Hosting · Updated 10 November 2026 · 9 min read

Preview deployments: what they are and which European hosts offer them in 2026

How per-branch and per-pull-request previews work, what they cost you in security and resources, and which European platforms build them for you.

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A preview deployment is a temporary copy of your app, built from a branch or a pull request and given its own URL, so people can try a change before it reaches production. Among European platforms, Upsun gives every branch a full environment with its services, Scalingo creates a Review App for each pull or merge request, and Clever Cloud does the same through a GitHub Action. If you run your own server, Coolify and Dokploy both build previews from pull requests.

Eurobase doesn't have preview deployments. Each project deploys one branch, and pushes to any other branch are ignored.

Preview support at a glance

Platform	How previews are made	Data in the preview	Starts at
Upsun	An environment for each branch, built in	Can clone the parent environment's data	€9 per project and €10 per user a month, plus resources
Scalingo	A Review App for each pull or merge request	Same database and add-on plans, but empty	€7.20 a month excl. VAT for a 256 MB container
Clever Cloud	A GitHub Action creates an app per pull request	Not documented	Free credits, then by instance size
Coolify	Built in, from pull or merge requests on your server	Not documented	Free software, plus your server
Dokploy	Built in, from GitHub pull requests on your server	Not documented	Free software, plus your server
Sliplane	You script them through its API	Not documented	App Runtime from €9
Eurobase	Not available	Not available	Free, then €10 a month + VAT

Prices are from each provider's own page, checked on 9 and 10 November 2026.

How a preview deployment works

On Vercel, a preview is created when you push to a branch other than production or open a pull request. Netlify calls them Deploy Previews and builds one for each pull or merge request. Cloudflare Pages gives every new branch a URL with a random hash in front of your pages.dev address, and keeps it updated as you push.

The pattern is the same everywhere: a pull request opens, the host builds that commit, posts a link, rebuilds on each push and removes the copy when the request is closed. What changes between hosts is what the copy contains. A static site is easy to copy; an app with a database and secrets is where hosts differ most.

What to check before you rely on previews

Who can trigger one. A pull request runs its code on the host. Coolify tells you to treat preview code as untrusted, Dokploy advises against previews on public repositories, and Scalingo blocks Review Apps from forks unless you allow them.
Which secrets the preview sees. A preview shouldn't hold your live payment key or production database password. Check whether you can set different values per environment.
Where the data comes from. An empty database is safe but may hide the bug. A copy of production data puts personal data in one more place under GDPR.
Who can open the link. Cloudflare Pages preview URLs are public by default until you put Cloudflare Access in front. Netlify can protect all Deploy Previews with a password.
What it costs to leave them running. Each preview uses memory, CPU and sometimes a database. Upsun pauses previews that haven't been redeployed in 14 days.

1. Upsun

Upsun is Platform.sh SAS, doing business as Upsun, in Paris. Every branch can become its own environment, and the pricing page lists on-demand preview environments in the €9 project fee. When you create one, you can choose to clone the data from its parent environment, so a reviewer sees the change against realistic content.

Best for: teams whose review process depends on a full copy of the app, with its services, for every branch.
Price: a €9 project fee and €10 for each user a month, with CPU, memory and storage charged by the second on top.
What it lacks: a single European cloud underneath. Its regions run on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or OVHcloud, and the regions page names the provider of each one.

2. Scalingo

Scalingo is a French platform where you push code and it picks the runtime. With Review Apps turned on, every pull or merge request in the linked repository creates a child app. It copies the parent's stack, environment variables and database plans, but not the data inside. A first-deploy script in scalingo.json can seed the new database once.

Best for: apps that need a fresh, isolated copy with its own database for each pull request.
Price: containers from €7.20 a month excl. VAT for 256 MB. Each Review App is a separate app with its own containers and databases, so each one adds to the bill while it runs.

3. Clever Cloud

For previews, Clever Cloud's documentation points to a GitHub Action that creates an app named after the repository and pull request number, gives it a cleverapps.io address, comments the URL on the pull request, redeploys on each push and deletes the app when the request closes.

Best for: teams already on Clever Cloud and GitHub who want previews without another tool.
Price: each review app is billed like any other Clever Cloud app, by instance size and count, after the free starting credits.
What it lacks: previews built into the platform itself. They run as a GitHub Actions workflow, so you add API tokens to your repository secrets.

4. Coolify on Hetzner

Coolify is an open-source control panel that deploys apps to servers you own. Its preview feature runs a pull or merge request apart from production, with its own domain and environment variables, and deletes the preview once the request is merged or closed. For the server, the German host Hetzner prices a CPX02 at €5.49 a month excl. VAT in Helsinki and €6.49 in Falkenstein or Nuremberg, though these entry plans showed as unavailable to order on 10 November 2026.

Best for: developers who want previews and don't mind running the server.
Price: self-hosted Coolify is free. Coolify Cloud starts at $5 a month.
What it lacks: spare capacity by default. Previews and production share your server, and patching, backups and outages are yours to handle.

5. Dokploy

Dokploy is another open-source deployment tool for your own server. Preview deployments are off by default and work with apps connected through GitHub. Each preview gets a generated domain, and you can cap how many run per app, three unless you change it.

Best for: small teams on a single server who want a preview per pull request.
Price: free software, plus the server you run it on.
What it lacks: previews for Git hosts other than GitHub, according to its docs.

6. Sliplane

Sliplane is run by a company in Berlin and offers server locations in Germany and Finland as well as the US and Singapore. Its staging page describes per-branch previews created through its API, so your CI pipeline is what starts and removes them.

Best for: Docker apps where you're happy to script previews yourself.
Price: App Runtime from €9, with no per-container fees.
What it lacks: a switch that turns previews on. You write the automation.

Where Eurobase stands

Eurobase deploys web apps from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Forgejo or Gitea to European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. A project follows one branch: each push is built and served only after it passes its check, and you can roll back without rebuilding. It doesn't create previews for branches or pull requests and doesn't post commit statuses to GitHub.

Best for: apps that ship from one branch and want a flat price, not a review environment per pull request.
Price: free to start, with paid plans at €10 and €20 a month + VAT that cover every project in the workspace. There are no usage charges today: work over a limit is refused, apps on V8 isolates and Functions stop until the monthly reset, and containers and static sites keep serving.
What it lacks: branch and pull request previews, plus managed Postgres, MySQL or Redis and builds from a Dockerfile. Its ISO 27001 and SOC 2 work hasn't finished, so neither is held yet.

If your team reviews every pull request on a live URL, pick one of the platforms above instead.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a preview deployment and a staging environment?

A staging environment is one long-lived copy that a team shares, usually tracking a single branch. A preview deployment is short-lived and tied to one branch or pull request, so several can run side by side and disappear after the merge.

Are preview deployments safe for open-source repositories?

Only with care. Anyone who opens a pull request can get their code built and run. Scalingo blocks forks by default, Coolify can limit previews to repository members, Cloudflare Pages skips previews for pull requests from forks, and Dokploy recommends not using previews on public repositories at all.

Does Eurobase have preview deployments?

No. Each Eurobase project deploys one branch, and pushes to other branches aren't deployed. You can still redeploy or roll back the live branch from the dashboard.

Should a preview use a copy of my production database?

Real data catches more bugs, but it also copies personal data somewhere less protected. Scalingo's Review Apps start with empty databases, while Upsun lets you clone the parent's data. If you clone, restrict who can open the preview.