Software · head to head
Render vs Nomad
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Render the free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth; Nomad nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
- They diverge on capability: Render covers Web services, Nomad covers Container orchestration.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Render and Nomad actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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 Render
- Web services
- Static sites
- Background workers
- Postgres database
- Redis database
- Scheduled jobs
- Environment variables
- Custom domains
Only in Nomad
- Container orchestration
- Job scheduling
- Multi-cloud support
- Auto-scaling
- Service discovery
- Rolling deployments
- Monitoring integration
- High availability
Both cover
- Docker
- Cloud deployment
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Render
- Deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a Git repository without managing serversnot Nomad
- Running managed Postgres and Redis alongside application servicesnot Nomad
- Preview environments per pull request for small teamsnot Nomad
Nomad
- Scheduling containers, binaries, Java and VM workloads on the same clusternot Render
- Running an orchestrator with a single binary and no external dependenciesnot Render
- Batch and edge workload scheduling across multiple datacentresnot Render
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Render
- The free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth
- Every paid plan charges the workspace fee plus compute on top, so $25 per month for Pro is a floor rather than a total
- SAML SSO and SCIM require the Scale plan at $499 per month
- HIPAA-compliant workspaces, inbound IP rules and advanced RBAC roles are Scale plan features
- Organization-level audit logs require Scale; Pro provides only workspace audit logs
- Contractual uptime SLAs, support response SLAs and a technical account manager are Enterprise only, and Enterprise is custom priced with no published rate
- Included bandwidth is 25 GB on Pro and 1 TB on Scale, with usage beyond that billed separately
Nomad
- Nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
- The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Nomad to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions
- Each version converts to MPL 2.0 only four years after that version is published
- Resource quotas, Sentinel policies and audit logging sit in a Governance and Policy add-on module that is separate from the Enterprise base platform package
- Multi-region deployments, multiple Vault namespaces and Nomad Autopilot advanced server management require Nomad Enterprise
Pricing, plan by plan
Render
Free- FreeFree
- 1 web service
- 1 static site
- Shared CPU
- Starter$7/month
- Unlimited services
- Dedicated CPU
- 2GB RAM
Nomad
Free- Open SourceFree
- Workload orchestration
- Multi-cloud
- Flexible scheduling
Which should you pick?
Choose Render if
- You need web services.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want static sites.
Choose Nomad if
- You need container orchestration.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
- You also want job scheduling.
Questions people ask
- Is Render or Nomad better?
- Neither clearly leads. Render starts at Free and Nomad at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Render or Nomad?
- Render starts at Free and Nomad at Free.
- Does Render or Nomad run on more platforms?
- Render runs on Web, Api. Nomad runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
- Can I use Render for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Render best used for?
- Render is most often used for deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers, running managed postgres and redis alongside application services, preview environments per pull request for small teams. Of those, deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers and running managed postgres and redis alongside application services are not what Nomad is typically brought in for.
- What can Render do that Nomad cannot?
- Render covers Web services, Static sites, Background workers, Postgres database. Nomad covers Container orchestration, Job scheduling, Multi-cloud support, Auto-scaling. Both handle Docker, Cloud deployment.