PaaSbox · not generally available yet
Your app on a Kubernetes server in your own Hetzner account, with a copy of production for every task your AI agent does
PaaSbox is software that creates a server with Kubernetes (k3s on Garden Linux) in your Hetzner account, keeps it updated and backed up, and deploys your app from your Git repository. For each task, your AI agent gets a copy of production in a second Hetzner account, with personal data replaced. It tries its change there and opens a pull request. You decide what ships by merging it. Paid alpha, by invitation, for businesses.
Or write to mitja@mitjamartini.com with the subject “Waitlist: PaaSbox”.
How it works
- 1
You connect two Hetzner projects, one for production and one for the copies, and an S3 bucket for backups.
- 2
PaaSbox creates the server in 3 to 4 minutes. A small program on it, pbx-agent, fetches its instructions from the portal. The server opens no port for PaaSbox.
- 3
Flux deploys your app from Git. Litestream (SQLite) or CloudNativePG (Postgres) back up the database continuously to your bucket. k3s snapshots its own state every 6 hours.
- 4
For a task, the agent asks for a copy through the API or MCP tools. It gets a login limited to its app and works there with
kubectl. Then it opens a pull request; you merge, and production pulls the change from Git.
What you get
Built and tested on Hetzner servers in a lab. None of it is generally available yet. Clause 2.2 of the terms says which of it is owed in the paid alpha today.
Updates and restores
Signed updates of the server image and Kubernetes, and a restore in place from a snapshot.
Copies of production
The same app and configuration from Git, and production’s latest data, with personal data replaced by your rules. A copy deletes itself after 8 hours, or after at most 72 if the agent extends it.
Mail and traffic in a copy
Each copy has a mail catcher, and its outgoing traffic goes only to addresses you allow.
Recovery tests
They restore production’s backups onto a new server, check the result and write a report.
A limited login for the agent
A Kubernetes login limited to its app’s namespace: kubectl get, logs, exec, port-forward. Every API call is logged.
Alerts
For disk space, backups and database replication.
Measured in the lab
- A new server, ready (
cpx22) - 2 min 46 s
- An update: the Kubernetes API is down for
- 34 s
- A restore in place from a snapshot
- 160 s
- A copy of production, ready
- 4 min
- A merged change, live in production
- 19 s
- A copy, deleted
- 15 s
- Writes lost when the server dies (SQLite with Litestream)
- 0.1–0.7 s
- Servers the portal’s endpoint for pbx-agent handled in a load test
- 2,000
From PaaSbox’s lab records of 10 to 15 October 2026. They are measurements in the lab, not a promise.
The price
€0.05 / h
PaaSbox, the software you pay for: €0.05 per started cluster-hour incl. VAT, at most €29 per cluster and calendar month; businesses in another EU country with a VAT ID pay the net amount; outside the EU, $0.05 and at most $29, without German VAT. A copy is billed the same way, on the same invoice as its production.
€23.79 / month
Hetzner bills you directly: a cpx22 (2 vCPU, 4 GB) with its IPv4 address, for an app of up to 0.43 GiB. Larger apps need a cpx32 (8 GB, €42.83), for up to about 3.4 GiB.
€52.79 / month
PaaSbox and Hetzner together, for a small app in production all month. A 4-hour copy costs about €0.35.
The first €29 ($29) are a starting credit for the hours of clusters and copies, valid for 30 days from your first cluster, once per business. I send the invoice; Stripe processes the payment. Hetzner’s prices of 15 October 2026, gross incl. 19 % VAT, in Falkenstein. Your S3 bucket is billed separately.
Limits
- One server per environment: no high availability and no clusters of several servers yet.
- Kubernetes and the platform take about 2.4 GiB, so the smallest server has 4 GB.
- Hetzner Cloud only.
Where this stands
Built and tested on Hetzner, in a lab
Creating and updating servers, backups and restores, copies of production, recovery tests, and the portal’s endpoint for pbx-agent under load. Billing through Stripe is built.
Left before the launch
The release signing keys, the Stripe setup and a checkout test, the first public release of the open-source parts, the portal’s rollout, and one rehearsal on production.
A lighter variant on Podman
For small apps. From lab measurements: a small app fits on a server with 1 GB of RAM; Django with Postgres and Redis needs 2 GB.
Fit check
Does it fit your app?
Nine questions: what you run, your agents, your database, how much data may be lost and how fast the app must be back, its size, where it runs and your budget. The answer says whether PaaSbox fits today, what is missing, which Hetzner server it needs and what that costs a month.
By invitation, for businesses
The paid alpha
For teams that run a web app on Hetzner, or want to, and let coding agents change it. The waitlist is how you apply, and I invite from it.
What you need
One app with its database, its deployment in Git, and a Hetzner account. Small apps with SQLite fit best today.
What you pay for
The software: the portal, its API and MCP tools, and the program on your servers. Help with setting it up and direct contact with me are included. What you need decides what I build next.
The portal is available 95.8 % of each calendar month: the web interface, its API and MCP tools, and the address your servers fetch their instructions from. That is the portal’s availability, not your clusters’. I announce a price change at least 30 days ahead, a change that breaks how you use it at least 14 days ahead, and the end of PaaSbox Clusters at least 90 days ahead. The details are in the terms, an English translation of the binding German AGB.
To join the waitlist, use the button below or write to mitja@mitjamartini.com with the subject “Waitlist: PaaSbox”: your business’s name and country, what you run, where it runs today, and how you work with agents. I read every mail and reply, usually within one business day.
Want to try it on your app?The waitlist is how you apply.
Or write to mitja@mitjamartini.com with the subject “Waitlist: PaaSbox”.