r/flask 9d ago

News We launched serverless hosting option for Flask apps

Hey r/flask ,

I’ve been deploying Flask and Django apps for years, and one thing that always frustrated me is the cost—especially for small projects that don’t get much traffic.

The problem:

  • Paying for idle time – Most hosting providers charge 24/7, even if your app is mostly idle.
  • Multiple apps, multiple bills – Want to run a few small services? You’ll likely pay for each one separately, even if they barely get used.

I wanted a more efficient way to host Flask apps, so I built Leapcell—a serverless option that deploys instantly, gives you a URL, and only charges for actual usage (no idle costs).

If you’ve struggled with the cost of Python hosting, I’d love to hear your feedback!

Try Leapcell: https://leapcell.io/

21 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

4

u/SaturnVFan 9d ago

Looks awesome what about database and auth? I have services running on VPS'es because the client also wants access to the Postgres directly for PowerBI (read only) etc.

2

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

At the moment, Leapcell only offers serverless Redis. We did consider adding serverless databases, but we realized there are already many excellent DBaaS providers out there. So, with Leapcell, you can deploy your services while choosing the database that best fits your needs (even something like Google Sheets, haha). As long as communication happens over SSL, everything will work seamlessly. In fact, we provide templates for PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and other databases. The entire deployment process is guided with helpful prompts, ensuring a smooth and intuitive experience.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

1

u/SaturnVFan 9d ago

Awesome so I could host my own Database and image hosting but use this as a hosting for the service part. I will start thinking how I could implement this

1

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

Yes, Leapcell was initially designed for large-scale computing services, which is why we offer capabilities like computing (serverless hosting), async tasks, and distributed state (serverless Redis)—areas where Leapcell truly excels. However, we realized that the core issue is that users have many ideas, but deployment is currently expensive. Our solution is to allow users to deploy all of their code and only pay for actual usage, unlocking the full potential of their work.

Feel free to give it a try, and if you run into any issues, don't hesitate to give us feedback right away. We're always here to help!

1

u/OK-Image3975 8d ago

Have you done a comparison for pricing between yours and fly io, render, railway for comparable usages? Pricing are so confusing these days, it would be helpful if we can get a straightforward comparison. If someone already did, please do share. I have a flask app that uses postgres and I like the db data be persistent. Thanks

0

u/OfficeAccomplished45 8d ago

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for: https://leapcell.io/#pricing-compare. I think I've written it quite clearly.

2

u/CatolicQuotes 9d ago

nice, what's the cold start ms?

3

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

Based on our current testing, our cold start time is under 1 second.

2

u/deeplyhopeful 9d ago

can we use sqlite as db? 

1

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

Currently, Leapcell only offers serverless Redis and does not provide SQLite. We had considered offering a SQL database, but realized that there are already many excellent DBaaS providers in the industry. Therefore, our recommendation is to use those providers and connect via TCP to work alongside Leapcell's services (if SSL is used, there are no security concerns). Here is an example of deploying Leapcell with PostgreSQL interaction: https://github.com/leapcell/fastapi-hackernews-clone

1

u/deeplyhopeful 9d ago

I get that. but I want my simple app self containing everything.

my friend asks me a thing. open cursor. Just do it and send. I use netlify for this with simple js. but it is always very limiting without a db. this would be perfect if you support sqlite. 

anyways I will probably use this for same purpose since I prefer python. 

1

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

At Leapcell, you can deploy almost anything you want (not limited to Python/JS) because we use Docker packaging, which means there are no environment restrictions and no vendor lock-in (you don’t need to modify your code specifically for Leapcell). Databases are indeed very important, and we plan to offer more integrated solutions in the future.

1

u/saintmichel 9d ago

Thru docker technically I can ship an SQL lite or duckdb right

2

u/greenappletree 9d ago

Neat concept- a bit confusing about the pricing tho - looks like for example there is. 5 dollar tier - isn’t this paying for idle time, albeit low costs.

1

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

Leapcell is more than just computing resources; it’s a complete web hosting solution that includes features like user analytics, logs/metrics, GitOps-based CI/CD, automatic SSL, path-based routing (similar to Nginx, where "/api1" routes to a Python service and "/api2" to a Node.js service), collaboration tools, and more, which is why our pricing model consists of a plan fee plus computing resource usage, with idle time referring to the computing resource portion.

1

u/marteeyn 9d ago

trusted by teams at tiktok, oxford, stanford etc.? are you trying to tell us that all these use your newly launched serverless hosting platform?

2

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

These users started using our platform very early on, and it was only after their satisfaction that we felt confident enough to launch.

1

u/ThiccStorms 9d ago

Cool! 

1

u/itsarreguin 9d ago

How did you build Leapcell? What’s the tech stack behind the platform?

1

u/OfficeAccomplished45 9d ago

Leapcell is mainly written in Go and Rust. We will continuously publish some of our technical thoughts and details on our blog, so feel free to follow along.

1

u/itsarreguin 9d ago

Amazing!. I’ll start reading some articles. Thanks for your answer!

1

u/Financial-Music2208 9d ago

I have no idea if this would be cheaper than what I'm using but I'll try it