My AI-built app needs a database. Where do I put it?

Question

Accepted Answer

Next to the app, on the same plan. On our App plan (€ 15 a month, first 14 days free) your app gets its own Postgres database on a server in the EU, and the connection string arrives in the environment variable DATABASE_URL. Nothing to sign up for elsewhere, and the database is in the nightly backup together with the platform.

Database on the App plan
Type	Postgres, own database and own user on a server used only for App customers
Size	1 GB, 10 connections; use a connection pool in your app
Where	Dublin, EU; the app itself runs in Amsterdam
Backups	point-in-time restore for the last 7 days; the platform backup every night
Access	host, name and user in your portal; the password can be reset there
Export	ask for a `pg_dump` in a ticket, you get a file
Deleted app	the database is kept 30 days, then dropped

Your code needs one thing: read DATABASE_URL instead of a hard-coded address. Prisma, Drizzle, pg and Knex all do that by default. Then one workflow file in your repository builds the image on GitHub and deploys it:

- uses: dorelli-cloud/cli/.github/actions/dorelli-deploy@v1
  with:
    plan: app
    email: [email protected]

The full file and the secrets it asks for are in Deploy an app with a database.

Did the AI build on SQLite? That works too as long as you accept that a container which scales to zero keeps no local files; move the data to Postgres before it matters. Did it build on Supabase or Firebase? Then the database already has a home and you only need the Website plan for € 10.

Not for

More than 1 GB of data or 10 connections, MySQL, MongoDB or Redis (Redis is a building block on the Platform plan), or a database that other systems must reach from outside; the App database is reachable from your container only. Bigger and dedicated Postgres servers are on the Platform plan.