---
title: "Managed Docker Compose hosting in 2026: who deploys a compose.yaml with HTTPS, backups and logs | Pethost"
description: "Most managed hosts convert a Docker Compose file or want their own format. Two run a compose.yaml as written: Pethost, from €9.99 a month, and Elestio."
---

[Blog](https://pethost.dev/blog/) · Hosting comparisons

# Managed Docker Compose hosting in 2026: who deploys a compose.yaml with HTTPS, backups and logs

By the Pethost team · 15 September 2026 · Updated 5 October 2026 · 10 min read

You have a compose.yaml that runs on your laptop, and you want the same file online with HTTPS, backups and logs, without managing a server. In October 2026 most managed hosts will not run it: they convert it, want another format, or run part of it. Pethost runs it as written for €9.99 a month. Of fourteen other managed hosts we read, only Elestio does too, for a pasted file of ready images.

**In short**

- **Runs the file and looks after the server:** Pethost (€9.99 a month: 2 vCPU, 3 GB, 30 GB) and Elestio ($19.71: 2 vCPU, 4 GB).
- **Converts it into its own services:** Railway, Sliplane, Hostim.dev, Google Cloud Run. Fly.io runs it inside one Machine and ignores `volumes:`.
- **No Compose:** Render, Northflank, DigitalOcean App Platform, Zeabur. **On a server that stays yours:** Coolify, Dokploy.
- **Three web services, a worker and a Postgres:** €9.99 on Pethost, €11.00 on Hostim.dev, $19.71 on Elestio, $23.15 on Railway, €28.80 on Sliplane. Starter's 3 GB of memory alone would be $30 a month at Railway's rates.

## Which hosts deploy a compose.yaml as written in 2026

A host can do four things with a Compose file: run it with Docker Compose, convert it once into services of its own kind, run a part of it, or have you write it again in its format.

**What each host does with a compose.yaml, October 2026**

| Host | The compose.yaml | What carries over | Who looks after the server |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pethost | Runs it as written, or refuses it and says what to write | Builds, named volumes, `depends_on`, healthchecks, .env | Pethost |
| Elestio | Runs a pasted file, as a pipeline on a VM | Keys not listed; documented for ready images | Elestio |
| Fly.io | Runs part of it, inside one Machine | One `build:`, one public port; `volumes:` ignored | Fly.io |
| Railway | Converts each service into a Railway service | Images, variables, one volume a service; no `depends_on` | Railway |
| Sliplane | Converts it: a parser reads a subset | Services, volumes, environment variables | Sliplane |
| Hostim.dev | Converts each service into an app on its own plan | Volumes; databases become managed ones | Hostim.dev |
| Google Cloud Run | Converts it into one service of several containers | Builds, `depends_on`, `env_file`; volumes become bucket folders | Google |
| Render | No: its own render.yaml | Nothing | Render |
| Northflank | None found: its own templates | Nothing | Northflank |
| DigitalOcean App Platform | No: its own app spec | Nothing; it has no volumes | DigitalOcean |
| Zeabur | No: its own Template YAML | Nothing | Zeabur, on a server bought through it |
| Coolify, Dokploy | Runs it, on a server you connect | Builds, volumes, healthchecks, `depends_on` | You |

Heroku, Koyeb and Sevalla have no Compose deploy that we found; Azure Container Apps converts a file with `az containerapp compose create`.

## One compose.yaml on three kinds of host

Take a small real project: a web service and a worker built from one Dockerfile, and a Postgres with its data in a named volume.

```
services:
  web:
    build: .
    ports: ["3000:3000"]
    env_file: .env
    depends_on:
      db: {condition: service_healthy}
  worker:
    build: .
    command: node worker.js
    env_file: .env
    depends_on:
      db: {condition: service_healthy}
  db:
    image: postgres:17
    env_file: .env
    volumes: ["pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data"]
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
volumes:
  pgdata:
```

### Railway converts it into three services

Drop the file onto a Railway project and “your services (and any mounted volumes) will be auto-imported as staged changes”. They are Railway services from then on: Railway “does not run docker-compose.yml files directly”. `build:` becomes “Deploy from GitHub repo with a Dockerfile”, and `depends_on` has “No direct equivalent. Applications should handle connection retries at startup”.

