This guide provides a comparison between the features of Render and Diploi, to explain how both platforms overlap and what features might be unique to each.
Let’s get started!
Table of contents
- TLDR
- Who is it for?
- Feature comparison
- Pricing comparison
- When to choose Diploi instead of Render
- FAQ
- Considering migrating from Render to Diploi?
- References
TLDR
- Render provides fully managed infrastructure for services with Git-driven deploys.
- Diploi provides fully managed hosting and remote development environments within one platform.
- Pick Diploi when you want to skip all need for DevOps, you can start from zero with a ready scaffold environment which is online from the start and allows you to start coding, or by importing from GitHub.
- Pick Render when you have a project already developed and if you need control over the infrastructure and networking.
In short, Diploi targets convenience for full-stack projects by providing a remote development environment and one-click hosting, while Render provides a more traditional cloud hosting approach with fine-grained control over each service.
Who is it for?
Both platforms target a similar audience, developers, teams and freelancers who want to abstract how their applications are hosted online, while avoiding the chore of managing servers.
Render is for developers and teams who need a cloud hosting solution for production applications. You can choose to deploy web services, APIs, background workers, static sites, and databases. Render is a good fit if you require more scalability or separation of concerns, for example, running multiple microservices, dedicated background job workers, or scheduling cron tasks.
With Diploi, developers and teams not only abstract their infrastructure, but also they can generate app scaffolds that they can start developing right away, without ever having to run an npm command. While it is intended mainly for production workflows, Diploi excels at quick prototyping tasks, hackathons, or projects where you need to go from code to cloud quickly, because all Diploi projects, start with a remote development environment, with can be accessed via a browser-based IDE, VS Code, Cursor and any other IDE that support SSH connections.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Diploi | Render |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment model | You create one environment that host all services and databases within a single Kubernetes cluster to reduce costs and complexity. | You create separate services for each component (web app, worker, database, etc.). Each service runs in its own container/instance on Render’s cloud. |
| CI/CD automation | Creates a GitHub action in your repository, that rebuilds your app’s images and updates deployments when builds are successful. | Updates deployed services on push, based on Git branches and auto-scaling rules. |
| Managed services | Offers managed databases linked to components, and it doesn’t have separate managed services, but it faciliates how you can build services like cron jobs, background workers and edge functions, by running them as part of a monorepo environment to host all services within a cluster. | Offers a dedicated catalog of managed databases, queues, cron jobs, and background processes. |
| Development experience | Offers a built-in cloud development environment with the option to connect your local VS Code or Cursor, via SSH. It greatly simplifies onboarding new developers (they can start coding without installing anything) and ensures “it works on my machine” is the same as the server. | No integrated dev environment. Render does not provide an in-browser IDE or development environment, it focuses purely on hosting. Developers typically develop locally (or use their own codespaces) and then deploy to Render via Git push or Docker. Render will automatically build and deploy new commits (CI/CD), but you need to manage your code editor/environment separately. |
Pricing comparison
Diploi pricing depends on the size of the cluster you use per deployment and the amount of storage utilized. Render prices each service independently (web services, background workers, databases, and cron jobs).
For a project hosting a web application that uses FastAPI for the backend, Astro for the frontend and Postgres as database, that required 10gb of storage, and 4gb ram minimum:
- Diploi, €19.5/month.
- Render, €21.5 for FastAPI + €21.5 for Astro + €16.4 for Postgres, in total €59.4/month.
When to choose Diploi instead of Render
Choose Diploi when you need remote development environments, a predictable staging-to-production workflow, and a workspace you can hand to contractors without setup time. Choose Render when your team prefers to control service composition, wants managed data stores in the same provider, or already runs Git-based deploys with Docker images.
FAQ
Can I connect existing databases?
Yes. You can provision databases through the Diploi stack template or connect external instances by adding credentials to the project settings.
Does Diploi support background workers similar to Render?
Diploi templates include background job workers where the stack requires them, and you can add custom processes when forking a template.
How does scaling compare?
Diploi automates scaling through predefined stack sizes. Render offers per-service scaling controls and auto-scaling policies.
Can I use both platforms?
Yes. You can keep Render services live and connect them to applications hosted on Diploi.
Considering migrating from Render to Diploi?
We would be more than happy to assist you, you can reach out to our team via email, Discord or scheduling a call with our team.