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Instant Cloud
Prepaid cloud hosting for African developers: connect a GitHub repo for zero-config builds and deploys, managed databases and custom domains with automatic HTTPS, billed in local currency.
- Role
- Founder & engineer
- Year
- 2026
- Status
- Live
- Source
- Private
- Go
- Docker Swarm
- Caddy
- Next.js
- tRPC
- PostgreSQL
- BullMQ
Instant Cloud is a prepaid hosting platform for developers in Africa. Connect a GitHub repository and it builds and deploys the app with no configuration, attaches managed databases, and serves it on your own domain over HTTPS, billed in local currency. I founded it and built it end to end, from the dashboard to the infrastructure that runs customers' apps.
The problem
Shipping on the big clouds means paying in US dollars with an international card, which is a real barrier for students and small teams in Africa. Instant prices in RWF, takes mobile money, and hosts apps in Kigali, close to the people using them.
What it does
- Zero-config deploys. Push to GitHub and the app is built and deployed automatically, without a Dockerfile, for frameworks like Next.js, Django, Rails, Go and Laravel. Builds run on instantpack (opens in a new tab), my fork of Railpack.
- Managed databases. PostgreSQL, MySQL and Redis in one click, with a data browser in the dashboard.
- Custom domains with automatic HTTPS, and one-click DNS setup through Domain Connect. I wrote the Domain Connect template, and it was merged upstream.
- Live logs and safe rollouts. Build and runtime logs stream to the dashboard, and a release that fails its health checks rolls back on its own.
- Prepaid billing in local currency, metered by usage, with top-ups by mobile money or card.
How a deploy works
A push triggers a build of a container image for that commit. The new version rolls out behind health checks, and if it fails, the previous version keeps serving traffic.
How I built it
- A TypeScript control plane. A Next.js dashboard and a typed API, with background jobs for builds and deploys.
- A Go orchestration service that builds images, runs workloads in containers, and keeps every service in its intended state. It has shipped 45+ tagged releases.
- Isolation by default. Customer workloads are sandboxed, and databases stay on a private network.
- Automated provisioning. One command-line tool sets up each server for its role and joins it to the fleet.
- Billing that charges exactly once. Usage is metered against a prepaid balance, with safeguards against double charges.