### Fly.io runs it inside one Machine

With `[build.compose]` in fly.toml and flyctl v0.3.152 or later, Fly “builds and runs Compose services as containers within a single Machine”. `fly deploy` “requires exactly one service in the Compose file to specify `build`”; ours has two. Fly “ignores `volumes:` declarations”, so Postgres writes to “an ephemeral overlay that's wiped on restart or redeploy” until a Fly Volume is mounted through `[mounts]`. And the containers share a network namespace: the database is at `localhost:5432`, not `db:5432`.

### Pethost runs it as written

We run the file with Docker Compose and correct nothing in it. The machine builds both images, pulls `postgres:17`, waits for the healthcheck of `db` and starts the rest: Compose's own behaviour. What we will not run, such as a writable bind mount or `privileged`, is refused before anything is created, with what to write instead. Our file gets one refusal: a port a route serves may not also be published, or it would answer plain HTTP beside the HTTPS address. So the `ports:` line goes, and a route names the site:

```
x-pethost:
  routes:
    - {host: app.sam.pethost.app, service: web, port: 3000}
```

The [API reference](https://pethost.dev/docs/api/) has every rule. With [an AI coding agent](https://pethost.dev/blog/hosting-for-ai-coding-agents/) you write none of it:

Claude Code

**You say:** Deploy this Compose project and send me the link.

- CreateTransfer app.tgz uploaded
- CreateProject violation: port 3000 is published, and the route sends to it. Remove it from ports
- CreateTransfer app.tgz uploaded
- CreateProject app: building
- GetOperation succeeded

**The agent answers:** It's live at https://app.sam.pethost.app. Your compose.yaml is untouched: pethost.compose.yaml beside it has no ports line.

## Docker Compose support host by host

### Sliplane: a parser for a compose file

Sliplane's documentation says “Docker compose files do not work yet.” Its parser reads “a subset of Docker flags and Compose options” into services you review. It charges as we do, a flat price per server: see [Sliplane alternatives](https://pethost.dev/blog/sliplane-alternatives/).

### Google Cloud Run: gcloud run compose up

`gcloud run compose up compose.yaml` deploys “a single Cloud Run service with multiple containers”. Google's page, last updated on 30 September 2026, carries no Preview notice and calls the command “ideal for development”. A service scales to zero unless you pay for a minimum instance.

### Render, Northflank and DigitalOcean App Platform: Docker Compose is not supported

Render reads its `render.yaml` Blueprint and nothing from a Compose file; the request “Support docker-compose” on its board has been open since 17 July 2019. Northflank has templates, DigitalOcean an app spec, and “App Platform does not support volumes”. Prices are in [Railway vs Render vs Fly.io pricing](https://pethost.dev/blog/railway-vs-render-vs-fly-io-pricing/).

### Elestio: a custom docker-compose pipeline on a managed VM

Elestio runs a pasted Compose file as a “CI/CD pipeline” on a VM it keeps patched: $19.71 a month for 2 vCPU and 4 GB. Its documentation presents this for images “already available on a public or private Docker registry”. Plans include “automated backups, SSL certificates, security updates, OS patches”; whether a pipeline's volumes are in those backups is not stated.

### Coolify and Dokploy: the file runs, the server is yours

Coolify and Dokploy are free and run the file with its builds, volumes and healthchecks. The server stays yours to rent and look after, also with Coolify Cloud ($5 a month) and Dokploy Cloud ($4.50 a server), which host only the panel: see [the self-hosted panels compared](https://pethost.dev/blog/coolify-vs-dokploy-vs-caprover-vs-dokku/) and [the two cloud panels](https://pethost.dev/blog/coolify-cloud-vs-dokploy-cloud/).

## HTTPS, backups and logs: what comes with the Compose file

Compose starts containers. The certificate, the copy of the volume and the log you can read a week later come from the host. Every managed host here gives an HTTPS address, though on Cloud Run a custom domain wants a load balancer.

**Backups and logs around a Compose file**

| Host | Backups of volumes | Logs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pethost | Nightly, off the machine, kept 14 days | Every request for 30 days, and the containers' own logs |
| Elestio | Daily, kept 7 days; Compose volumes not confirmed | Live and history logs |
| Railway | Scheduled, billed; daily ones kept 6 days | 7 days on Hobby |
| Sliplane | Daily, kept 7 days | 15,000 lines, 7 days |
| Hostim.dev | Daily; a restore goes through support | Up to 7 days |
| Fly.io | Daily snapshots of Fly Volumes, 5 days by default | 7 days |

Postgres on Pethost is a container in your project, in the nightly backup: not a managed database with replicas or point-in-time recovery. Hostim.dev's is a managed cluster with failover, and Fly.io sells one from $38 a month.

