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Cloud · head to head

Qovery vs Spacelift

Qovery logo

Qovery

Cloud

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

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Spacelift logo

Spacelift

Developer Tools

Infrastructure-as-code orchestration for Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi and Kubernetes

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Spacelift has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Spacelift users are unlimited and private workers are metered, so deployment concurrency rather than headcount drives the bill, which inverts how most engineering budgets are built and is easy to under-forecast.
  • They diverge on capability: Qovery covers Bring your own cloud, Spacelift covers Multi-tool orchestration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Qovery and Spacelift actually diverge.

Attributes where Qovery and Spacelift differ
AttributeQoverySpacelift
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteBy private worker and tier, not by user
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, CLI, REST API, KubernetesWeb, Self-hosted, Cloud
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools

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 Qovery

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

Only in Spacelift

  • Multi-tool orchestration
  • Private workers
  • Spaces
  • Blueprints
  • Drift detection

Both cover

  • Policy as code

What people use each for

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

Qovery

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

Spacelift

  • Platform teams running infrastructure changes through approval gates rather than through application CInot Qovery
  • Organisations standardising Terraform and OpenTofu across many teams with policy enforcementnot Qovery
  • Estates needing private runners so cloud credentials never leave the networknot Qovery
  • Teams wanting drift detection and reconciliation rather than plan-time checks alonenot Qovery

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Spacelift

  • Users are unlimited and private workers are metered, so deployment concurrency rather than headcount drives the bill, which inverts how most engineering budgets are built and is easy to under-forecast.
  • There is no affordable paid entry point. The free tier stops at two users and the next tier is a five-figure commitment with nothing in between.
  • Three of the five tiers are quote-only, so a shortlist cannot be costed without entering a sales process with each vendor on it.
  • The self-hosted build lags the hosted one, has no public worker pool and lacks the Azure and Google Cloud integrations available in the SaaS product, with OIDC federation offered as the workaround.
  • Stacks, Rego policies, Blueprints, Spaces and Spacelift-managed state are proprietary constructs, so leaving means rebuilding the orchestration layer rather than pointing it at a different runner.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Spacelift

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Two users
    • Public workers only
    • No private workers
  • Starter Plus$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Two public workers
    • One to two private workers
  • Business$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Three private workers
    • Quoted
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Unlimited users
    • Five to thirty private workers
    • Self-hosted option

Which should you pick?

Choose Qovery if

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

Choose Spacelift if

  • You need multi-tool orchestration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted, Cloud.
  • You also want private workers.
Spacelift review

Questions people ask

Is Qovery or Spacelift better?
Neither clearly leads. Qovery starts at On request and Spacelift at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Qovery or Spacelift?
Spacelift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Qovery and Free for Spacelift.
Does Qovery or Spacelift run on more platforms?
Qovery runs on Web, CLI, REST API, Kubernetes. Spacelift runs on Web, Self-hosted, Cloud.
Can I use Spacelift for free?
Yes. Spacelift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qovery starts at On request.
What is Qovery best used for?
Qovery is most often used for a regulated business that must keep application data inside its own aws account but has nobody to build a deployment platform, giving twenty engineers preview environments per pull request without writing and maintaining terraform and helm by hand, standardising deployment across aws and gcp when acquisitions have left the organisation on two clouds, replacing a managed platform when data residency rules put every hosted option out of reach. Of those, a regulated business that must keep application data inside its own aws account but has nobody to build a deployment platform and giving twenty engineers preview environments per pull request without writing and maintaining terraform and helm by hand are not what Spacelift is typically brought in for.
What can Qovery do that Spacelift cannot?
Qovery covers Bring your own cloud, Preview environments, Cluster lifecycle, Terraform provider. Spacelift covers Multi-tool orchestration, Private workers, Spaces, Blueprints. Both handle Policy as code.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Spacelift: How is Spacelift priced?

By tier and by private worker count rather than per user. Users are unlimited on every paid plan. The published figure on the pricing page carries no period label, and the FAQ describes the tier as an annual subscription, so confirm the period in writing.

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.

Spacelift: Does it support OpenTofu?

Yes, and Spacelift sponsors the OpenTofu project, which is a substantive hedge for anyone avoiding Terraform under the Business Source Licence.

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.

Spacelift: Is there a self-hosted version?

Yes, described as carrying Enterprise functionality, but it is priced on request and lags the hosted product on cloud integrations.

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.

Spacelift: Why not just use the CI system we already have?

That is the real comparison. General purpose CI handles state, drift, approval gates and concurrency control for infrastructure poorly, and whether that is worth a five-figure floor depends on how much infrastructure change your organisation actually ships.

Spacelift: What happens to our pipelines if we leave?

They do not port. Rego policies, Blueprints, Spaces and managed state are Spacelift constructs and the orchestration has to be rebuilt elsewhere.

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