Softwr

AI · head to head

Deepgram vs Qovery

Deepgram logo

Deepgram

AI

Voice AI API platform for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice agents

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Qovery logo

Qovery

Cloud

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

From
On request
Free plan
No

The short version

  • Only Deepgram has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Deepgram pricing is entirely usage-based, so total cost can be harder to predict than flat subscription tools.; 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: Deepgram covers Flux speech-to-text, 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 Deepgram and Qovery actually diverge.

Attributes where Deepgram and Qovery differ
AttributeDeepgramQovery
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelusage-basedquote
Free tierYesNo
Platformsweb, apiWeb, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes
CategoryAICloud

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

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 Deepgram

  • Flux speech-to-text
  • Flux text-to-speech
  • Voice Agent API
  • Real-time and batch processing
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Audio intelligence

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.

Deepgram

  • Building real-time voice agents for customer supportnot Qovery
  • Transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch STTnot Qovery
  • Adding conversational text-to-speech to voice applicationsnot Qovery
  • Self-hosting speech models for data residency requirementsnot Qovery

Qovery

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

Where each one falls short

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

Deepgram

  • Pricing is entirely usage-based, so total cost can be harder to predict than flat subscription tools.
  • The Growth plan requires a minimum $4K/year commitment to unlock discounted rates.
  • Enterprise features and custom SLAs require a direct sales conversation rather than self-serve signup.
  • Some promotional per-minute rates are time-limited, meaning long-term pricing may differ from current promotional rates.

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

Deepgram

Free
  • Pay As You Go$undefined/mo
    • $200 free credit to start
    • No minimums or expiration
    • No credit card required to start
  • Growth$undefined/mo
    • Save up to 20% with annual pre-paid credits
    • Minimum $4K/year commitment
    • Credits applied against actual usage
  • Enterprise$undefined/mo
    • Custom pricing for large-scale deployments
    • Dedicated support and contracts

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 Deepgram if

  • You need flux speech-to-text.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want flux text-to-speech.

Choose Qovery if

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

Questions people ask

Is Deepgram or Qovery better?
Neither clearly leads. Deepgram 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, Deepgram or Qovery?
Deepgram has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Deepgram and On request for Qovery.
Does Deepgram or Qovery run on more platforms?
Deepgram runs on web, api. Qovery runs on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes.
Can I use Deepgram for free?
Yes. Deepgram has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qovery starts at On request.
What is Deepgram best used for?
Deepgram is most often used for building real-time voice agents for customer support, transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt, adding conversational text-to-speech to voice applications, self-hosting speech models for data residency requirements. Of those, building real-time voice agents for customer support and transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt are not what Qovery is typically brought in for.
What can Deepgram do that Qovery cannot?
Deepgram covers Flux speech-to-text, Flux text-to-speech, Voice Agent API, Real-time and batch processing. Qovery covers Bring your own cloud, Preview environments, Cluster lifecycle, Terraform provider.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Deepgram: What does Deepgram cost?

Deepgram uses usage-based pricing starting with $200 in free credit, pay-as-you-go rates per minute or per character, a Growth plan with annual pre-paid credits requiring a $4K/year minimum, and custom Enterprise pricing.

Source
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.

Deepgram: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

New users get $200 of free credit with no credit card required, which can be applied to speech-to-text, text-to-speech, or voice agent usage before any payment is needed.

Source
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.

Deepgram: How is usage metered?

Usage is metered per minute of audio for speech-to-text and voice agent calls, and per 1,000 characters for text-to-speech, with add-ons like redaction and entity detection billed separately per minute.

Source
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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