## What managed Docker Compose hosting costs for three apps, a worker and a Postgres

One workload, on every host that prices it: three always-on web services of 512 MB each, a worker, a Postgres and 10 GB of traffic a month. That is about 2.5 GB of Starter's 3 GB.

**Per month. Bars compare at €1 = $1.1204, the ECB's reference rate of 5 October 2026**

| Host | Price a month |
| --- | --- |
| Pethost Starter | €9.99 |
| Hostim.dev | €11.00 |
| Fly.io, your own Postgres | $17.30 |
| Elestio | $19.71 |
| Railway | $23.15 |
| Sliplane | €28.80 |
| Fly.io, Managed Postgres | $53.24 |
| Google Cloud Run | $63.49 |

Railway's figure counts memory only, on our assumption of 0.5 GB a service: each 0.1 vCPU a service uses adds $2. Fly.io's are Ashburn prices, the lower one with a Postgres you run yourself; Cloud Run's is at us-central1 rates, with Cloud SQL.

The prices differ less than what they buy. Railway charges $10 a month for a gigabyte of memory and $20 for a vCPU, so Starter's 3 GB would be $30 there before any CPU. Sliplane's €9 server is 1 vCPU and 1 GB, and the one that holds this workload is €28.80. Hostim.dev prices every app on its own, €2.50 for 1 GB: these five come to €11.00, and a sixth is one more plan. On Pethost €9.99 is the whole machine, and the next project costs nothing while it fits.

## What €9.99 a month buys, already done

On Starter, for €9.99 a month without VAT, the jobs Docker Compose does not do are done:

- **2 vCPU, 3 GB, 30 GB** a virtual machine of your own
- **14 nights** of encrypted backups, off the machine
- **30 days** of request logs
- **13** MCP tools for your agent

Also in the price: an HTTPS address for every project, a deploy on every push to GitHub with an earlier commit one step back, SSH into any container, and security updates that install themselves.

That is the best value we found for a Compose file: the most memory for the money, with the work around it done. [Grow](https://pethost.dev/#pricing), a machine twice the size, is €17.99.

**One card for each Compose project.** Six projects on one machine, each with its address, its requests of the last day and its services.

![The Pethost panel's first page: the machine's CPU, memory and disk, and six projects as cards, each with its name, its address, its requests of the last day and its services.](https://pethost.dev/shots/projects.webp)

## What if I just rent a VPS for Docker Compose?

You can: Compose runs on any server, and Coolify or Dokploy put a panel on it. Two things first. An agent on a bare server works as root over SSH: nothing tells it what runs there, and one wrong command takes down the proxy or the database. On Pethost it works through 13 tools, and its shell is inside your containers, never on the machine.

And a server is not sure to cost less. Hetzner, the one most guides name, raised its prices twice in 2026, and its cheap Cost-Optimized range has long been out of stock. Those servers are hardware it bought at good prices, before the RAM shortage, and on 5 October every plan of the range was marked “not available”. The 2 vCPU, 4 GB server it does sell, CPX22, is €19.49 a month, up from €7.99. Add a panel, backup storage and your hours. Starter is €9.99 with those done.

## Who Pethost is for

### Pethost is the best pick for

- **Developers with a compose.yaml that already works**, who want it online with no server to patch
- **Solo developers with several side projects**: each a Compose project, all on one bill of €9.99
- **People who build with Claude Code, Codex or Cursor** and want the agent to deploy the project and read its logs
- **Early startups** that want a fixed bill, and a file that runs anywhere else Docker does

### Look elsewhere if

- Your application needs several regions, autoscaling or a database with replicas: here one machine is the limit

## Questions

### Which managed hosting deploys a compose.yaml without managing the server?

Of the managed hosts we read in October 2026, Pethost and Elestio run a Docker Compose file as written and look after the machine under it. Pethost is €9.99 a month with HTTPS, nightly backups and request logs included; Elestio's 2 vCPU, 4 GB VM is $19.71.

### Does Railway support Docker Compose in 2026?

Railway imports a compose file: each service becomes a Railway service. It “does not run docker-compose.yml files directly”: `depends_on` has no equivalent, and `build:` becomes a deploy from a GitHub repository.

### Does Sliplane support Docker Compose?

Not as a file to deploy: its documentation says “Docker compose files do not work yet”. A parser reads a subset of a docker-compose.yml into Sliplane services, which you review before deploying.

