Learn how to create a simple website with HTML and CSS.
You’ve built your app—now the big question is: Where should you host it? Whether you're deploying a web app, running Docker containers, or managing your database, choosing the right hosting platform is key to performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Let’s break it down based on the type of hosting your app needs. To Run Docker Images If your application runs in Docker containers, you'll want a platform that supports easy deployment, container orchestration, and scalability. Top platforms: Railway.app – Super developer-friendly, great UI, deploy with minimal config. Render.com – Supports Docker directly, offers autoscaling and background workers. Fly.io – Great for globally distributed apps; you can run Docker containers close to your users. AWS – More complex but extremely powerful. Offers ECS, EKS, and Fargate for Docker workloads. Best for: Backend services, microservices, APIs, background jobs Hosting a Website Need to host a static or dynamic website? These platforms make it easy to deploy modern web projects with global performance and reliability. Top platforms: Vercel – Ideal for Next.js and React apps. CI/CD, serverless functions, and edge delivery out of the box. Netlify – Fantastic for static sites, JAMstack, and frontend frameworks. GitHub Pages – Great for personal projects, documentation, or open-source portfolios. Render.com – Full stack platform—static sites, backend, cron jobs, and more. AWS – Offers S3 + CloudFront for blazing-fast static site hosting. GCP – Good option for more advanced and scalable hosting with Firebase or App Engine. Best for: Marketing sites, SPAs, documentation, frontend apps Final Thoughts In 2025, developers are spoiled for choice when it comes to hosting. Whether you’re running containers, deploying a frontend, or scaling a database—there’s a platform tailored to your needs. Here’s a quick summary: Hosting Need Best Platforms Docker Containers Railway, Render, Fly.io, AWS Static/Dynamic Sites Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Render, AWS, GCP Databases Railway, PlanetScale, CockroachDB, Supabase, Atlas, AWS