EU hosting → the Netherlands
Dutch Rails developers usually want EU residency, low Amsterdam latency and a DPA without lawyers. Hostim runs Rails in Falkenstein, with typical RTT around 12 ms to Amsterdam. Managed PostgreSQL, Active Storage volume, Sidekiq as a separate app.
# docker-compose.yml
services:
web:
image: my-rails-app
environment:
- RAILS_ENV=production
- RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT=1
db:
image: postgres:16The Dutch Rails scene is small but high-quality, with several well-known startups running on Heroku for years. The Heroku EU sunset and the price hikes pushed teams to look for an EU-operated alternative. Hostim is the closest one-to-one mapping: the deploy model is the same (push code, run migrations on release), the database is managed, and Sidekiq runs as a separate process. Dutch buyers often ask for a DPA and a clear sub-processor list — both are available on request.
Latency. Typical RTT from Amsterdam to our Falkenstein region is around 12 ms. Amsterdam is one of the largest internet exchange points in Europe (AMS-IX). Connectivity from Falkenstein to Dutch networks is direct — typical RTT is 12 ms. Dutch buyers tend to be price-sensitive but expect EU data residency by default.
Regulator. Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP).
Local law. UAVG, the Dutch GDPR implementation act. Hostim is operated by HOSTIM.DEV UG, a German company, with all data in Falkenstein, Germany — there is no transfer outside the EU for application data.
Local alternatives you may have considered: TransIP, Leaseweb, Combell, STACK Datacenter.
Rails hosting today usually means a Puma server behind a reverse proxy, with PostgreSQL and a volume for Active Storage uploads. The Heroku stack model works fine — but the price does not, especially after the Heroku EU sunset moves teams to dedicated dynos.
Run rails db:migrate as a release command on each deploy. Hostim builds your Rails Docker image, attaches managed PostgreSQL, and mounts a volume for Active Storage. Background jobs (Sidekiq, GoodJob) run as a second app in the same project.
Active Storage with local disk silently breaks when the container restarts. The fix on Hostim is a persistent volume mounted at storage/, or you can configure S3-compatible object storage.
RAILS_ENV, RAILS_MASTER_KEY, DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL
Questions
Typical RTT from Amsterdam to Falkenstein is 12 ms via direct fiber routes through AMS-IX peers. For Rails apps that is below the noise floor of any web request.
Yes. Hostim runs whatever Ruby and Rails version your Dockerfile defines. The platform does not pin a runtime.
Een Data Processing Agreement is op aanvraag beschikbaar. De voorwaarden voldoen aan GDPR en de Nederlandse UAVG. Mail support@hostim.dev.
Mount a persistent volume at storage/ — files survive deploys. For multi-GB uploads, configure direct uploads to Hetzner Object Storage in Falkenstein.
Spin up an app in minutes. Managed database on the free tier, custom domain included.
Platform figures from the published price list, docs and our own benchmark.
€2.50/month
Hostim entry app plan
Plan sa-1-1: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM. Flat price, billed hourly, no usage meter.
€0
Managed database free tier
PostgreSQL 256 MB, MySQL 256 MB, Redis 128 MB, volume 1 GB. No cap on how many free instances you create.
Included on every plan
Database high availability
PostgreSQL and MySQL run as a primary plus hot standby with automatic failover, shared plans included.
2,708 TPS
Managed PostgreSQL write throughput
pgbench, 4 clients, 300 s, plan drp-50 (2 vCPU / 4 GB). AWS RDS db.t4g.medium scored 1,080 TPS on the same test.
€0/GB
Traffic charges
No ingress fees and no per-GB egress line on app plans.
1 today (Falkenstein, Germany)
Regions
Bare metal, EU only, with more regions planned. No AWS, GCP or Azure underneath.
“Managed PostgreSQL runs as a replicated cluster with automatic failover on every plan, shared and dedicated alike.”
— Hostim.dev docs, managed PostgreSQL