Cloud Pricing That Actually Makes Sense

Real Numbers From Our Own Bill

Here's my actual Light Cloud bill from last month:

Active Resources
├── 1 team member                                $9.00
├── fe_react / Production (static)               $0.02
├── fe_svelte / Production (static)              $0.02
├── fe_html / main (static)                      $0.02
├── fe_angular / Production (static)             $0.02
├── fe_nextjs / Production (static)              $0.02
└── fe_vue / Production (static)                 $0.02

Deleted Resources (test environments)
├── 30+ PR preview containers (1h each)    ~$0.03 each
├── 10 scalable containers (70h each)      ~$1.82 each
├── 8 test databases (1-2h each)           ~$0.04 each
├── be_node / Production (104h)                  $2.71
└── Postgres DB instance (96h)                   $4.08

Grand Total: $41.27

That's 6 static sites, 50+ containers, 8 databases, and 2 team members. For fifty bucks.

Those PR preview environments? $0.03 each. Three cents. I spun up and tore down dozens of test environments, ran stress tests with 10 parallel containers, tested multiple database configurations. Most environments ran for under an hour.

On a traditional platform with always-on pricing? I'd be looking at hundreds of dollars. Or more likely, I'd skip the testing entirely because who can afford 50 staging environments?

The static sites cost two cents each. Total. For the month.

This is why we built Light Cloud the way we did.

You Control Your Wallet

This is the part that matters: you decide what you spend.

Want to spin up 10 test environments? You know exactly what it costs before you click deploy. Want to scale down over the weekend? Your bill scales down too. Want to pause a project for a month? Containers cost zero. Literally zero.

No "estimated charges" that triple by end of month. No mysterious line items. No prayer-based budgeting.

You see the number. You control the number. That's it.

The Problem with Cloud Pricing

You've seen it before. You spin up a few services, run them for a month, and then the bill arrives. $400. For a side project. What happened?

Traditional cloud providers bury you in complexity:

• Compute costs per vCPU-hour
• Memory costs per GB-hour
• Network egress per GB per region
• Load balancer costs per hour plus per connection
• Storage costs per GB plus per operation
• And 47 other line items you didn't know existed

Even "simple" platforms aren't simple. That $20/month hobby tier? It runs 24/7 whether you need it or not. Your weekend project costs the same as a production app serving thousands of users.

How Light Cloud Pricing Works

We built pricing around one principle: you should only pay for what you actually use.

Containers: Pay When Running

Light Cloud containers scale to zero by default. No traffic? No charge.

That's it. No compute-hours times memory-hours times network-hours. Spin up a test environment, use it for an hour, pay three cents.

Databases: Straightforward Tiers

Storage included. Backups included. No per-query fees. Spin up a test database, use it for an hour, pay four cents.

Static Sites: Basically Free

A typical static site costs $0.02/month. Two cents. I have 6 static sites running right now (React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Next.js, plain HTML) and they cost twelve cents combined. Bandwidth only matters when you're getting serious traffic.

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Testing Like a Pro

You're building a feature and want to test properly. You create 10 PR preview environments over the month, each running for about an hour while you test.

Traditional Platform:
├── Can't afford 10 staging envs    $$$
└── So you test in production       (and pray)

Light Cloud:
├── 10 preview containers (1h each)  $0.03 x 10 = $0.30
├── 10 test databases (1h each)      $0.04 x 10 = $0.40
└── Total                            $0.70

Seventy cents for proper testing infrastructure.

Example 2: Full-Stack Side Project

React frontend, Node.js API, PostgreSQL database. You work on it evenings and weekends, maybe 20 hours of actual API usage per month.

Traditional Platform (always-on):
├── Hobby compute             $7.00/month
├── Hobby database            $5.00/month
└── Total                    $12.00/month  (runs 24/7)

Light Cloud:
├── React frontend (static)   $0.02/month
├── Micro container (20 hrs)  $0.03 x 20 = $0.60
├── Dev database             $30.00/month
└── Total                    $30.62/month

But here's the thing: your database has no artificial limits.
No "hobby tier" restrictions. Real PostgreSQL you can scale up.

Example 3: Stress Testing

You need to run 10 parallel containers for load testing. On traditional platforms, this would be expensive. On Light Cloud:

Light Cloud stress test:
├── 10 containers running 1 hour    $0.03 x 10 = $0.30
└── Total                           $0.30

Light Cloud stress test (longer):
├── 10 containers running 70 hours  $1.82 x 10 = $18.20
└── Total                           $18.20

Run serious load tests without serious bills.

