Pricing Model Overview
Platform Usage-Based Pricing (Pay-per-Use)
The platform uses a flexible pricing model built around several features:
- Resources are allocated in granular units called cloudlets. One cloudlet provides 128 MiB of RAM and 400 MHz of CPU, allowing resources to be assigned in precise amounts.
- Automatic vertical and horizontal scaling helps provide only the capacity currently required, reducing payment for unused resources.
- Automatic discounts can make platform usage more economical as the volume of reserved resources increases.
Together, these capabilities support a user-focused Pay-per-Use charging model rather than billing only according to a predefined resource limit.
The video below explains the main principles of the platform pricing model and the problems that flexible resource allocation helps solve.
How It Works
With automatic scaling, the incoming workload does not need to be predicted in advance. Within the configured scaling range, the platform adjusts the amount of resources allocated to the environment according to current application demand.
The Scaling Limit defines the maximum number of cloudlets that can be assigned to each server. It can therefore be used to establish the maximum potential resource budget for a project.
Cloudlets are added automatically as resource consumption increases and removed as it decreases. These units are called Dynamic Cloudlets, and their cost is calculated from actual hourly usage.
Most applications require a minimum amount of resources simply to remain loaded and ready to operate. These resources can be allocated in advance as Reserved Cloudlets, which may qualify for automatic discounts.
Scaling ranges are configured separately for every server instance, so each container can have individual Reserved and Dynamic Cloudlet limits.
Tips
- When cloudlet consumption is calculated, the platform uses the larger value between hourly RAM and CPU consumption rather than adding both together.
- Hosting expenses and resource consumption can be monitored through the platform dashboard.
Setting Up Usage-Based Pricing
Configure the usage-based pricing model for an environment with the following steps.
Set the Scaling Limit slider—the transparent slider on the right—to the required maximum resource limit.
Warning
Setting the Scaling Limit too low for a heavily loaded application can cause performance problems or instability.
Cloudlet consumption is calculated hourly. RAM and CPU usage can therefore rise and fall during the day. Charges decrease during low-traffic periods and increase only when the application actually needs additional resources.
Set the Reserved Cloudlets slider—the white slider on the left—to the minimum amount of RAM and CPU the application is expected to require continuously.
The exact discount for Reserved Cloudlets depends on the hosting provider and the total number of Reserved Cloudlets configured across all nodes in the environment.
Example
In this example, the server has 4 Reserved Cloudlets and a maximum limit of 24 Dynamic Cloudlets.
Using Reserved and Dynamic Cloudlets together helps control costs while keeping enough capacity available for unexpected workload increases. The application can handle traffic peaks without permanently paying for resources that remain unused.
More Useful Links
- How much PaaS costs – track hosting expenses.
- PaaS vs Amazon Pricing – review the advantages of dynamic pricing.
- Pricing FAQ – learn which platform resources are charged.
- Monitor Consumed Resources – review current usage and resource-consumption history.
- Save Your Cloud Money – find recommendations for reducing resource consumption.
- Cloud Union – compare pricing from different hosting providers.