About PythonAnywhere
PythonAnywhere is a hosted service for developing and running Python code entirely from a web browser. Each account includes machines with a full Python environment already installed, so users can write an application, host it online and run scheduled or long-running code without installing software or managing their own server.
The vendor stresses three audiences: people who want to start hosting a website quickly, developers who want their environment available wherever they have a browser, and students and teachers who would rather focus on learning Python than on installation problems. A free basic plan is available to get started.
Upgraded paid plans add more resources, with the cheapest listed at $10 per month. PythonAnywhere also provides help pages, forums and a blog for support. It is a commercial hosted service without a self-hosted edition, and it fits small web apps, learning projects and personal automation scripts.
Key features
- Python environment preinstalled in the browser
- Web app hosting without server administration
- Free basic plan for getting started
- Browser-based code editing and consoles
- Help pages, forums and blog for support
Good fit for
- →Hosting a small Flask or Django site
- →Teaching Python without local installs
- →Running personal scripts in the cloud
- Tags
- python
- paas
- hosting
- web-apps
- education
- browser-ide
- cloud
PythonAnywhere: questions and answers
- What is PythonAnywhere used for?
- PythonAnywhere is a browser-based Python hosting and development environment that runs web apps and scripts without server setup. It is a good fit for hosting a small Flask or Django site, teaching Python without local installs and running personal scripts in the cloud.
- Is PythonAnywhere free?
- Yes. PythonAnywhere has a free plan, and paid plans start at $10 per month.
- Is PythonAnywhere open source?
- No. PythonAnywhere is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to PythonAnywhere include Piku, Coolify and Dokploy.
- What are some alternatives to PythonAnywhere?
- PythonAnywhere competes with Heroku, Render and Replit. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source PythonAnywhere alternatives.
Open-source alternatives to PythonAnywhere
See all
Piku
Hosting & PaaS
The tiniest PaaS you've ever seen. Piku allows you to do git push deployments to your own
MITvs Heroku★ 6.6k
Coolify
Hosting & PaaS
Self-hosting platform with superpowers. Deploy apps, databases & 280+ services to your
Apache-2.0vs Heroku★ 62k
Dokploy
Hosting & PaaS
Open-source self-hostable Platform as a Service (PaaS) that simplifies the deployment and
OSSvs Heroku★ 38k
Dokku
Hosting & PaaS
A docker-powered PaaS that helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications
MITvs Heroku★ 32k
CapRover
Hosting & PaaS
Scalable PaaS (automated Docker+nginx) - aka Heroku on Steroids
OSSvs Heroku★ 15k
ZaneOps
Hosting & PaaS
A beautiful and fast self-hosted PaaS for deploying and managing web apps, databases, stat
OSSvs Heroku★ 1.4k
SaaS alternatives to PythonAnywhere
See all
Heroku
Hosting & PaaS
Heroku is a cloud platform as a service where developers deploy, run and scale applications on managed containers, with managed data services and AI add-ons.
SaaS
Render
Hosting & PaaS
Managed hosting for web services, static sites, databases and cron jobs
SaaS
Replit
AI Tools
Browser-based coding platform with an AI agent that builds and hosts apps
SaaS
Railway
Hosting & PaaS
Deploys apps and databases from a repo or image with usage-based billing
SaaS
Fly.io
Hosting & PaaS
Runs containers as micro VMs close to users across regional data centers
SaaS
DigitalOcean
Hosting & PaaS
Cloud provider with virtual servers, managed databases and the App Platform PaaS
SaaS

