Platform as a service (PaaS) serves as a computing model in which a third-party provider delivers both hardware and software tools to users over the internet. These tools are mostly used for application development.
Finding the right PaaS provider can be a lengthy and complex process, especially because most of the platforms offer almost the same services.
These are the best 10 PaaS providers according to Tech Monitor.
Amazon Web Services – Elastic Beanstalk
Elastic Beanstalk is for deploying and scaling web applications which are developed on Java, .NET, PHP, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker. These will run on Apache servers as well as Nginx, Passenger and IIS.
One of the big benefits is that AWS is constantly adding new tools, so you are always likely to have the latest tools to hand.
A handy feature for IaaS users is that they can also use PaaS to build apps, this is part of an ongoing trend to blur the line between the two.
Google App Engine
Thanks to Google App Engine, the user can organise the creation of applications in a serverless platform. This is because this PaaS provider supports all kinds of code, from Node.js, Java, and C# to Go, Python and PHP to create an application but without the infrastructure.
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As a serverless platform, Google App Engine offers a simpler app-developing process, and allows the developer to use any framework or library.
IBM Cloud
As one of the biggest cloud platforms, IBM Cloud offers its users both PaaS and IaaS capabilities. The former has two main options.
The first is IBM Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, which is mostly for users interested in developing cloud-based applications, offering automatic updates. The second platform is IBM Cloud Pak for Applications, and its aim is to help modernise existing applications.
Microsoft Azure Pipelines
Azure Pipelines is a very flexible PaaS tool, enabling application-building with code languages like Python and Java. It is compatible with both Windows and MacOS, alongside iOS and Android.
Alongside deploying apps to the Azure Cloud, this service also works with other clouds like AWS and Google Cloud.
VMware Cloud Foundry
This PaaS tool aims to simplify the process of running and writing code on a Kubernetes cluster.
It is an exceptionally fast tool, which can start up in less than ten minutes since it’s very lightweight.
Wasabi Cloud Storage
Technically speaking, Wasabi is not a PaaS platform. But its cloud can be very useful in a business’s PaaS use.
Indeed, Wasabi Cloud Storage can be used to store application data for a cheaper price than the application’s own cloud.
It works with AWS, Google and Azure.
Red Hat OpenShift
Like VMware, Red Hat OpenShift is a Kubernetes-based PaaS platform too. Its main purpose is to help organisations and businesses to build applications more quickly, also thanks to its source-to-image capabilities.
With a simplified management console, it makes handling all Kubernetes clusters easier and constantly, no matter what operating system is running in the background.
Mendix aPaaS
Mendix aPaaS is another way to simplify the application-creation process. It can deploy applications through one single click, and it supports both public and private clouds.
Mendix, in addition, also focuses on reusable application components so that there is already a structure to build applications on, rather than having to build them from scratch. It is, therefore, a low-code environment.
Heroku
Heroku is a container-based PaaS environment, which means that applications run inside small containers (dynos), and the platform handles the rest of the infrastructure required, such as logging, security and orchestration.
There are multiple add-ons that Heroku makes available, like Searchify and Fastly.
Engine Yard
Engine Yard is a DevOps platform designed to simplify AWS, since the user only needs to write the code and then archive it in the remote repository. This platform then handles the remaining procedures.
Engine Yard also helps by managing other low-level tasks, such as patch management and backups. It even provides automatic alerts for application failures and other conditions.
