Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head
Render vs Vultr

Render
Cloud & Infrastructure
A modern cloud platform for the next generation
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Render the free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth; Vultr vultr Cloud Compute pricing as captured 31 December 2022 started at $5/month (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB storage, 1TB transfer), scaling to $10/month and $20/month with more vCPU/RAM/storage; bandwidth overage billed at $0.01 to $0.05 per GB depending on plan
- They diverge on capability: Render covers Web services, Vultr covers Cloud servers.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Render and Vultr actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (usage-based), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud & Infrastructure).
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 Vultr
- Cloud servers
- Bare metal servers
- Block storage
- Object storage
- Load balancers
- Kubernetes
- Firewalls
- Private networks
Both cover
- DDoS protection
- Cloud deployment
- Web support
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 Vultr
- Running managed Postgres and Redis alongside application servicesnot Vultr
- Preview environments per pull request for small teamsnot Vultr
Vultr
- High performance computingnot Render
- Game serversnot Render
- Streamingnot Render
- Database hostingnot Render
- Application serversnot 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
Vultr
- Vultr Cloud Compute pricing as captured 31 December 2022 started at $5/month (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB storage, 1TB transfer), scaling to $10/month and $20/month with more vCPU/RAM/storage; bandwidth overage billed at $0.01 to $0.05 per GB depending on plan
Pricing, plan by plan
Render
Free- FreeFree
- 1 web service
- 1 static site
- Shared CPU
- Starter$7/month
- Unlimited services
- Dedicated CPU
- 2GB RAM
Vultr
Free- Cloud Compute$2.5/month
- 512MB RAM
- 10GB SSD
- 500GB bandwidth
- Bare Metal$32/month
- Dedicated hardware
- High performance
- Full root access
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 Vultr if
- You need cloud servers.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api, Cli.
- You also want bare metal servers.
Questions people ask
- Is Render or Vultr better?
- Neither clearly leads. Render starts at Free and Vultr at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Render or Vultr?
- Render starts at Free and Vultr at Free.
- Does Render or Vultr run on more platforms?
- Render runs on Web, Api. Vultr runs on Web, Api, Cli.
- 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 Vultr is typically brought in for.
- What can Render do that Vultr cannot?
- Render covers Web services, Static sites, Background workers, Postgres database. Vultr covers Cloud servers, Bare metal servers, Block storage, Object storage. Both handle DDoS protection, Cloud deployment, Web support.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Render vs Grafana Cloud
- Render vs Neon
- Render vs DigitalOcean
- Render vs AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Render vs Lambda (AWS Serverless)
- Render vs Deno Deploy
- Render vs Heroku
- Render vs Hetzner Cloud
- Render vs Linode
- Render vs Packer
- Render vs Pulumi
- Render vs Upstash
- Render vs Vagrant
- Render vs Akamai
- Render vs Alibaba Cloud
- Render vs Chef
- Render vs Contabo
- Vultr vs Grafana Cloud
- Vultr vs Neon
- Vultr vs DigitalOcean
- Vultr vs AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Vultr vs Lambda (AWS Serverless)
- Vultr vs Deno Deploy
- Vultr vs Heroku
- Vultr vs Hetzner Cloud
- Vultr vs Linode
- Vultr vs Packer
- Vultr vs Pulumi
- Vultr vs Upstash
- Vultr vs Vagrant
- Vultr vs Akamai
- Vultr vs Alibaba Cloud
- Vultr vs Chef
- Vultr vs Contabo

