A practical guide to running a production web application with a managed database without breaking the bank

Introduction

There is a persistent myth in the developer community that running a production application requires either expensive cloud infrastructure or countless hours managing servers yourself. The reality in 2026 is quite different. You can deploy a legitimate production stack with a managed PostgreSQL database, automated backups, SSL certificates, and proper infrastructure for $44 per month.

This is not a toy setup or a development environment masquerading as production. This is a real stack capable of handling thousands of users, with the reliability features that serious applications require.

Let us break down exactly what you get, what it costs, and who this setup makes sense for.

The Real Cost of Production Infrastructure

Before diving into the budget setup, it helps to understand what production infrastructure typically costs when you roll your own on AWS or similar providers.

Traditional AWS Setup Costs

If you were to set up a basic production environment on AWS with Kubernetes (EKS), here is what you would typically pay:

And this is a minimal setup. Add staging environments, larger database instances, or increased traffic, and costs climb quickly. You also inherit the operational burden of managing all these components.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

Beyond the infrastructure bill, traditional setups carry hidden costs:

1. Time spent on infrastructure: Configuring VPCs, security groups, IAM roles, and Kubernetes manifests
2. Maintenance overhead: Applying security patches, upgrading Kubernetes versions, managing certificates
3. Incident response: When your NAT gateway fails at 2am, you are the one getting paged
4. Opportunity cost: Every hour spent on infrastructure is an hour not spent on your product

For a solo developer or small team, these costs often exceed the actual infrastructure bill.

The $44/Month Production Stack

Here is what a modern Platform as a Service approach offers for $44 per month:

What Is Included

Compute Resources:

• 1 full vCPU for your application
• 2GB of RAM
• Automatic SSL certificate provisioning via Let's Encrypt
• Built in load balancing
• Rolling deployments with automatic rollback
• Log aggregation and access

Database Resources:

• Managed PostgreSQL (versions 14 through 18 supported)
• 1 vCPU and 1GB RAM
• 20GB of storage
• 7 day automated backups included
• Encryption at rest and in transit
• No database administration required

Platform Features:

• Zero Kubernetes management
• No cloud provider account required
• CLI and web console access
• Environment variable management
• One command deployments

Who This Setup Works For

This configuration is not for everyone, and being honest about limitations matters more than overselling capabilities.

Ideal Use Cases

Startups validating product market fit: When you are still figuring out if anyone wants what you are building, spending $233+ per month on infrastructure is premature optimization. The $44 setup lets you launch, gather feedback, and iterate quickly.

Indie hackers and solo developers: If you are building a SaaS product on the side, every dollar matters. This setup provides production grade infrastructure at a price point that will not strain a bootstrapped budget.

MVPs and proof of concepts: Need to demonstrate a working product to investors or early customers? This stack is more than capable of handling demo traffic and early adopters.

Internal tools and admin panels: Not every application needs enterprise scale infrastructure. Internal tools serving dozens of users fit perfectly here.

Agencies deploying client projects: When billing clients for hosting, predictable costs make everyone's life easier. No more surprise AWS bills eating into project margins.

When to Consider Upgrading

Be realistic about when this setup might not be enough:

• High traffic applications: If you are consistently serving more than 50,000 requests per day, you will want more compute resources
• Memory intensive workloads: Applications that cache large datasets in memory need more than 2GB
• Large databases: If your data exceeds 20GB, you will need a larger database class
• Compliance requirements: HIPAA, SOC 2, or FedRAMP requirements typically need dedicated infrastructure with full audit controls

The good news is that scaling up is straightforward. Moving to a Medium machine ($75) and a Small database ($39) gives you 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM for compute, and 2 vCPU, 2GB RAM with 50GB storage for the database, all for $114 per month.

A Real Configuration Example

Here is what the actual deployment configuration looks like for a Node.js application with PostgreSQL:

resources:
  database:
    type: postgres
    provider: aws
    options:
      class: dev
      version: 17.5

services:
  web:
    build: .
    port: 3000
    scale:
      count: 1
      cpu: 256
      memory: 512
    health: /health
    resources:
      - database

This configuration file tells the platform everything it needs to know:

1. Create a managed PostgreSQL 17.5 database using the dev class
2. Build the application from the current directory
3. Run it on port 3000
4. Allocate reasonable CPU and memory
5. Use the /health endpoint for health checks
6. Connect the application to the database

Deployment is a single command:

convox cloud deploy -a myapp -i my-machine

The platform handles building your Docker image, pushing it to a registry, provisioning the database, injecting connection credentials as environment variables, configuring SSL, and routing traffic to your application.

Database Connection Made Simple

When you link a database to your service, connection details are automatically injected as environment variables:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://username:password@host.name:5432/database
DATABASE_USER=username
DATABASE_PASS=password
DATABASE_HOST=host.name
DATABASE_PORT=5432
DATABASE_NAME=database

Your application code simply reads from environment variables. No hardcoded credentials, no secrets management complexity, no manual configuration.

