Both RunCloud and Ploi do the same job: they take a raw VPS you rent from DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr or any other provider, and turn it into something you can manage without living in a terminal. You still own the server, and you still pay the cloud provider separately. The panel is a subscription on top of that.
Choosing between them usually comes down to price, server limits, and how you deploy. This comparison keeps the focus on those three, using plan details from their public pricing pages. All prices below are approximate as of October 2026. Both companies change plans regularly, so check the official pricing page before you pay for anything.
What RunCloud gives you
RunCloud is a SaaS control panel that manages your own servers. You connect a VPS from any major provider or a bare-metal box, and RunCloud handles the stack, the security basics, and deployments from a dashboard.
Its public plans break down roughly like this:
- Essentials (~$9/month): 1 server, unlimited web applications, 2 GB of free backup storage, 1 staging environment, Git deployment, 1-click SSL, and server-side caching (NGINX and Redis).
- Professional (~$19/month): up to 50 servers, 10 GB of backup storage, 10 staging environments, application cloning, custom NGINX configs, and a 6G/7G firewall.
- Business (~$49/month): up to 100 servers, 30 GB of backup storage, atomic (zero-downtime) deployments, a WAF with ModSecurity rules, 10 team seats, and API access.
Two things worth knowing. First, RunCloud no longer offers a free tier; there is a trial, but the entry point is a paid plan. Second, RunCloud is not a shared-hosting panel for reselling cheap accounts. It does not run a mail server on your web server, so business email needs a separate service like Google Workspace.
What Ploi gives you
Ploi is built by a small Dutch team and works the same way: connect a server, and the panel handles provisioning, security hardening, SSL, queue workers, and deploys. It has native integrations with Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, and others, plus Cloudflare DNS management from inside the panel.
Its public plans break down roughly like this:
- Free: 1 server, 1 site, a limited number of deployments per month, and free Let’s Encrypt SSL.
- Basic (~$10/month): up to 5 servers, unlimited sites, unlimited deployments, staging-to-production tools, firewall management, and API access.
- Pro (~$16/month): up to 10 servers, plus server monitoring, automatic database and file backups, and zero-downtime deployments.
- Unlimited (~$36/month): unlimited servers and team management.
Ploi bills in euros and offers a yearly discount, so the dollar figures above are conversions, not the numbers you will actually see at checkout. The free tier is the real differentiator here: you can manage one production site without paying the panel anything.
Pricing and limits, side by side
The table below uses the public plan pages as the source. Prices are approximate as of October 2026 and exclude the cost of your actual servers.
| RunCloud | Ploi | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | ~$9/month (Essentials) | Free tier available; paid from ~$10/month (Basic) |
| Servers on entry plan | 1 | 1 (free) / 5 (Basic) |
| Sites on entry plan | Unlimited | 1 (free) / unlimited (Basic) |
| Mid-tier price | ~$19/month, 50 servers | ~$16/month, 10 servers |
| Top tier | ~$49/month, 100 servers; enterprise plans above | ~$36/month, unlimited servers |
| Team seats | 10 included on Business | Team management on Unlimited |
| Staging | 1 on Essentials, 10 on Professional, unlimited on Business | Staging-to-production tools on Basic and up |
| Zero-downtime deploys | Business (~$49/month) | Pro (~$16/month) |
| Backup storage included | 2 GB / 10 GB / 30 GB by tier, plus unlimited external backups to S3 or SFTP | Automatic database and file backups on Pro and up |
| Providers | Any major cloud or self-hosted server | Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, and more, with native API setup |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
The differences that actually matter
The table covers the numbers, but a few practical differences do not fit in rows and columns.
Ploi lets you start free. RunCloud killed its free tier, so the cheapest way into RunCloud is about $9 a month. If you run a single site and want to keep the panel cost at zero, Ploi is the only one of the two that allows it.
RunCloud scales to far more servers on paper. Professional covers 50 servers for about $19 a month, which is generous if you run client work or a fleet of small sites. Ploi’s middle plans cap at 5 and 10 servers, and you jump to Unlimited at about $36 a month for more than that. If you manage dozens of servers, RunCloud’s server allowances are the better fit on price.
Zero-downtime deploys arrive earlier on Ploi. Atomic deployments are a Business-tier feature on RunCloud (~$49/month) but included in Ploi Pro (~$16/month). If you ship Laravel or PHP apps where deploys cannot break a request, that is a real cost difference.
WordPress tooling favors RunCloud’s marketing. RunCloud ships RunCache, WordPress staging per plan, and a WordPress toolkit on higher tiers. Ploi handles WordPress fine (script installs, caching, staging-to-production), but its feature story leans more toward developers deploying from Git, with Cloudflare DNS management and a one-click script marketplace built into the panel.
Which one should you pick?
This is opinion, not fact, and it depends on your situation.
Pick Ploi if you run one or a few servers, want a free tier to start, deploy from Git regularly, and want zero-downtime deploys without paying $49 a month. It is also the natural choice if you want a European company handling your panel data.
Pick RunCloud if you manage a growing fleet of servers for clients, host mostly WordPress, and want the generous server counts on the Professional tier. The staging setup and backup storage allowances scale nicely for agency work.
Either way, remember what neither panel includes: the server bill. Budget $5 to $12 a month for a basic VPS on top of whichever panel you choose, and note that both panels need to reach their cloud control plane from your server, so a locked-down network can break management features.
Frequently asked questions
Does either panel include the server?
No. Both RunCloud and Ploi manage servers you rent separately from a cloud provider. You pay the provider for compute and the panel for management.
Is there a free plan?
Ploi offers a free tier for 1 server and 1 site. RunCloud does not currently offer a free tier, only a trial.
Which is cheaper for a single server?
Roughly speaking, RunCloud Essentials costs about $9 a month while Ploi manages your first server and site for free. For one server, Ploi is the cheaper option as of October 2026. Verify current pricing before deciding.
Can both panels run WordPress?
Yes. Both install and manage WordPress sites with caching and SSL. RunCloud packages more WordPress-specific features (RunCache, per-plan staging, a WordPress toolkit on higher tiers), while Ploi treats WordPress as one of several app types it manages.
Which is better for a team?
Both offer team management on paid tiers. RunCloud Business includes 10 team seats at about $49 a month, and Ploi adds team management on its Unlimited tier at about $36 a month. Confirm the exact seat counts on the official pricing pages, since these change.
The bottom line
On pricing alone, Ploi wins the entry end with its free tier and cheaper mid-tier plans, while RunCloud’s Professional plan is hard to beat if you need to manage dozens of servers cheaply. The honest answer is that both panels are mature, both deploy from Git, and the price difference for a small setup is a few dollars a month.
My take: if you run your own single server, start with Ploi’s free tier and upgrade only when you outgrow it. If you manage client sites at scale, price out RunCloud Professional against the number of servers you actually run. And whichever way you lean, open both pricing pages and confirm the numbers before you enter a credit card.