How billing works
No plans. Your apps pay for the memory and processor time they really use, charged every hour from a prepaid wallet you top up by card.
Updated 17 Oct 20263 min read
There are no plans or sizes on Tanzahost. Your apps and databases pay for what they really use: the memory they hold and the processor time they take, measured every minute and charged every hour from your prepaid wallet. Projects are free, and limits cost nothing by themselves.
What's measured
| Meter | What it counts | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | GB of memory held, each hour | reading today's prices |
| Processor | Processor time used, each hour | reading today's prices |
| Storage | GB stored on your apps' and databases' disks | reading today's prices |
| Traffic | GB sent out to visitors | reading today's prices |
| Builds | Minutes your builds run | reading today's prices |
| Shared MySQL | Each shared MySQL database | reading today's prices |
| Backups | GB your project's backups take up | reading today's prices |
Every process counts: an app's web process, its workers and its scheduled tasks while they run, a site's database, and every database of its own. Prices are the same for everyone paying in your currency in your project's location, and are on Pricing.
Every hour
Your apps' and databases' use is measured every few seconds and gathered minute by minute. When an hour closes, its use is priced and taken from your wallet as one charge. Prices are finer than a cent, so nothing is rounded away: the part of a cent left over is carried into the next hour.
The wallet page shows today's and this month's cost, the hour running now, the month's expected total, and how many days your balance lasts, with each project's and app's share.
An example month
reading today's prices
On a busy day her shop uses more, and pays more for those hours. On a quiet night it uses less, and pays less. She never pays for room she isn't using.
Prices before every choice
Before you add an app or a database, or change its limits, the screen shows:
the rates, in your currency, for your project's location;
an estimate for the month, from the app's own use over its last 7 days, or for a new one from similar apps in its location, rounded up;
the most a month could cost, even at both limits every hour.
Paying less
Sleeping: a quiet app can sleep after 15 minutes without visitors, and pays only for its storage until the next visit.
Stopped: a stopped app pays only for its storage.
Limits: keep a runaway app from using more than you expect. See Limits.
Your wallet
You top up your wallet by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, through Stripe. A wallet is in US dollars and takes any card. Or save a card, and it pays the month's usage on the 1st instead. Every payment gets a receipt. A new app or database starts once your wallet holds a small first deposit and covers its first day at its estimated use, or once you've saved a card. See Wallet and top-ups and Receipts.
When the money runs low
Alerts come at 7, 3 and 1 days left, and at zero, under the bell and by email.
At zero, everything keeps running for 3 days, a little below zero.
Then your apps stop: visitors see a neutral "unavailable" page. Nothing is deleted, and databases keep their data.
Top up, and the apps the wallet stopped start again within a minute.
After 30 days stopped, with reminders a week and a day before, the account's projects are deleted.
A spending cap
Every new wallet starts with a monthly spending cap, which you can change or remove. Reaching it, you're told; nothing new can be added that month, and if you chose so, your apps stop until next month. See Spending cap.
When prices change
A price that goes up starts only after a notice period, and everyone paying in that currency is told under the bell and by email. A price that goes down starts at once. Use is always charged at the prices in force when it was used.