Pods
A pod is a persistent Linux container running on InstaPods infrastructure. Unlike ephemeral Docker containers, pods are full system containers — all files, installed packages, and configurations survive restarts.
Each pod gets:
- A unique subdomain (e.g.,
my-app.sg-dev-v2.instapods.app)
- A dedicated SSH port for remote access
- A pre-installed development stack based on its preset
- Its own filesystem at
/home/instapod/app
Pods can be started, stopped, restarted, resized, and deleted. When stopped, your data is preserved — you only lose the running processes.
Presets
A preset defines the software stack pre-installed in a pod. InstaPods offers four presets:
| Preset | Stack | App Port | Use Case |
|---|
| Static | nginx | 80 | HTML/CSS/JS sites, landing pages |
| PHP | nginx + PHP-FPM 8.3 + Composer | 80 | PHP applications, APIs |
| Node.js | Node.js 20 + npm + systemd service | 3000 | Express, Next.js, any Node app |
| Python | Python 3.12 + pip + venv + systemd service | 8000 | Django, Flask, FastAPI |
Plans
Plans determine the resources allocated to your pod:
| Plan | CPU | Memory | Storage | Price | Services |
|---|
| Starter | 1 vCPU | 512 MB | 5 GB | $5/mo | No |
| Developer | 2 vCPU | 2 GB | 20 GB | $15/mo | Yes |
| Professional | 4 vCPU | 4 GB | 40 GB | $30/mo | Yes |
The Starter plan does not support database services (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis). Upgrade to Developer or Professional to install services.
Regions
A region is a geographic location where your pods run. Each region has one or more servers. When creating a pod, you can optionally select a region — if you don’t, InstaPods automatically picks the best server based on current load.
Currently available regions are listed at app.instapods.com and via the API at GET /api/regions.
Teams
A team is the organizational unit for billing and access control. Every user belongs to at least one team.
- Pods belong to teams, not individual users
- Billing (subscriptions, invoices) is per-team
- Team members can manage all pods within the team
- You can create multiple teams and switch between them
See Teams for more on managing teams and inviting members.
