Guides / Bring-your-own-cloud Django hosting: how Django Cloud works
Peter van Doorn
Bring-your-own-cloud Django hosting: how Django Cloud works
"Bring your own cloud" (BYOC) means the platform's software runs your app, but the servers and the data sit in a cloud account that you own. You get the convenience of a platform without handing your infrastructure to a third party.
Three ways to host an app
- Classic PaaS (Heroku, Render and similar). The provider owns the servers and the account. Easy, but the provider holds your data and sets your bill.
- Do it yourself on a cloud. You own everything and you build everything: networking, certificates, deploys, rollbacks, logs.
- Bring your own cloud. You own the account. A platform provides the build, deploy, rollback and dashboard on top of it.
What you gain
- Ownership. The servers, the database and the data are yours. If the platform vanishes, the app is still running in your account.
- Direct billing. The cloud provider bills you at list price. There is no hidden markup inside a hosting bill.
- Control over location. You choose the region, which matters for data protection rules.
- Credits. Cloud credits, such as those from startup programs, can pay the infrastructure part.
- Audit. The cloud's own logs show what the platform did.
What it costs you
- You need a cloud account and a payment method.
- You pay two parties: the cloud provider for infrastructure, and the platform for its software.
- You are responsible for your account's limits, security settings and bill.
When BYOC is the right choice
- A client or employer requires that data stays in an account they control.
- You work in a regulated sector and must show where data lives.
- You want to avoid lock-in to one host's infrastructure.
- You plan to hand the project over later.
When it is not
If you want zero cloud account work and do not care who owns the servers, a fully managed option is simpler. A good platform offers both with the same workflow, so you can choose per project. See the comparison pages for how the options differ.
Or skip it
Django Cloud Self-hosted is bring-your-own-cloud for Django on AWS: your app, database and bill stay in your own account. Fully managed uses the same workflow in a dedicated account that we run.
pip install djangocloud-cli
djangocloud deployFree plans are available for students, AWS Activate startups, open-source, non-profit and research projects. See how Django Cloud compares with other ways to host Django.
Django is a registered trademark of the Django Software Foundation. Django Cloud is not affiliated with or endorsed by it. Found a mistake in this guide? Tell us and we will fix it.