Both put a friendly control panel on servers you own. Here is an honest comparison — including the things Hatchbox does well and where LaunchPad is still early access.
| Capability | Hatchbox | LaunchPad |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $10/server/month (~R163), unlimited apps, 7-day free trial | Free tier (1 server); Solo R149 and Team R249/mo ex VAT — early access, paid billing not yet enabled |
| Infrastructure bill | Your cloud account, billed directly | Your Hetzner + Backblaze accounts, billed directly — no markup |
| Server provisioning | Connects to your cloud provider | Provisions Hetzner Cloud servers and hardens them (Docker, UFW, fail2ban, swap), or connects an existing server over SSH |
| Deploys | Zero-downtime deployments for Ruby, Rails and Node.js | Kamal zero-downtime deploys for any Dockerized app, with live log streaming and health-check-gated cutover |
| PostgreSQL backups | See hatchbox.io for current database features | Scheduled pg_dump to Backblaze B2, encrypted client-side, verified restores, restore drills, and WAL-based point-in-time recovery |
| Scheduled tasks | Cron support | Managed cron entries per app |
| Teams | Unlimited team members | Workspaces with member roles |
| Custom domains + SSL | Yes | Yes — SSL provisioned automatically once DNS resolves |
| Maturity | Established product with years in production | Early access — free while paid billing is switched off |
Hatchbox prices and plan details checked June 2026 (app.hatchbox.io/pricing); Rand conversion at roughly R16.3/$. LaunchPad prices exclude 15% South African VAT. We only list Hatchbox capabilities published on their pricing page — check their site for the full picture.
Connect a Hetzner account, ship with Kamal, and let LaunchPad look after your database. See the deploy guide for the full walkthrough.
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