Does your app need a Static Site or a Web Service?
Choose a Static Site for prepared pages, such as a product catalog with no account or stock updates. If your app starts a server that checks stock and saves changes, choose a Web Service. Render runs that server using your app’s start instructions.
| Job | Render option | What you set up |
|---|---|---|
| Show a prepared catalog | Static Site | The instruction that prepares the pages and the folder containing them. |
| Run the app code that answers requests | Web Service | How the app starts, the computing plan and any other services it needs. |
| Remember stock and customer records | Render Postgres or another compatible database | The data connection, access rules and recovery. This is separate from serving pages. |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read every column.
What does Render need to start the app?
For a rehearsal, confirm the test database and notification destination before connecting code that can deploy automatically. Then connect the repository, the saved project containing the app’s code, and choose the branch Render should build from. The build command prepares the app. For a Web Service, Render also needs to know how to start it.
- Give the app its connections as environment variables. These are settings the app reads outside its source files. Check the test version uses disposable stock records and only sends notifications to a destination you control.
- If the app starts but the onrender.com address cannot reach it, ask whoever built it to check where it listens for requests. Render expects the server to listen on 0.0.0.0 and recommends using the port it supplies in the PORT setting.
- At the test address, change the quantity of a disposable item. Refresh to make sure the new quantity is saved. If you see the old amount, check whether the service wrote to the intended database.
What happens when nobody visits the free app?
A free Render Web Service sleeps after 15 minutes without incoming traffic. The next visit can spend about a minute waiting for it to start. Decide whether that is acceptable for the first person who opens the app in the morning.
A workspace has 750 free instance hours per calendar month. Free Web Services use those hours while running. If the team uses them up, Render suspends all its free Web Services until the next month.
Free Postgres has a separate clock. The database becomes inaccessible after 30 days unless you upgrade it. Render gives you another 14 days to upgrade before deleting it and its data. Render describes these free resources as suited to experiments and personal projects.
Will files still be there after a restart?
Ordinary changes to a service’s local files are temporary. An uploaded product photo or a local database file can disappear on a restart or a new deployment. Give anything you need to keep a durable place to live.
Choose a database for stock and a file service for photos, or attach a persistent disk to an eligible paid service. A persistent disk keeps files written under the location you configure. Writing anywhere else still leaves them in temporary storage.
A disk can only attach to one running copy of the service. When you update, Render must stop the old copy before it starts the new one. Choose a separate file service if you need more than one app instance to read the same uploads or want old and new copies to overlap during a release.
Which bills belong to the workspace and which to the app?
The workspace plan covers things such as team features. The app server and database each have their own computing plan. Raising the workspace plan does not move a free Web Service or database to paid computing.
Start with the number of services the app actually needs. A Web Service and a database are two separate choices. If you add more copies of the Web Service, each runs on the chosen computing plan.
Outbound data is what leaves your services. A catalog that sends many images to browsers can use more of the shared allowance than a small page. If you use free services without a payment method, going past the outbound allowance can suspend them.
| Cost area | Published boundary | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby workspace | No monthly workspace fee. Service usage is separate. | Whether the workspace features are enough for your team. |
| App and database computing | Each service has a computing plan that sets its processor and working memory. | The service sizes and how many running copies you need. |
| Outbound public traffic | Hobby includes 5 GB per month across the workspace. Additional public internet transfer costs US$0.15 per GB. | How much the app sends to browsers or outside services. Check the transfer categories and exceptions before estimating. |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read every column.
What will a separate preview environment copy?
Render can create a set of test services from a Blueprint, a file that describes the app and its connections. This whole-environment feature requires a Pro workspace or higher. Newly created preview databases and disks start without the original data.
Before enabling or creating a preview, make sure startup tasks and outside connections cannot use the live stock database or send real notifications. Add disposable stock records and photos to the new stores.
Preview services can add computing charges. If the test needs fewer or smaller running copies, set those in the Blueprint. Render can also remove previews after a period of inactivity.
What does an older app version bring back?
Render can redeploy an earlier build that it still retains. First check that the older code can read your current records and files. A rollback can bring back the older start command and private service settings, while a persistent disk keeps its current contents.
Use Rollback in the service’s Deploys page. The dashboard disables automatic deployments after a rollback. A rollback requested through Render’s API does not disable them. Check the setting before another code change reaches the site.
For paid Render Postgres, recovery can create a separate database to inspect before switching the app to it. Render does not provide that recovery feature for Free Postgres. Restoring a disk snapshot is a different operation that can overwrite newer files. Secure a recoverable copy of the current files first. For a database you run yourself, follow its database-specific backup procedure. Render warns that a disk snapshot can restore that database in a damaged state.
What changes if you add reports or move the app?
If preparing an inventory report makes someone wait on the page, consider a separate background service to do the work and save the result. The app can then show when the report is ready.
For a move, keep the code and start settings, then copy the data separately. Render documents how to export Postgres backups and transfer files off a persistent disk. Before switching the public address, open a copied inventory item and its photo on the replacement.
Where can you learn the next steps?
- Verify the useful task before going liveA release record for saved information, private access, failed actions, small screens and recovery.