## The short version

Northflank is the better choice for engineering teams that need 17 regions, bring-your-own-cloud, GPUs and pipelines. Ample is the better choice when a coding agent should deploy without a person: no card to start, a hard spending cap, databases created automatically, and a remote MCP server.

## Before you choose

Northflank is a governed platform for teams running containers across clouds. Ample is built for agents shipping apps from a repository. Both run long-running services with Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis.

## Ample and Northflank side by side

|  | Ample | Northflank |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free plan | $0 with no card. 2 apps running at once, 2 vCPU, 2 GB memory, 3 GB volumes, 1 GB bucket storage, 2 buckets. | Developer Sandbox: 2 services, 2 jobs, 1 addon; not for production. A card is required on every plan. |
| Paid plans | Custom plans priced on volume (number of apps, limits, spending caps). No public list price; see [pricing](/content/pricing/index.html). | Pay as you go per second: about $0.0167 per vCPU-hour and $0.0083 per GB-hour; smallest plan $2.70 a month. |
| Spending limit | Free has a hard budget ($5 a month, $2 a day). At the cap, apps stop serving until the account is back under budget; nothing is deleted and nothing is billed. | No hard cap documented; spend alerts only. |
| How apps run | Each app runs as a normal long-running process in its own microVM with its own kernel. | Containers on Kubernetes in Northflank's cloud or your own; sandboxes use microVMs. |
| Long-running servers and workers | Yes. Web services and background workers (`--kind worker`) run as ordinary processes. | Yes: services, jobs and addons; WebSockets on HTTP ports. |
| Languages | Node, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, Elixir, Rust and static sites, detected from the repository. | Anything with a Dockerfile or a buildpack. |
| Docker images | No. Ample builds from source; Dockerfile build steps are not run. | Yes; Dockerfile builds are the default. |
| Databases | Managed Postgres, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB, each in its own microVM, created automatically when the code needs one. | Addons: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and MinIO. |
| Object storage | S3-compatible buckets, optionally published through Ample's CDN. | MinIO addon; no first-party object store. |
| Persistent disk | Persistent volumes attached to the app. | Persistent volumes; a single-writer volume limits a service to one instance. |
| Custom domains and TLS | Custom domains with automatic TLS. | Custom domains with Let's Encrypt certificates, wildcards supported. |
| Regions | No region choice. | 17 managed regions plus bring-your-own-cloud. |
| Scheduled jobs | Scheduled jobs: a command or HTTP request on a cron schedule (any time zone) or interval, with retries and run history (`ample job create`). | Cron jobs with concurrency policies. |
| Agent access | CLI, remote MCP server (OAuth), A2A endpoint and agent skills. Deploys are synchronous and return JSON with an exit code: 0 live, 1 failed, 2 needs input. | Claude Code plugin, Codex skill, CLI and REST API; no official MCP server found. |
| Agent signup without a person | Yes. `ample auth signup` creates an account with no browser, card or CAPTCHA; a person claims it by email within 48 hours. | No. A payment method is required to create resources. |

## Which one fits

### Choose Ample when

- A coding agent should sign up and deploy with no person and no card.
- You want a hard cap instead of alerts.
- You want an MCP server your agent can call directly.

### Choose Northflank when

- You need regions, BYOC, GPUs or Kubernetes-level control.
- You run Docker images, pipelines and preview environments as a team.

## Move a Northflank service to Ample

1.  Take them from the service settings; Northflank templates do not carry over.

2.  Buildpack services usually build unchanged from source. Dockerfile-only services need their install and start commands written out, because Ample does not run Dockerfile steps.

```
   ample plan --write && ample up
   ```

3.  Dump each addon (`pg_dump`, `mysqldump`, `mongodump`) and restore it; copy MinIO buckets with any S3 tool; copy volume data out before deleting.

4.  Add the domain to the app, update DNS to the target Ample prints, and keep the old app running until the new one answers on the domain.

```
   ample domain add <app-name> www.example.com
   ```

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Northflank have an MCP server?

Northflank publishes agent skills and a Claude Code plugin that drive its CLI; we found no official MCP server in its docs. Ample's remote MCP server is at `https://api.ample.computer/mcp`.

### Is there a free Northflank plan?

The Developer Sandbox is free but needs a card and is not meant for production. Ample's Free plan needs no card and stops at a hard budget.

## Where these facts come from

- [Ample pricing and plan limits](/content/pricing/index.html)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Ample agent instructions (AGENTS.md)](/content/AGENTS.md)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank pricing](https://northflank.com/pricing)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank billing](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/billing/pricing-on-northflank)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank builds](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/build/build-your-code-on-northflank)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank sandboxes](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/sandboxes/sandboxes-on-northflank-cloud)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank ports](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/network/configure-ports)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank databases](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/databases-and-persistence/deploy-a-database)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank volumes](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/databases-and-persistence/add-a-volume)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank regions](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/run/deploy-to-a-region)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank cron jobs](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/run/run-an-image-once-or-on-a-schedule)(checked October 14, 2026)
- [Northflank agent skills](https://northflank.com/docs/v1/application/ai-agents/agent-skills)(checked October 14, 2026)