See how Clever Cloud simplifies app deployment and management with automatic scaling, a simple git push workflow, and a high level of security.
Building a startup or an app takes speed and efficiency.
Clever Cloud meets that need. It’s been our infrastructure platform for more than 10 years, mostly because at BnC Consulting we aren’t DevOps specialists and can deploy with a simple git push.
Founded nearly 15 years ago by Quentin Adam, Clément Nivolle, and a crew of seriously badass bearded folks, Clever Cloud is an innovative cloud hosting platform. Based in France, with its own servers (rather than AWS, GCP, or Azure instances) and regions across Europe, North America… actually, a bit everywhere, it’s built to help developers, technical decision-makers, and entrepreneurs deploy and manage applications with surprising ease.
Clever offers a range of features designed to optimize the application lifecycle:
- Automated deployment: Continuous integration makes deploying code child’s play, so developers can focus on what matters.
- Automatic horizontal and vertical scaling: Clever adjusts resources to match demand, maintaining performance in all conditions. Your website won’t fall over if you end up on Gilles Bouleau’s evening news (apparently Claire Chazal hasn’t been on air for a while).
A story from an earlier life: I was CTO of a startup called les Tontons Livreurs. It turns out we appeared on one of those news shows — not TF1, but still. And, of course, we had no idea. Without us doing anything, the servers scaled on their own. It cost us… €1.80 for the evening, the site stayed up, and that night brought in tens of thousands of euros.
- Language agnostic: Whether you build in JS, Python, Ruby, Swift, or PHP (yes, yes, it still exists), Clever Cloud supports you without blinking.
- High availability: Robust infrastructure and regular backups give your apps the highest possible availability.
Clever is our default deployment partner. We have several large clients hosted there, including an SME in the south of France handling tens of thousands of requests an hour. Across 2024 (fingers crossed for the coming month), we had a total of six hours of downtime. That’s 99.93% uptime!
- Advanced security and regular updates: Some of the badass bearded folks at Clever contribute to the Linux kernel used by its VMs, or are core committers on technologies and languages such as Rust (as we sometimes are with Nest.js or certain Swift packages). They follow their fields closely and fix CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) as fast as Zorro draws a Z on García’s door.
Use cases
Mobile apps
For mobile apps that need a reliable backend, Clever means simplicity and speed. Every backend change can be deployed in seconds: a simple git push is all it takes to update your app. This rapid iteration lets developers test, refine, and optimize the backend without major interruptions.
SaaS solutions
For SaaS (Software as a Service), Clever Cloud offers flexible, reliable infrastructure with numerous certifications. As a SecNumCloud platform, Clever Cloud provides a high level of security and compliance, ideal for companies in regulated environments. Its ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications also demonstrate strong information-security and data-confidentiality management systems.
We’ve mentioned it already, but scalability is one of Clever’s major strengths. App backends can adapt dynamically as they grow, without compromising performance or security — and without human intervention.
In tech, we distinguish between:
Vertical scaling: Increasing the resources of one machine (for example, adding RAM or CPU power) to meet higher demand. It’s ideal for occasional needs or workloads limited to one node.
Horizontal scaling: Adding multiple instances or machines to distribute the workload. It’s a great fit for SaaS apps that need high availability and can handle thousands or even millions of users at once.
By combining these approaches with advanced monitoring, Clever Cloud keeps your infrastructure efficient and secure, even during traffic spikes.
Benefits
Choosing Clever Cloud has several benefits:
- Shorter development time: Automation lets developers focus on code and speeds up development.
- A better user experience: Automatic scaling keeps the experience smooth, even when traffic spikes.
- Optimized costs: Usage-based pricing helps companies, especially startups, manage their budgets.
- Regulatory compliance: As a European company, Clever Cloud complies with the GDPR and protects personal data.
Compared with similar solutions
Compared with cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, Clever stands out for:
- Ease of use: An intuitive interface with a short learning curve and no need for exceptional DevOps skills. Your Express, Rails, or Flask app can be deployed and available in 10 minutes (including the time it takes to open an account and grab a coffee).
- Personalized support: Responsive customer service that understands the specific needs of European businesses.
- Transparent pricing: You pay for what you use. That’s it. Clear pricing, no hidden fees (and you don’t pay €1,500 to talk to an AI agent…).
I’m not throwing shade at anyone — we’re customers of those giants too — but building an MVP (or even going all the way to a Series B or C) on AWS is like hunting a hummingbird with a Rafale fighter jet.
Pricing
Clever’s pricing is flexible and transparent, with plans that fit your project. Costs depend on the size and number of instances your application needs, with per-second billing to reflect actual usage as closely as possible.
A simple static Next.js site, like the one we built for Strattt, costs between €7 and €15 a month.
A larger platform with multiple databases, replicas, a load balancer, and so on, costs between €150 and €300 a month, sometimes more.
For startups, Clever Cloud created the UP program. It offers up to €10,000 in cloud credits during the first year, personalized onboarding, training with Clever Cloud engineers, monthly coaching, access to high-level support, workshops and masterclasses for technical teams, and more visibility through Clever Cloud’s media and events.
This pricing approach and dedicated program let companies, whether just starting out or growing quickly, benefit from efficient, secure cloud infrastructure while keeping costs under control.
In short, Clever Cloud is the ideal copilot for startups and teams looking for performance and simplicity. With robust infrastructure, automatic scaling, and easy deployment using a simple git push, you can focus on what matters: innovating and making your users happy. Add dedicated programs such as UP — with up to €10,000 in first-year cloud credits and personalized support — and you have a partner ready to propel your project to new heights. Ready to climb aboard Clever Cloud and turn your ideas into a success?
I’m Clément. I founded BnC Consulting, a company focused on building innovative products for startups and scale-ups. We help companies turn ideas into real products in 3 to 4 months, with budgets between €40,000 and €70,000. If you have an ambitious project and want a partner to deliver it quickly and effectively, I’d be glad to work with you. Together, let’s add a little magic to your innovation, like a present under the tree! 🎇 (And yes, we deploy on Clever.)
Stay warm and get ready for the next entry in our “24 Days of APIs” series. Who knows what other technology wonder is waiting around the corner? You’ll find out… if you leave cookies and milk under the tree!