The self-hosted AWS Amplify alternative you own
AppCrane keeps the fast start, push-to-deploy, auto-HTTPS and a production plus sandbox per app, on one Ubuntu box you own, with standard Docker and Caddy underneath.
AWS Amplify Hosting builds and serves front-end and server-rendered web apps on AWS, priced by build minutes, data served, and server-side rendering requests and duration. Every Amplify API call is recorded in AWS CloudTrail, alongside the rest of your AWS account.
| AppCrane | AWS Amplify | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A server you own — any Ubuntu box | AWS, in your account |
| Where code & data live | On that server; AppCrane sends one anonymous daily install check-in (counts and version, no app data), off with APPCRANE_CHECKIN=off | In your AWS account, on AWS infrastructure |
| Pricing model | Free and open source on a server you already pay for — no per-seat, per-request or bandwidth metering | Build minutes, GB served, SSR requests and SSR duration (GB-hours) |
| Deploys | GitHub-native push-to-deploy, zero-downtime releases (start new, health check, swap, drain old), rollback to a kept release that restarts its image instead of rebuilding | Managed build and deploy pipeline |
| Agent-native (MCP) | 74 tools on an MCP server on your own box — your AI agent deploys, sets env, reads logs, rolls back and promotes, and each call is audited against its user | AWS MCP Server (AWS-managed): calls AWS APIs with your IAM credentials, logged in CloudTrail |
| Single sign-on | SAML 2.0, OIDC and SCIM in the AGPL-3.0 build, nothing to activate | IAM Identity Center, federated with an external identity provider over SAML 2.0 and SCIM |
| Isolation & TLS | Per-app Docker containers, auto-HTTPS via Caddy | Provider-managed runtime |
| Openness | Open source (AGPL-3.0), standard Docker + Caddy — you run the control plane | Vendor-operated managed service |
| Audit | Per-user audit: who deployed what, which environment, when — stored on your server | AWS CloudTrail records every Amplify API call |
AWS Amplify is a good fit when you want someone else to own the servers. Choose AppCrane when the apps are agent-built, the agent should do the deploying, and your code, data and audit trail should stay on infrastructure you own. It’s open source — read every line.