Check Out the Pay-as-you-Go Pricing for Directus Standard Cloud
Tags: javascript, api, aws, cloud
Published: 2022-07-29 18:58:00

Directus offers three different tiers for Directus Cloud, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), including backend infrastructure, high-speed performance, an intuitive dashboard, and an ever-growing list of cloud-exclusive extensions. 

**Community Cloud** is completely free and is perfect for demos, proofs-of-concept, and hobby projects. 

**Standard Cloud** is ideal for small to medium-sized production projects and is provided through a usage-based pricing model. Configure the exact hardware you want or need, then customize auto-scaling rules and various config options. We'll _jump_ into this more in a bit. 🐰

**Enterprise Cloud** allows for maximum flexibility and scales with any project or an entire organization. Fully customizable with an array of features and custom extensions, running on dedicated servers in a single-tenant environment.


## Full Transparency
Let's take an in-depth look at how the usage-based, pay-as-you-go pricing model for Standard Cloud will save you money while delivering unbeatable control, flexibility, and the power to scale your project to any size. 

If you aren't familiar with Directus Cloud, this video is a great place to start.

{% embed https://youtu.be/l12F3VmzJbI %}

All Directus Cloud tiers offer unlimited users, access roles, content collections and items, content locales, API requests, and bandwidth. With Standard Cloud, automated backups are included to ensure the data and apps are always secure and the ability to choose the regions where the servers are located, further enhancing performance.

## Infrastructure and Maintenance
With any tier on Directus Cloud, the infrastructure and maintenance are included, reducing the cost of DevOps and infrastructure to a minimum. In a self-hosted setup, enough servers and the infrastructure to support them must be stood up and maintained. Then, when needs increase, more infrastructure adds to the capital and operating costs. With Directus Standard Cloud, it's taken care of for you, and all updates and patches are handled automatically. It's like extending your team without hiring personnel to maintain the charging infrastructure. 

Directus provides everything needed to take advantage of the free software for pennies per hour and includes:

- database
- serverless cluster
- load balancer
- file storage
- global CDN

Get up and running in 90 seconds without capital expenses, increasing your IT department with one click and benefiting from the expertise of Directus and DevOps specialists. 

## Revolutionary Pricing
No other data platform (headless CMS or otherwise) uses this kind of affordable and transparent pricing model based solely on infrastructure usage. Pay-as-you-go is just that. You pay for what you used in the previous month by the hour. Directus Cloud has no quotas or limitations and no monthly fee. **Pricing is very simply $.0347 per node, per hour.**

Directus Standard Cloud is serverless, meaning it can scale up and down quickly and easily. And can be predetermined from the Directus dashboard. Configure how scalable the infrastructure must be, vertically and horizontally, based on capacity needs. Are you expecting a spike in traffic? Reserve the extra capacity for the overage; it doesn't cost a penny until it's used.

Creating a project on Directus Standard Cloud enables multiple configuration options, like a custom URL and selecting which region the infrastructure will be located in.

The following three options determine the pricing:

First, choose a **Node Type** for the project enabling vertical scaling. This can be changed at any time. The General Purpose tier provides an excellent mix of server specifications, covering most cases. Usage is based on $.034/hour per node, which comes to roughly $25/month per node, assuming your nodes are running 24/7. The Performance tier provides improved data processing, parallel operations, and larger asset support and is billed at $.068/hour per node. This is about $50/month per node, again, assuming your nodes run 24/7. 

**Active nodes** offer load balancing by allowing the infrastructure to scale horizontally to handle sudden spikes in usage or traffic. When creating a project, configure how many nodes are needed to be immediately available at all times. 

During elevated usage, **Standby nodes** are automatically added to ensure the project stays online. The only hours you are charged for are the hours these nodes are active. Standby nodes are billed at the same rate as the other nodes in your account, either $.034 or $.068.


![Directus Standard Cloud pricing options](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/efx2ldasqiuy25dr63u0.png)

Once these options have been selected, an estimated monthly price, based on the project running 24/7 for the entire month, is provided. It does not include potential overage if standby nodes are activated.  

Directus provides real-world scenarios of different Standard Cloud setups in [this blog section](https://directus.io/blog/quick-guide-self-service-pay-as-you-go-pricing-for-directus-standard-cloud/#standard-cloud-pricing%3A-real-world-scenarios). It's a great tool if you still have questions, or if you're ready to get your hands on Directus, sign up for your [Directus Cloud Account](https://directus.cloud/) here!