Is Automaton for you?
Automaton is a self-hosted platform for deploying web apps, APIs and scheduled jobs on servers you own or rent. You install it on an Ubuntu server, build apps with your own coding agent and the CLI, and manage them in your own Studio.
Automaton fits you if
- You or your small team build many small apps, internal tools, sites or automations, and want one place to deploy and share them.
- You want your apps and data on machines you choose, at a cost set by the servers you rent.
- You are comfortable owning a Linux server: DNS, updates and backups are yours to run.
- You build with an AI coding agent and want deployment checks and agent instructions generated for you.
Automaton does not fit you if
- You need automatic scaling, multi-region failover or a global edge network. Each app runs on one Runner machine (a Runner is the agent you install on a server to run apps); there is no autoscaling, no automatic balancing and no cross-region failover.
- You need live streaming connections. WebSockets and Server-Sent Events are not supported; apps poll a JSON endpoint instead.
- You want a hosted service to sign up for. Automaton is software you install; there is no Automaton cloud and self sign-up is disabled on your server (an administrator adds users).
- You cannot give the server public DNS and HTTPS, or you need ARM or a fully offline or private-only installation. Those are not the supported setup.
- You need to host strangers' code. Automaton is for you and people you trust, not public multi-tenant hosting.
Automaton or a cloud provider?
| Automaton on your server | A cloud provider (PaaS or managed cloud) | |
|---|---|---|
| Control | You choose the machines, location and what runs where | The provider decides within its product |
| Data location | On your servers | In the provider's regions |
| Cost | Set by the server plans you choose, plus a domain; the software is free (Apache 2.0). Measured figures: see the table below | Depends on the provider's pricing model |
| Maintenance | You update the server and Runners and keep backups | The provider operates the platform |
| Availability | One server per Runner; if it is down, its apps are down | Redundancy and failover available |
| Scale | Add Runner machines yourself | Elastic scale on demand |
| Getting started | Install a server first, then deploy apps | No server to install first |
| On call | You are | The provider is, within its SLA |
Choose Automaton when control and data location matter more to you than managed scale and availability. Choose a cloud provider when you need to scale or cannot be the one on call.
What it costs
| Setup | Monthly cost | Install time |
|---|---|---|
| Server and Runner on one Hetzner CPX22 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB disk, Helsinki) | €24.19 (server €23.58 + IPv4 €0.61, incl. 21% VAT), plus your domain | 90 seconds for the server installer; about 10 minutes from a new server to a first public app |
Measured on 3 November 2026 with release 0.2.0 (#561). At idle the server and Runner used about 1.2 GB of memory with one small app. Larger apps, builds and more users need more; Hetzner bills by the hour, so you can resize later. Prices are Hetzner's list prices on that date and change over time.