Yes, open source with no licence fee.

Qovery: Does Qovery run my applications on its own servers?

No. It provisions and operates Kubernetes inside your AWS, GCP, Azure or Scaleway account, so compute and data stay with your cloud provider and that bill is entirely separate from the Qovery licence.

Buildah: Do I still need a Dockerfile?

No. Buildah reads Dockerfiles if you have them, but images can be built entirely from shell commands instead.

Qovery: Can I self-host Qovery?

Only on Enterprise. The deployment engine and console are GPL-3.0, but the control plane is closed source and the self-hosted and air-gapped deployments are commercial Enterprise features.

Buildah: How is Buildah different from Podman?

Buildah builds images; Podman runs them. Podman actually embeds Buildah for its build command, and the two are designed to be used together.

Qovery: What does it cost?

Qovery does not publish a rate card. Team and Business are billed on usage and quoted through sales, and Enterprise is fully custom. There is a 14 day trial with no card required.

Qovery: What survives if I stop paying?

The Kubernetes cluster and the workloads keep running in your cloud account, but you lose the console, the deployment pipeline, preview environments and every process built on top of them.

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