(Disclaimer: I work at one of the companies in this list).
In the interest of choice and healthy competition (and also in my own selfish interest, per the disclaimer above), I will point out that the arguments in this article apply to all good PaaS providers, of which there are plenty. As an insider in this particular crowd of vendors, I can tell you that the competition is fierce and it is entirely focused on delighting hackers - a trend which everyone here should be excited about.
- cloudfoundry.com/appfog/stackato/tier3 are competing deployments of the cloudfoundry open-source project by VMWare
- phpfog, pagodabox, orchestra: php-only
- engine yard: ruby-only, also the leader in revenue, probably by a wide margin ($28m)
- dotCloud: first multi-language paas, with a bunch of database services as well
- Openshift: previously Makara, now part of Red Hat. Also available open-source
- Djangozoom: django-only
- Nodejitsu, nodester, no.de: nodejs-only
- Cloudbees: Java only
- Azure: solid .Net stack, impressive database service. Didn't use it directly but I've heard it's a great product.
- AppHarbor: an alternate .Net provider
- App Engine: much more restrictive than the others, but super cohesive and a great product if you don't mind the straightjacket
In the interest of choice and healthy competition (and also in my own selfish interest, per the disclaimer above), I will point out that the arguments in this article apply to all good PaaS providers, of which there are plenty. As an insider in this particular crowd of vendors, I can tell you that the competition is fierce and it is entirely focused on delighting hackers - a trend which everyone here should be excited about.
- cloudfoundry.com/appfog/stackato/tier3 are competing deployments of the cloudfoundry open-source project by VMWare
- phpfog, pagodabox, orchestra: php-only
- engine yard: ruby-only, also the leader in revenue, probably by a wide margin ($28m)
- dotCloud: first multi-language paas, with a bunch of database services as well
- Openshift: previously Makara, now part of Red Hat. Also available open-source
- Djangozoom: django-only
- Nodejitsu, nodester, no.de: nodejs-only
- Cloudbees: Java only
- Azure: solid .Net stack, impressive database service. Didn't use it directly but I've heard it's a great product.
- AppHarbor: an alternate .Net provider
- App Engine: much more restrictive than the others, but super cohesive and a great product if you don't mind the straightjacket