// Node.js example
const { Pool } = require('pg');
const pool = new Pool({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL
});

# Python example
import os
import psycopg2

conn = psycopg2.connect(os.environ['DATABASE_URL'])

# Ruby example
require 'pg'

conn = PG.connect(ENV['DATABASE_URL'])

The Backup Question

One of the most overlooked aspects of budget hosting solutions is backup strategy. Many cheap options leave backups as an exercise for the reader, which inevitably leads to disaster.

The $19/month database tier includes 7 day automated backups at no additional cost. This means:

• Daily snapshots retained for a week
• Point in time recovery capability
• No additional configuration required
• No cron jobs to maintain
• No S3 buckets to manage

For many applications, this is sufficient. If you need longer retention or more granular recovery options, you can export data manually using the CLI:

convox cloud resources export database -a myapp -i my-machine --file backup.sql

Performance Expectations

Let us set realistic expectations about what 1 vCPU and 2GB RAM can handle.

Web Applications

A typical Rails, Django, or Express application running on this setup can comfortably handle:

• 100 to 500 concurrent users depending on application complexity
• 10,000 to 50,000 requests per day
• Sub 200ms response times for most requests

API Services

Lightweight API services often perform even better:

• 500 to 1,000 concurrent connections
• 50,000 to 100,000 requests per day
• Sub 100ms response times for simple JSON endpoints

Database Performance

The dev class database is tuned for development and light production workloads:

• Suitable for databases up to 15GB of active data
• Handles 50 to 100 concurrent connections comfortably
• Query performance depends heavily on indexing and query optimization

If you are building something that needs more horsepower, the pricing scales linearly. Double the compute and database resources roughly doubles the cost.

Comparison with Alternatives

How does $44/month compare to other options in the market?

Heroku

Heroku's Basic dyno ($7) plus Essential Postgres ($5) comes to $12, but the Basic dyno sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity and has significant limitations. A production comparable setup with Standard dynos and Standard Postgres runs $50 to $100+ per month.

Render

Render's starter tier is competitive at similar price points. The main differentiation is in database management features and deployment flexibility.

Railway

Railway uses consumption based pricing, which can be unpredictable. A comparable workload typically runs $20 to $60 per month depending on traffic patterns.

DIY on DigitalOcean or Linode

A $24 droplet plus managed database ($15) gets you to $39, but you are responsible for Docker management, SSL configuration, deployments, and everything else. The time investment often exceeds the dollar savings.

Self Hosted Kubernetes

As covered earlier, a minimal production Kubernetes setup on AWS runs $233+ per month before you account for the operational overhead.

Getting Started

If this setup sounds right for your project, here is the path to deployment:

Step 1: Install the CLI

curl -L https://github.com/convox/convox/releases/latest/download/convox-linux -o /tmp/convox
sudo mv /tmp/convox /usr/local/bin/convox
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/convox

Step 2: Create Your Account and Machine

Sign up at console.convox.com, navigate to Cloud Machines, and create a Small machine in your preferred region.

Step 3: Prepare Your Application

Ensure you have a Dockerfile and create a convox.yml:

resources:
  database:
    type: postgres
    provider: aws
    options:
      class: dev
      version: 17.5

services:
  web:
    build: .
    port: 3000
    resources:
      - database

Step 4: Deploy

convox login console.convox.com
convox cloud apps create myapp -i my-machine
convox cloud deploy -a myapp -i my-machine

Your application is now running with a managed database, SSL, and all the production essentials.

Scaling When You Need To

The beauty of starting small is that scaling up does not require re architecting your application or migrating to a different platform.

When traffic grows, you have clear upgrade paths:

The same convox.yml, the same deployment process, just different resource allocations.

Conclusion

Running a production application does not require a large infrastructure budget or a dedicated DevOps team. For $44 per month, you get a legitimate production stack with managed PostgreSQL, automated backups, SSL, and all the operational features that used to require significant investment.

This is not about cutting corners. It is about right sizing your infrastructure to match your actual needs. Most applications do not need enterprise scale infrastructure from day one. They need something reliable, affordable, and capable of growing with them.

Start small, validate your product, and scale when the numbers justify it. Your infrastructure should enable your success, not drain your runway.

Ready to Deploy Your First Application?

New to Convox Cloud? Get Started Free and deploy your first application with a managed database in minutes. The X-Small machine tier includes 250 free hours per month, giving you plenty of time to explore the platform and see how everything fits together.

Want to see code before you commit? Browse our example applications for Rails, Node.js, Django, PHP, and other frameworks to see how Convox fits your stack. Each example includes a working Dockerfile and convox.yml ready to deploy.

For a guided walkthrough, the Getting Started Guide covers everything from CLI installation to your first deployment. If you prefer video, our getting started tutorial series walks through the same steps visually.

For complete database configuration options and supported versions, check out the Cloud Databases documentation. If you are migrating from Heroku, Render, or another platform, our Migration Guide covers the conversion process and database import workflows.

Questions? Reach out to cloud-support@convox.com or connect with other developers at community.convox.com.