Aren't Hatchbox and Cloud 66 basically the same thing?

They share the core idea — deploy to servers in your own cloud account and keep SSH access. Cloud 66 goes broader (containers, Kubernetes, more database engines, enterprise ops features) with bucket pricing and metered extras. Hatchbox goes simpler: Rails-first, one flat $10/server price, everything unlimited.

How do the prices actually compare?

Cloud 66's effective per-server cost is $11.50–$12 once you're past your plan's bucket, but seats ($5/each beyond quota), build minutes past 200, backup storage ($0.38/GB), and deploy caps on lower tiers add up around it. Hatchbox is $10/server with unlimited seats, deploys, apps, and included backups — the production example above works out to $41 vs. ~$65/month.

Does Hatchbox support zero-downtime deploys like Cloud 66?

Yes — every deploy builds into a fresh release directory and restarts your app with no dropped requests. Cloud 66 additionally offers blue/green and canary strategies; if you need those specifically, that's a genuine Cloud 66 advantage.

Which databases does Hatchbox manage?

PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and SQLite, installed on your servers with scheduled backups to S3-compatible storage. Cloud 66 manages a longer list including MongoDB and Elasticsearch — though you can always install anything yourself on a Hatchbox server, since you have root.

How do I migrate from Cloud 66 to Hatchbox?

Since both deploy from git to servers you own, migration is straightforward: connect your repo, provision fresh servers (or reuse your cloud account), copy environment variables, deploy, and move the database with a dump and restore. We'll help you plan it for free.

Hatchbox vs Cloud 66

The simpler alternative to Cloud 66

Both platforms deploy Rails apps to servers you own — so your server bill is identical either way. The difference is the platform on top: Hatchbox is a flat $10 per server; Cloud 66 is plan buckets with metered seats, build minutes, backups, and deploys.

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Includes a 7 day free trial. $10 per server per month after that — unlimited apps.

Cloud 66 deserves respect: they've been deploying Rails to your own servers since 2012, they support nine cloud providers natively, and their ops toolkit runs deep — blue/green and canary deploys, failover groups, a hardened Nginx with WAF, and managed databases from MySQL to Elasticsearch. If you need that breadth, it's a serious product.

The trade-off is complexity, in both the product and the bill. Pricing comes in buckets — $23/month for 2 servers and a single team seat, $47 for 4 servers and 10 seats — with five separate meters on top: extra servers at $12, extra seats at $5, build minutes past 200, backup storage at $0.38/GB, and daily deploy caps on the lower tiers. Reviewers consistently mention the learning curve and documentation gaps.

Hatchbox keeps it flat: $10 per server, unlimited apps, unlimited deploys, unlimited team members, backups included. It's built Rails-first, so the common path — GitHub repo, Ubuntu server, deploy — takes minutes, not an afternoon of configuration.

Where the two differ

One price, no meters

Cloud 66 meters servers, seats, build minutes, backup gigabytes, and deploys per day depending on your plan. Hatchbox has exactly one number: $10 per server per month. Nothing else on the platform is counted.

Unlimited team members

Cloud 66's Free and Developer plans include a single seat, with extra members at $5/month each beyond your plan's quota. Hatchbox teams are unlimited on every account — invite your whole team on day one.

Rails-first simplicity

Cloud 66 spans Rails, containers, Kubernetes, and static sites — powerful, but reviewers cite the learning curve and sparse docs. Hatchbox does one thing: deploy apps to plain Ubuntu servers, detected from your repo with nothing to configure.

Same ownership model

Credit where due: like Hatchbox, Cloud 66 runs on servers in your own cloud account with SSH access. If you're comparing the two, you've already made the smart call — owning your servers. The rest is pricing and fit.

Platform fees, side by side

Since both platforms deploy to your own servers, the underlying hosting bill is identical — this compares only what each platform charges. Cloud 66 pricing verified August 2026. Full details on our pricing page.

Production Team Setup

Four servers, a 12-person team, and 20GB of database backups. Cloud 66's Team plan covers 4 servers and 10 seats, then meters the rest. Hatchbox comes to $41/month vs. Cloud 66's ~$65 — and the gap grows with every seat, server, and backup gigabyte.

Component	Cloud 66 Plan	Cloud 66 Cost	Hatchbox Plan	Hatchbox Cost
Platform Fee (4 servers)	Team plan	$47.00	$10/server x4	$40.00
Team Members (12)	10 included, +$5/seat	$10.00	Unlimited	$0.00
Database Backups (20GB)	$0.38/GB/month	$8.00	Scheduled backups to S3	$1.00
Monthly Total		$65.00		$41.00

Platform Fee (4 servers)

Cloud 66 Team plan — $47.00

Hatchbox $10/server x4 — $40.00

Team Members (12)

Cloud 66 10 included, +$5/seat — $10.00

Hatchbox Unlimited — $0.00

Database Backups (20GB)

Cloud 66 $0.38/GB/month — $8.00

Hatchbox Scheduled backups to S3 — $1.00

TOTAL / MONTH

Cloud 66 $65.00

Hatchbox $41.00

Solo / Side-Project Setup

One server, one developer. Cloud 66's free plan caps you at 5 deploys a day, 50 total build minutes, and 100MB of backups, so real use lands on the Developer plan at $23/month — still with a single seat and 200 build minutes. Hatchbox is $10/month with unlimited deploys, unlimited apps on the box, and room to invite a collaborator whenever you like.

Which one should you pick?

Cloud 66 is a great fit if…

You need blue/green or canary deploys and failover groups out of the box
You're running databases Hatchbox doesn't manage, like MongoDB or Elasticsearch
You want Kubernetes-native container deploys alongside Rails stacks
Enterprise ops features like WAF and auto-scaling policies matter to you

Hatchbox is a better fit if…

You want one flat price with nothing metered — seats, deploys, or backups
You're deploying Rails (or Hanami, Jekyll, Hugo…) and want the fast path
Your whole team needs access without per-seat math
You value a tool you can fully understand in an afternoon

Applications deployed: 24,000+
Deployments run: 2 million+
Deploying since: 2016

Cloud 66 vs Hatchbox questions

Still stuck? Ask us directly — a real person who has deployed a lot of Rails apps will answer.

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We charge per server, not per app. Run one application or twenty on the same box — the bill doesn't change.

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Zero downtime deployments
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