### Can Fly.io deploy a docker-compose.yml?

Yes, as containers inside one Machine, with `[build.compose]` in fly.toml. The file's `volumes:` are ignored, one service may have a `build:`, and one container takes inbound requests.

### Is gcloud run compose up on Cloud Run ready for production?

The command is in gcloud's main track, and Google's page carried no Preview notice on 5 October 2026. Google calls it “ideal for development” and says it “isn't a replacement for a comprehensive infrastructure-as-code strategy for production environments”.

### Do Render, Northflank or DigitalOcean App Platform support Docker Compose?

No. Render reads a render.yaml Blueprint and DigitalOcean App Platform an app spec, and Northflank's documentation has no page on Compose, only templates. Each service is declared again.

Read from each vendor's own documentation and pricing page on 5 October 2026. Prices are as each vendor lists them, in its currency; ours are without VAT.

1. [Railway: Docker Compose](https://docs.railway.com/guides/docker-compose)
2. [Railway: backups](https://docs.railway.com/volumes/backups)
3. [Railway: pricing](https://railway.com/pricing)
4. [Sliplane: deploying a service](https://docs.sliplane.io/services/deploying-a-service)
5. [Sliplane: pricing](https://sliplane.io/pricing)
6. [Fly.io: multi-container Machines](https://fly.io/docs/machines/guides-examples/multi-container-machines/)
7. [Fly.io: pricing](https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/)
8. [Cloud Run: Compose](https://docs.cloud.google.com/run/docs/deploy-run-compose)
9. [Cloud Run: pricing](https://cloud.google.com/run/pricing)
10. [Azure: az containerapp compose](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/containerapp/compose)
11. [Render: Blueprints](https://render.com/docs/infrastructure-as-code)
12. [Render: “Support docker-compose”](https://feedback.render.com/features/p/support-docker-compose)
13. [Northflank: documentation](https://northflank.com/docs/llms.txt)
14. [DigitalOcean App Platform: limits](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/details/limits/)
15. [Zeabur: Dockerfile](https://zeabur.com/docs/en-US/deploy/methods/dockerfile)
16. [Elestio: custom docker-compose](https://docs.elest.io/books/cicd-pipelines/page/deploy-own-docker-compose-image-using-elestio-custom-docker-compose)
17. [Elestio: pricing](https://elest.io/pricing)
18. [Hostim.dev: questions](https://hostim.dev/docs/faq/)
19. [Hostim.dev: pricing](https://hostim.dev/pricing/)
20. [Coolify: Docker Compose](https://coolify.io/docs/applications/builds/docker-compose)
21. [Coolify Cloud: pricing](https://coolify.io/pricing)
22. [Dokploy: Docker Compose](https://docs.dokploy.com/docs/core/docker-compose)
23. [Hetzner Cloud: Cost-Optimized plans](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/cost-optimized)
24. [Hetzner: price adjustment](https://docs.hetzner.com/general/infrastructure-and-availability/price-adjustment/)

## Put your projects online today

A machine of your own, as many projects as fit, one flat price. Nothing metered, nothing billed on top.

[Host all your projects for €9.99/mo](https://console.pethost.dev/)

## Keep reading

- 6 October 2026 [Best Railway alternatives in 2026: predictable pricing and self-hosted options](https://pethost.dev/blog/railway-alternatives/) The best Railway alternatives in 2026 are platforms priced per service, self-hosted Coolify and Dokploy, and Pethost: a flat €9.99 a month for 3 GB.
- 4 October 2026 [Best Heroku alternatives in 2026, now that Heroku is in sustaining engineering](https://pethost.dev/blog/heroku-alternatives/) Heroku entered sustaining engineering in February 2026: fixes, no new features. Three apps, a worker and a Postgres are $33 there and a flat €9.99 on Pethost.
- 2 October 2026 [Best Coolify alternatives in 2026: self-hosted and fully managed](https://pethost.dev/blog/coolify-alternatives/) The best Coolify alternatives in 2026 are four self-hosted panels, two platforms that price each service, and a fully managed machine from €9.99 a month.
- 30 September 2026 [Best Render alternatives in 2026: when a price per service adds up](https://pethost.dev/blog/render-alternatives/) The best Render alternatives in 2026 by price: three apps, a worker and a Postgres are $34.75 on Render, $33.00 on Heroku and €9.99 on one Pethost machine.

[All articles](https://pethost.dev/blog/) · [About Pethost](https://pethost.dev/about/) · [Pricing](https://pethost.dev/#pricing)

Pethost · Stephan Gomer · NIP 1133096755

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