Porter review

Porter is a deployment and infrastructure layer for teams that want to run applications in their own cloud accounts, rather than move workloads onto a platform provider’s cloud. It supports AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, and can also deploy into a customer’s VPC—a useful distinction for software companies that need to run workloads inside a client’s network.

Teams can deploy from Git or Docker, with automatic builds and CI/CD. Porter also lists preview environments for pull requests, autoscaling based on usage or custom metrics, jobs and cron jobs, and one-click SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance options. The service handles infrastructure setup, deployments, scaling and maintenance, while the underlying cloud account remains yours.

That separation matters for budgeting: Porter’s fee is not the full hosting bill. Cloud-provider costs are billed separately, according to the pricing page.

Porter’s clearest selling point is deployment coverage: teams can use AWS, Google Cloud or Azure, and deploy into their own accounts or a customer’s VPC. That gives teams a way to keep cloud ownership and customer-network requirements while using a managed deployment interface.

The Standard plan has a published, metered rate rather than an opaque platform quote. The pricing page lists $6 per GB of RAM per month, or $0.009 per hour, and $13 per vCPU per month, or $0.019 per hour. It also lists unlimited applications, preview environments, autoscaling, jobs and cron jobs. For teams with variable resource use, hourly rates make the billing basis clearer, though the final bill still depends on provisioned resources and separate cloud charges.

Porter also covers common deployment needs in one product: Git and Docker deploys, automatic builds and CI/CD, preview environments for pull requests, and scaling on usage or custom metrics. Compliance options are listed as one-click SOC 2 and HIPAA. Enterprise adds premium support, advanced RBAC, SAML-based SSO, custom alerts and an on-prem installation option.

The headline price is only Porter’s portion of the bill. AWS, Azure or Google Cloud costs are separate, so $6 per GB of RAM and $13 per vCPU do not represent an all-in hosting price. The pricing page says cloud credits can cover provider costs, but the amount depends on the credits available to your team.

There is no free plan listed, and a free-trial term is not published. Standard is metered monthly at hourly resource rates; the pricing details do not list annual billing. Teams should estimate both Porter resources and cloud-provider charges before comparing it with a platform that bundles infrastructure.

Enterprise pricing is custom and volume-discounted, with a stated starting point of 40 vCPU or 80GB RAM. That may put the plan beyond smaller teams, and Porter does not publish an Enterprise price. Volume discounts are available above those thresholds, but the page directs buyers to contact sales for a quote. The published plan details also do not specify numeric autoscaling limits or preview-environment caps, so confirm those requirements before committing.

Porter has no free plan. According to the published pricing details, Standard is metered monthly at $6 per GB of RAM ($0.009 per hour) and $13 per vCPU ($0.019 per hour). It includes unlimited applications, preview environments, autoscaling, jobs and cron jobs. There’s no annual billing listed.

The next tier is Enterprise, but its price is custom, not a published fixed quote. It starts at 40 vCPU or 80GB of RAM and offers volume discounts above that threshold. That’s the practical tier jump: Standard has listed resource rates; Enterprise requires a sales quote. Premium support, advanced RBAC, SAML-based SSO, custom alerts and on-prem installation are listed for Enterprise.

Budget separately for AWS, Azure or Google Cloud charges; Porter’s rates don’t include them. Cloud credits can cover those provider bills, according to the pricing details. If you need a predictable all-in monthly price or want annual billing, neither is published here.

Porter deploys into your AWS, Google Cloud or Azure account, so switching to it does not mean moving workloads to a Porter-owned cloud. The work is more likely to involve connecting the cloud account and reviewing how applications, Git or Docker deploys, preview environments, autoscaling, jobs and cron jobs are configured. The published materials don’t quantify migration time or list a migration service.

If you leave, plan to map those deployment and scaling settings to the replacement platform, then verify what remains in your cloud account. Porter’s data-export tools and offboarding process are not published on the vendor's site, so confirm how application configuration and any platform-managed data can be retrieved before committing. Cloud-provider costs remain separate either way.

We don’t have Reddit posts or comments in the published material, so we can’t responsibly name user-reported reasons for leaving Porter. Before switching, ask Porter about export formats, deletion, and whether your current deployment setup can be recreated elsewhere; get the answers in writing.