Cloud vs Rack Comparison

This comparison helps you choose between Convox Cloud (managed machines) and self-hosted Convox Racks based on your requirements.

Summary

Aspect	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Best For	Rapid deployment, predictable costs	Full control, compliance needs
Setup Time	< 1 minute	10-20 minutes
Expertise Required	Minimal	Moderate to Advanced
Cost Model	Fixed monthly per machine/database	Variable infrastructure costs
Control Level	Platform-managed	Full control
Maintenance	Zero	Regular updates required

Feature Comparison

Infrastructure Management

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
AWS Account Required	No	Yes
VPC Management	No	Yes
Security Groups	No	Yes
IAM Roles	No	Yes
Subnet Configuration	No	Yes
NAT Gateways	Managed	Self-managed
Cluster Upgrades	Automatic	Manual
OS Patching	Automatic	Manual/Automated
Certificate Management	Automatic	Automatic

Developer Experience

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
CLI Commands	convox cloud	convox
Deployment Speed	Fast (shared infra)	Fast (dedicated infra)
Build Environment	Managed pool	Configurable
Local Development	Same as rack	Identical
convox.yml Support	Full	Full
Environment Variables	Yes	Yes
Rolling Deployments	Yes	Yes
Rollback Support	Yes	Yes
Log Retention	7 days	Configurable
Monitoring	Basic	Full CloudWatch/Custom

Database Resources

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Managed RDS	Yes (Cloud Databases)	Yes (RDS Resources)
PostgreSQL	Yes	Yes
MySQL	Yes	Yes
MariaDB	Yes	Yes
Read Replicas	No	Yes
Custom Instance Types	No (fixed classes)	Yes
Custom Storage Sizes	No (fixed per class)	Yes
Snapshot Restore	No	Yes
Database Import	No	Yes
ElastiCache	No	Yes
Containerized DBs	Yes	Yes

Operational Capabilities

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Kubectl Access	No	Yes
SSH to Nodes	No	Yes
Custom Node Types	No	Yes
Spot Instances	No	Yes
GPU Support	No	Yes
Custom AMIs	No	Yes
Cluster Autoscaling	No	Configurable
Pod Autoscaling	Yes	Yes
Custom Operators	No	Yes

Networking

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Load Balancer Type	Managed ALB	ALB/NLB/CLB
Static IPs	No	Yes
Custom Domains	Yes	Yes
SSL Termination	Yes	Yes
VPC Peering	No	Yes
Private Link	No	Yes
Internal Load Balancers	No	Yes
Network Policies	No	Yes

Storage

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Persistent Volumes	No	Yes
EFS Support	No	Yes
EBS Volumes	No	Yes
S3 Access	Via credentials	Yes

Security and Compliance

Feature	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Network Isolation	Namespace	Full VPC
Pod Security Policies	Platform-managed	Customizable
Secrets Management	Environment vars	Multiple options
RBAC	Platform-managed	Full control
Audit Logging	Basic	CloudTrail/Custom
Custom Security Groups	No	Yes
WAF Integration	No	Yes

Cost Analysis

Convox Cloud Pricing

Machines:

Machine Size	Monthly Cost
X-Small	$12
Small	$25
Medium	$75
Large	$150

Cloud Databases:

Database Class	Monthly Cost
dev	$19
small	$39
medium	$99
large	$199

Enabling durable: true doubles the database cost.

Self-Hosted Rack Costs (AWS)

Variable costs based on usage:

Component	Typical Monthly Cost	Notes
EC2 Instances (3x t3.small)	~$45	Minimum HA setup
EKS Cluster	$73	Fixed cost
Load Balancer	~$25	Plus data transfer
NAT Gateway	~$45	Plus data transfer
EBS Storage	~$10	100 GB
Data Transfer	~$20+	Varies by usage
RDS (db.t3.micro)	~$15+	If using managed DB
Total	~$228+	Minimum production

Cost Comparison by Scale

Workload	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Dev/Test	$12-31	~$100
Small Production	$64-103	~$228
Medium Production	$174-273	~$400
Large Production	$349-548	~$800+

Scalability Limits

Metric	Convox Cloud	Self-Hosted Rack
Max Services/Machine	20	Unlimited
Max Processes/Service	10	Node limits
Max Apps/Machine	10	Unlimited
Build Concurrency	Queued	Configurable
Network Bandwidth	Shared	Dedicated
IOPS	Shared	Dedicated

Use Case Recommendations

Choose Convox Cloud When:

• Need to deploy in minutes, not hours
• Limited DevOps resources
• Fixed monthly budgets
• Standard web applications
• Small development teams
• SaaS applications

Choose Self-Hosted Rack When:

• Need Kubernetes access
• Compliance requirements (HIPAA, PCI DSS)
• Service mesh implementations
• Multi-region deployments
• GPU workloads
• VPC peering required
• Direct RDS/ElastiCache access with advanced features
• Very large applications

Migration Paths

Cloud to Rack

When to migrate:

• Outgrowing Cloud limitations
• Compliance requirements emerge
• Need for advanced features

Migration effort: Low

• Same application format
• Export/import supported
• 1-2 hours typical

Rack to Cloud

When to migrate:

• Reducing operational overhead
• Simplifying management

Migration effort: Low-Medium

• Remove unsupported features
• Adjust for limitations
• 2-4 hours typical

Hybrid Approach

Consider using both Cloud and Rack:

Development on Cloud

• X-Small machines for developers
• Dev database class
• Cost-effective testing

Production on Rack

• Full control and compliance
• Advanced features
• Custom configuration

Example Setup

# Development - Create machine via Console first
$ convox cloud deploy -i dev

# Production
$ convox rack install aws production
$ convox deploy -r production

Recommendation Summary

Small Teams/Startups

Recommend: Convox Cloud

• Fastest time to market
• Predictable costs
• Minimal operational overhead

Growing Companies

Recommend: Hybrid Approach

• Cloud for development/staging
• Rack for production
• Gradual migration path

Enterprises

Recommend: Self-Hosted Rack

• Full control and compliance
• Advanced integration options
• Custom configuration

Agencies

Recommend: Convox Cloud

• Quick client deployments
• Predictable billing
• Multi-tenant efficiency

Getting Started

Try Convox Cloud

# Create machine via Console at console.convox.com
$ convox cloud apps create my-app -i my-first-machine
$ convox cloud deploy -i my-first-machine -a my-app

Try Self-Hosted Rack

# Create Runtime Integration then Install Rack via Console
$ convox apps create my-app -r my-first-rack
$ convox deploy -r my-first-rack -a my-app

Support

• Sales: sales@convox.com
• Support: cloud-support@convox.com
• Community: community.convox.com