Lander vs Render.
Render is a solid Heroku alternative. Lander gives you the same git-push UX with per-customer AWS isolation, WAF, and a permanent free plan that allows commercial use.Render is one of the cleanest Heroku-style PaaS options on the market. Push from GitHub, get a web service + Postgres in minutes. They run on AWS (us-east) but share infrastructure across customers.
Lander has the same workflow but provisions a per-customer AWS environment. Each Lander customer gets their own VPC, Fargate task, ALB, and Route53 record — Render customers share multi-tenant compute pools.
Both platforms have free tiers. Render's free spins down web services after 15 minutes of inactivity (cold start of ~30 seconds when traffic returns). Lander's Hobby tier ($25/mo) includes auto-pause but with predictable wake-up time. Lander's Free is static-only, so cold start isn't a factor.
[differences · side-by-side]
[feature]
[lander]
[render]
Free plan compute
Static only (S3+CloudFront)
Web service with 15min idle spin-down
Free plan limits
3 sites, 100 GB egress
Up to 750 hrs/mo build, slow cold start
Entry paid
$25/mo Hobby — 1 dynamic
$7/mo Individual — 1 service
Compute isolation
Per-customer Fargate
Shared multi-tenant
WAF / DDoS
Every plan
Not built-in (BYO Cloudflare)
AI builder
Claude Sonnet 4.6 on Pro
Not built-in
Postgres
RDS via env flag
Native managed Postgres
[pick · lander · when]
- →You want WAF/OWASP rules without setting up Cloudflare
- →You need real isolation (per-customer VPC vs shared)
- →You want Claude builder integrated
[stick with · render · when]
- →You need first-class managed Postgres with their UX
- →You're already on Render and the cost works for you
- →You want a full Heroku-shaped deployment model with worker dynos
[migrating from render → lander]
- 01Render uses Dockerfiles or build packs. Dockerfile-based Render services move to Lander unchanged.
- 02Render env groups → Lander env vars (one-by-one paste in dashboard)
- 03Render Postgres → dump → restore to Lander RDS
[FAQ]
Q. Is Lander free tier better than Render's free tier?Different trade-offs. Render's free includes a web service (with 15-min spin-down) and 750 build hours. Lander's free is static-only (3 sites, S3+CloudFront, no spin-down). For static + JAMstack projects, Lander's free is faster (no cold start). For server-side experimentation, Render's free is more useful.
[other comparisons]