Flightcontrol vs Porter
Flightcontrol is reportedly easier to use and has a number of unique advantages
Porter is also built by good people. We are both Y Combinator companies working to make AWS app deployments easier.
On the surface, we are similar in that we both automate the provisioning of infrastructure and the deployment of applications. But as you dig in, there are important differences.
All the following are unique advantages you get with Flightcontrol vs Porter.
Simpler to manage than Kubernetes
Flightcontrol supports deploying to either AWS ECS + Fargate or AWS ECS + EC2. Fargate is much simpler than Kubernetes or ECS + EC2 and is an absolute breeze to work with. For advanced use cases like GPUs and Reserved Instance pricing, Flightcontrol supports ECS + EC2. This provides many of the benefits of Kubernetes without the $200/mo k8s base cost.
With Porter, you need to create and manage a Kubernetes cluster. It’s not hard, but there are more concepts your team must learn and more things to manage and monitor. Kubernetes is technically more powerful and flexible, and we will eventually add support for it too. But you need specialized Kubernetes skills to take advantage of that flexibility. You don't get extra power or flexibility just by using Porter. You're on your own when it comes to that part.
All your fullstack infra, including static sites
Flightcontrol enables fullstack workflows with everything from static sites to servers and database. Porter only serves backend use cases with servers and databases.
This also means you get fullstack preview environments, so you can test your entire system end to end with each pull request.
We also support MySQL and MariaDB databases, which Porter does not.
More affordable
No minimum AWS cost. Porter has a minimum $225/month AWS cost because, by default, clusters provisioned by Porter cost around $200 per month. Then you must add the cost of EC2 instances to serve your apps. And for security isolation, each environment should have its own cluster. So this adds up quickly.
We don't charge more for horizontal or vertical scaling. Unlike with Porter, your Flightcontrol cost doesn't increase as your traffic increases. Porter charges a fee for each unit of CPU and memory across all your instances. Flightcontrol only charges for the service definition, regardless of the size or instance quantity.
Live AWS cost display. You can easily see how much your AWS infrastructure is costing you, on a project, environment, and service level.
Watch paths and filters to reduce your AWS costs by only deploying changed services. These work for both standard and preview environments.
Superior security
Use different AWS accounts for each environment. It's very important to fully isolate your different environments from each other. The best way to do that is in different AWS sub accounts. We support that.
Configure database to be public or private. We recommend private databases, but we give you the choice.
Builds run in your AWS and VPC. On Porter, your build runs in GitHub Actions. This means it can't access any secrets. And it can't access any private databases, preventing you from fetching data during the build. Flightcontrol runs your build in your account with CodeBuild, so it can securely access secrets and private databases.
Environment variable integration with Parameter Store and Secrets Manager. We store secrets in your AWS Parameter Store or Secrets Manager where they are encrypted with your KMS keys. This is the most secure, and flexible way to manage secrets.
Faster app performance
2-6x faster builds. We have a custom build system that is 2-6x faster than every other build system.
Automatic CDN for web services. We automatically set up AWS CloudFront CDN in front of your web services. This enables edge caching for your app which results in blazing fast page loads for your users.
Advanced autoscaling options. We go beyond the CPU and memory thresholds, and we allow you to also configure requests per target thresholds and customize the cooldown timer.
Advanced workflows
Configuration
More regions. You can use 28 AWS regions when deploying through Flightcontrol
Advanced infrastructure-as-code that includes configuration for environments, preview environments, sidecars, deploy types, et cetera so you can more easily reproduce your infrastructure in other regions or accounts.
Use any database instance size instead of only four. We also support various other database configuration options, like storage and delete protection, which Porter doesn't.
Custom timezone for cron jobs so your cron job will respect daylight saving time year round.
Maintenance mode so you can temporarily stop web traffic while you perform critical maintenance on your app.
Post-deploy hooks so you can run custom code after deploys.
Builds
Nixpacks, for automatic dockerfile generation.
Customize the base image or native dependencies without having to write a Dockerfile.
Deploy from GitHub container registry, in addition to Docker Hub and AWS ECR.
Git submodule support. As long as Flightcontrol has access to all the repositories, submodules will magically work.
Dashboard
First class project and environment organization for better management.
Service graphs on service thumbnails so you can more quickly spot production issues at a glance.
Notifications for deployment lifecycle events via Slack and email.
Questions?
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