Build and deploy apps from code to production in just a few clicks

The App Platform is a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that helps developers build, deploy, and scale web applications, APIs, and static sites. It’s highly flexible—you can deploy directly from your source code, bring your own Dockerfile, or use a pre-built container image. Whether your project lives in a monorepo or across multiple repositories, you can deploy each service (frontend, backend, payment module, etc.) as its own component within a single app. App Platform offers a cost-effective alternative to Vercel, Heroku, and Netlify for PaaS use cases, and to Cloud Run, AWS Fargate, and App Runner for fully managed container orchestration.

App Platform streamlines the path from code to production by supporting two deployment modes: trigger-based deployments directly from your GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket repository, DOCR/GHCR/Docker Hub registry, and CI-driven workflows using tools like GitHub Actions. This flexibility makes it easy to set up staging, production, and automatic preview environments for every pull request—so teams can test changes in real time before merging. Startups and Digital Native Enterprises can deliver features faster while reducing operational overhead. For larger teams, App Platform also integrates with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling you to provision and manage applications programmatically as part of your AI-assisted developer workflow.

Yes. App Platform makes it easy to deploy and scale the web-facing parts of your AI applications. Whether you’re building with DigitalOcean Gradient AI or integrating with external providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini, you can quickly launch frontends, APIs, and model-serving endpoints without managing infrastructure. For retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows, App Platform connects seamlessly with managed PostgreSQL or OpenSearch. You can design your architecture flexibly—for example, run a lightweight frontend in a static site or small container, while powering a more compute-intensive backend in a larger container. With built-in subdomain and path-based routing (e.g., /mcp), you can integrate MCP and APIs as separate or shared components of the same app, making App Platform a strong foundation for modern AI-native businesses.

Yes. App Platform makes it easy to connect your applications to both DigitalOcean-managed databases and external services. With built-in outbound VPC access, and VPC peering, your apps can securely communicate with managed databases, Droplets, and Kubernetes clusters over a private network—keeping sensitive traffic off the public internet. For third-party services like MongoDB Atlas, DynamoDB, or Sentry, App Platform supports dedicated outbound IPs, so you can whitelist connections for compliance and security. Configuring these integrations is simple: just add encrypted environment variables that your application can use at runtime. This gives you a secure, flexible way to connect to the services your app depends on.

App Platform integrates seamlessly with other DigitalOcean products, so you can extend your apps with managed services instead of managing infrastructure yourself. Many customers use Managed PostgreSQL or MySQL as their core database, with Redis for caching and key-value workloads. For storage, you can use Spaces for static assets today. Beyond databases and storage, you can add Managed Kafka for event-driven workflows and Managed OpenSearch for logging, analytics, or vector search in RAG-based applications. The DigitalOcean Marketplace also offers SaaS integrations like Inngest for workflow and batch processing, or Betterstack for logging and monitoring. These options give you the flexibility to compose complete applications on a unified cloud platform.

App Platform includes a 99.95% uptime SLA, making it a reliable choice for mission-critical applications. For businesses that need direct, hands-on help, DigitalOcean offers a Premium Support plan with response times under 2 hours to quickly resolve issues. Every customer also has access to a rich resource library of how-to guides, tutorials, and videos to help you get the most out of App Platform.