Example 4: Production SaaS

Your SaaS serves customers during business hours. About 12 hours of real traffic per day, 5 days a week. ~260 hours/month.

Traditional Platform (always-on):
├── Pro compute              $25.00/month  (730 hrs billed)
├── Pro database             $50.00/month
└── Total                    $75.00/month

Light Cloud (scale-to-zero):
├── Small container (260 hrs) $0.027 x 260 = $7.02
├── Starter database         $38.00/month
└── Total                    $45.02/month

You save: ~$30/month

You're not paying for 3am when nobody's using your app.

Example 5: The Vacation Test

You're going on vacation for a month. No coding, no traffic.

Traditional Platform (vacation month):
├── Compute keeps running      $7.00
├── Database keeps running     $5.00
└── Total                     $12.00  (for nothing)

Light Cloud (vacation month):
├── Containers (0 hrs)         $0.00
├── Static sites               $0.02
├── Dev database              $30.00
└── Total                     $30.02

Your containers cost literally $0 when not running.

Price Projection: Know Before You Deploy

Here's what other platforms don't give you: projected costs before you get the bill.

Light Cloud shows you:

• Current spend: What you owe right now based on actual usage
• Projected monthly: What the full month will cost if current patterns continue

For scale-to-zero containers, we calculate projections based on your actual usage pattern:

Usage ratio = hours used / hours elapsed in billing period
Projected monthly = hourly rate x (usage ratio x 730)

If your container ran 10 hours out of the first 100 hours of the month (10% usage), we project:

• 730 hours x 10% = 73 hours
• 73 hours x $0.06 = $4.38 projected monthly cost

Not $43.80. Not "up to $43.80". Your actual projected cost based on real usage.

No Hidden Fees

What you see is what you pay:

• No egress fees for normal traffic
• No per-request charges
• No "platform fees"
• No charge for deployments
• No charge for build minutes (reasonable usage)
• No charge for logs or metrics
• No charge for custom domains
• No charge for SSL certificates

Team members are $9/user/month. That's the only additional cost.

Built for Indie Devs and Side Projects

Let's be honest: most developer tools are priced for companies, not individuals. You're building a side project on weekends, maybe a few hours here and there, and you're expected to pay the same as a startup with funding?

Scale-to-zero changes everything.

Your side project probably runs less than you think:

• Building on weekends? Maybe 20 hours/month of actual traffic
• Demo for a client once a week? 4-8 hours/month
• Internal tool your team uses during work hours? 200 hours/month, not 730

What that actually costs on Light Cloud:

Compare that to $7-25/month for always-on hosting that runs while you sleep.

The math for a typical indie hacker:

• React frontend (static): $0.02/month
• Node.js API (scale-to-zero, 30 hrs): $0.90/month
• PostgreSQL Dev database: $30/month
• Total: under $31/month for a full-stack app with a real database

And that API cost drops to literally zero in months when you're not actively working on it. Take a vacation. Your bill takes one too.

30-Day Free Trial: Actually Free

We don't do the "free trial but enter your credit card" thing for the first two weeks. Here's how it works:

Days 1-14: Completely Free

• No credit card required
• Up to 3 resources (any mix of containers, databases, static sites)
• Full access to everything: logs, metrics, custom domains, GitHub integration
• Deploy as many times as you want

Days 15-30: Still Free, Card on File

• We ask for payment details (so we know you're serious)
• You're still not charged anything
• Same limits, same access
• Full visibility into what your usage would cost

What happens on day 31:

• If you added payment details: billing starts, based on actual usage
• If you didn't: access pauses until you add payment
• No surprise charges. No "gotcha" moments.

During your entire trial, we show you:

• Real-time cost tracking (what this would cost if you were paying)
• Projected monthly bills based on your actual usage patterns
• Clear breakdown by resource

So when billing starts, you already know exactly what to expect. The number you saw in the dashboard? That's your bill. No mystery fees appearing later.

Trial limits exist to prevent abuse, not to limit you:

• 3 resources is enough for most projects (frontend + backend + database)
• Container sizes limited to Nano/Micro (plenty for development)
• Database limited to Dev tier (0.6GB RAM handles most dev workloads)
• Scale-to-zero required (which saves you money anyway)

After your trial, all limits are removed. Scale up when you need to.

The Comparison

Why We Built It This Way

I've been on both sides of cloud bills. As a developer, I've been shocked by surprise charges. As someone who's worked in cloud infrastructure, I've seen how pricing complexity benefits providers, not users.

Light Cloud pricing is simple because simple is better:

• One price per resource size
• Pay only when running (containers)
• See your costs in real-time
• Project your monthly bill accurately

No PhD in cloud economics required.