--- title: "Ample vs Northflank: which is better for apps coding agents deploy?" description: "Ample and Northflank compared on free plans, spending limits, databases, regions, bring-your-own-cloud and agent access, with sourced limits and migration steps." canonical_url: "https://ample.computer/compare/northflank" last_updated: "2026-10-14" author: "Ample Computer" --- # Ample vs Northflank: which is better for apps coding agents deploy? Ample and Northflank compared on free plans, spending limits, databases, regions, bring-your-own-cloud and agent access, with sourced limits and migration steps. ## The short version Northflank is the better choice for engineering teams that need 17 regions, bring-your-own-cloud, GPUs and pipelines. Ample is the better choice when a coding agent should deploy without a person: no card to start, a hard spending cap, databases created automatically, and a remote MCP server. ## Who this is for Northflank is a governed platform for teams running containers across clouds. Ample is built for agents shipping apps from a repository. Both run long-running services with Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis. ## Ample and Northflank side by side | | Ample | Northflank | |---|---|---| | Free plan | $0 with no card. 2 apps running at once, 2 vCPU, 2 GB memory, 3 GB volumes, 1 GB bucket storage, 2 buckets. | Developer Sandbox: 2 services, 2 jobs, 1 addon; not for production. A card is required on every plan. | | Paid plans | Custom plans priced on volume (number of apps, limits, spending caps). No public list price; see [pricing](https://ample.computer/pricing). | Pay as you go per second: about $0.0167 per vCPU-hour and $0.0083 per GB-hour; smallest plan $2.70 a month. | | Spending limit | Free has a hard budget ($5 a month, $2 a day). At the cap, apps stop serving until the account is back under budget; nothing is deleted and nothing is billed. | No hard cap documented; spend alerts only. | | How apps run | Each app runs as a normal long-running process in its own microVM with its own kernel. | Containers on Kubernetes in Northflank's cloud or your own; sandboxes use microVMs. | | Long-running servers and workers | Yes. Web services and background workers (`--kind worker`) run as ordinary processes. | Yes: services, jobs and addons; WebSockets on HTTP ports. | | Languages | Node, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, Elixir, Rust and static sites, detected from the repository. | Anything with a Dockerfile or a buildpack. | | Docker images | No. Ample builds from source; Dockerfile build steps are not run. | Yes; Dockerfile builds are the default. | | Databases | Managed Postgres, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB, each in its own microVM, created automatically when the code needs one. | Addons: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and MinIO. | | Object storage | S3-compatible buckets, optionally published through Ample's CDN. | MinIO addon; no first-party object store. | | Persistent disk | Persistent volumes attached to the app. | Persistent volumes; a single-writer volume limits a service to one instance. | | Custom domains and TLS | Custom domains with automatic TLS. | Custom domains with Let's Encrypt certificates, wildcards supported. | | Regions | No region choice. | 17 managed regions plus bring-your-own-cloud. | | Scheduled jobs | Scheduled jobs: a command or HTTP request on a cron schedule (any time zone) or interval, with retries and run history (`ample job create`). | Cron jobs with concurrency policies. | | Agent access | CLI, remote MCP server (OAuth), A2A endpoint and agent skills. Deploys are synchronous and return JSON with an exit code: 0 live, 1 failed, 2 needs input. | Claude Code plugin, Codex skill, CLI and REST API; no official MCP server found. | | Agent signup without a person | Yes. `ample auth signup` creates an account with no browser, card or CAPTCHA; a person claims it by email within 48 hours. | No. A payment method is required to create resources. | Competitor facts come from that company's own pricing pages and documentation, checked on the date shown in the sources. Plans change; follow the source links for current numbers. ## Choose Ample when - A coding agent should sign up and deploy with no person and no card. - You want a hard cap instead of alerts. - You want an MCP server your agent can call directly. ## Choose Northflank when - You need regions, BYOC, GPUs or Kubernetes-level control. - You run Docker images, pipelines and preview environments as a team. ## Move a Northflank service to Ample 1. **Note build, start and port.** Take them from the service settings; Northflank templates do not carry over. 2. **Plan and deploy.** Buildpack services usually build unchanged from source. Dockerfile-only services need their install and start commands written out, because Ample does not run Dockerfile steps. ```sh ample plan --write && ample up ``` 3. **Move data.** Dump each addon (`pg_dump`, `mysqldump`, `mongodump`) and restore it; copy MinIO buckets with any S3 tool; copy volume data out before deleting. 4. **Point your domain.** Add the domain to the app, update DNS to the target Ample prints, and keep the old app running until the new one answers on the domain. ```sh ample domain add www.example.com ``` ## Frequently asked questions ### Does Northflank have an MCP server? Northflank publishes agent skills and a Claude Code plugin that drive its CLI; we found no official MCP server in its docs. Ample's remote MCP server is at `https://api.ample.computer/mcp`. ### Is there a free Northflank plan? The Developer Sandbox is free but needs a card and is not meant for production. Ample's Free plan needs no card and stops at a hard budget. ## Sources - [Ample pricing and plan limits](https://ample.computer/pricing) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Ample agent instructions (AGENTS.md)](https://ample.computer/AGENTS.md) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank pricing](https://northflank.com/pricing) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank billing](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/billing/pricing-on-northflank) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank builds](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/build/build-your-code-on-northflank) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank sandboxes](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/sandboxes/sandboxes-on-northflank-cloud) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank ports](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/network/configure-ports) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank databases](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/databases-and-persistence/deploy-a-database) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank volumes](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/databases-and-persistence/add-a-volume) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank regions](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/run/deploy-to-a-region) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank cron jobs](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/run/run-an-image-once-or-on-a-schedule) (checked 2026-10-14) - [Northflank agent skills](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/ai-agents/agent-skills) (checked 2026-10-14) ## Other comparisons - [Ample vs Railway: which is better for deploying apps from coding agents?](https://ample.computer/compare/railway) - [Ample vs Render: which is better for apps deployed by coding agents?](https://ample.computer/compare/render) - [Ample vs Fly.io: which microVM platform is better for agent-built apps?](https://ample.computer/compare/fly-io)