DollarDeploy charges for the control plane; you pay your provider for the server. Always compare total cost, not the control-plane line item. See https://dollardeploy.com/pricing for current plans and all-in examples.
The plans:
- Free - $0/mo: one server, one app, no card. 14-day trial of paid features.
- Hobby / Start - $5/mo: 2 servers, 5 apps (about $1 per app per month).
- Pro - $15/mo: 5 servers, 20 apps, 5 users.
- Expansion: +$1/mo per extra server or app.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing (SSO, access control).
By the numbers: one small app runs about $12.09/mo all-in (DollarDeploy $5 + a Hetzner server ~$7.09). Vercel Pro is $20/mo plus usage; a comparable AWS setup is about $33/mo.
Traffic: a Hetzner server includes about 20 TB with the server and charges roughly $1/TB for overage, versus about 1 TB on Vercel at $0.15/GB.
The bottom line: a number you choose, not a number you discover.
Go deeper: how much you can save, flat vs usage-based pricing, and decomposing a $46K Vercel bill.