How to deploy your first PocketBase instance on PocketBase Cloud

Phat Tran — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 05:26:20 +0000

Why I chose PocketBase Cloud

If you haven't used PocketBase: it's an open-source backend in a single Go binary. Embedded SQLite, auth, real-time subscriptions, file storage, REST API, admin UI — all included.
The catch has always been hosting it: renting a VPS, configuring a reverse proxy, SSL, backups, monitoring.

That's exactly the gap PocketBase Cloud fills. It's a hosting platform built specifically for PocketBase: you click a button and get a fully managed instance — deployed on real infrastructure, secured with SSL and DDoS protection, backed up, and monitored — live in about 30 seconds, with a free plan to start. Think Vercel, but for your PocketBase backend.

This post walks through creating your first instance on it, start to finish.

I looked at a few hosts and went with PocketBase Cloud for three reasons:

Free plan to test with — 1 instance, 50 MB storage, no charge. (Heads-up: it asks for a Stripe subscription at $0 to verify you're human. You don't get billed.
6 regions — Germany ×2, Finland, US East/West, Singapore. My users are mostly in Asia, so Singapore was the deciding factor.
SSL, DDoS protection, and backups are automatic.

The Pro plan is also interesting if you hoard side projects like I do: from $13/mo you get a dedicated server with unlimited instances, so 10 projects cost the same as 1.

Step 1: Sign up and create a project

Go to portal.pocketbasecloud.com, sign up, complete the $0 Stripe step.

Create a Project, then open its PocketBase tab.

Step 2: Create the instance

Click New PocketBase. The form has three sections:

General Information

Instance Name — this becomes your subdomain, so keep it short. I used my-pocketbase → https://my-pocketbase.pocketbasecloud.com
Description — optional, skipped it
PocketBase Version — v0.39.3 was the latest when I did this. Take the latest unless you have a reason not to.

Admin Credentials

Admin email + password (12–20 chars). These are for the PocketBase admin dashboard, the same /_/ login you know from self-hosting.
There's a copy button next to the password field — copy it into your password manager before clicking Create.

Location

Pick the region closest to your users. I picked Singapore.

Click Create.

Step 3: Provisioning

You get a live progress screen while it:

picks a server based on current capacity
provisions the instance and assigns a port
sets up DNS
issues the HTTPS cert

Your backend is now at:

https://<instance-name>.pocketbasecloud.com

Step 4: Log in and sanity-check it

The admin panel is where it always is:

https://<instance-name>.pocketbasecloud.com/_/

Log in with the credentials from Step 2. It's a completely standard PocketBase admin UI — collections, users, API rules, logs.

I created a todos collection, added a record, and hit it from the browser console:

import PocketBase from 'pocketbase';

const pb = new PocketBase('https://my-pocketbase.pocketbasecloud.com');

const todos = await pb.collection('todos').getFullList();

// real-time works out of the box, no extra config
pb.collection('todos').subscribe('*', (e) => {
  console.log(e.action, e.record);
});

Final thoughts

After using PocketBase Cloud for a while, I found that it makes starting a side project much simpler. Instead of spending time setting up servers, SSL, and backups, I can jump straight into building the product.

If you're already using PocketBase—or you're thinking about trying it for your next project—I recommend giving PocketBase Cloud a try. The free plan is more than enough to explore the platform and see whether it fits your workflow.

I hope this guide helps you get started a little faster. If you end up trying it, I'd love to hear what you think. Happy building! 🚀