Clever Cloud deploys the code your developers push. Pilae operates the open-source apps your organisation adopted — deployed, updated with your approval, and restore-tested every month.
- What they sell
- A PaaS for your code, managed databases and add-ons such as Keycloak and Metabase
- Their zones
- Several datacentres in France, plus zones abroad on OVHcloud and Oracle Cloud
- Their certifications
- ISO 27001:2022 and HDS, as stated on their site
- Their deployment options
- Public cloud, on-premises and air-gapped
- What we sell
- Operated open-source or source-available apps, on your premises or in Pilae Cloud
- Migration included
- Yes, at a fixed price agreed before it starts
What each one actually covers
Thirteen things an open-source estate needs done. Their column is filled in from www.clever.cloud.
| Capability | Clever Cloud | Pilae |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy | ||
| One-click deploy from a curated cataloguePick the app, name the users, and it is sized, provisioned and running. | Partly | Yes |
| Migration onto the platform, run for youYour data out of the system it is in today, rehearsed before it is cut over. | No | Yes |
| SSO and identity wired into each appKeycloak, Entra ID, Google Workspace or Okta, configured on the app itself. | Partly | Yes |
| Keep it current | ||
| Updates applied for you, not just announcedThe release is read, staged and applied. You are not the one doing it. | Partly | Yes |
| Per-app CVE and advisory trackingThe advisory, the affected version and the fix version, per app you run. | Partly | Yes |
| Changes land in a window you approvedYour timezone, your hours, agreed before anything is touched. | No | Yes |
| Staged and checked before productionThe upgrade runs somewhere safe first, and the checks have to pass. | Partly | Yes |
| Prove it | ||
| Restore drills, not just backupsThe backup is restored on a schedule, because an untested backup is a hope. | Partly | Yes |
| A record of every restoreWho restored what, from which file, into which service, and whether it worked. | No | Yes |
| A change log an auditor can readEvery action, the person who took it, the outcome, inside your perimeter. | No | Yes |
| See it | ||
| Monitoring and alerting on the appsNot just the host: the application, its checks, and someone who answers. | Partly | Yes |
| Logs and metrics exported to your stackOpenTelemetry, or straight into the SIEM your security team already runs. | Partly | Yes |
| Run it | ||
| An agent that operates the estate with youAsk for a change in words; it plans it, shows you, and waits for approval. | Partly | Yes |
Pilae vs Clever Cloud, in words
A tick says whether something is covered. These say how.
| What is being compared | Clever Cloud | Pilae |
|---|---|---|
| What runs on it | Your applications, built from your repository, plus databases and add-ons. | Open-source or source-available apps your organisation adopted, operated by Pilae engineers. |
| Who operates the app | The platform runs the runtime and the add-ons. Your application and its settings are yours. | Pilae operates the app itself — deployment, updates, backups, monitoring and incident response. |
| When an update lands | When you redeploy, or when the platform patches the runtime. | The Pilae Agent plans each change, waits for your approval, applies it in your window and records it. |
| Identity | Keycloak offered as a service. Connecting each app to it is your configuration. | Each app wired to your directory, through Keycloak or Entra ID, as part of onboarding. |
| Proving a backup works | Database add-ons are backed up daily. Testing a restore is your procedure. | Daily encrypted offsite backups, and a restore test every month, recorded in the console. |
| The AI angle | An MCP server that lets your own AI client call the Clever Cloud API. | The Pilae Agent operates the estate with you, and waits for approval before anything changes. |
| Where it runs | Their French datacentres and partner zones, or on your premises. | Your premises, or any of 12 Pilae Cloud regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU, hybrid or air-gapped. |
You ask for the change. The agent does the work.
Pilae Agent runs inside your perimeter and proposes each change as a plan you read before it runs. Nothing lands without your approval, and every action goes into the same change log as ours.
“Upgrade n8n to the version that fixes the advisory”
Names the CVE and the fix version, backs up, runs it in staging, waits for your window, applies it, then drills a restore.
“Alert us before the Outline database runs out of disk”
Reads the growth over the last weeks, sets the threshold with a margin you can see, and routes the alert to your on-call channel.
A platform for your code, or operations for adopted software
Clever Cloud is one of Europe’s established platforms as a service. Push code from Git and it builds, deploys and scales it, with managed databases and add-ons beside it. It runs across several datacentres in France, states ISO 27001 and HDS certification, and offers on-premises and air-gapped editions. For a development team shipping its own product, it is a strong choice.
A platform still leaves the application to you. Keycloak as an add-on is a running Keycloak; the realms, the federation to your directory, the upgrade that fixes last week’s advisory and the restore test are still somebody’s job on your side.
Pilae takes that job. You pick the apps, and Pilae operates them.
What your contract includes
The apps, operated. Open-source or source-available apps from the catalogue — for example Keycloak, Metabase, n8n or Nextcloud.
Identity done for you. Each app connected to your directory through Keycloak or Entra ID. See identity.
Changes with approval. The Pilae Agent plans each change, waits for your approval, applies it in your window and records it in the console.
Backups you can prove. Daily, encrypted, offsite in the country you choose, with a restore test every month. See backups.
Where you need it. Your own premises, Pilae Cloud, hybrid or air-gapped.
Moving from Clever Cloud
A migration is a service, not a support article. This is the sequence we run, and it is in the fixed price.
Separate your code from adopted software
Your own services can stay on Clever Cloud. The open-source apps you adopted are what Pilae takes on.
Inventory the adopted apps
Which add-ons and apps, which versions, how much data, and what connects to each.
Stand them up beside the old ones
On your premises or in Pilae Cloud, wired to your directory, with nothing switched off yet.
Move the data with a rehearsal
Once to learn the timings, once for real, with the old service live until every check passes.
Then we operate it
Monitoring, backups, monthly restore tests and approved changes in your window, all recorded.
Clever Cloud still fits when
- Your developers push their own code and want a platform that builds and scales it.
- You need French health-data hosting (HDS), or the SecNumCloud-certified zone of their partner Cloud Temple.
- The add-on you need is in their list, and your team is happy to own its configuration.
Everywhere else, Pilae
The moment the estate has to stay patched, stay proven and stay auditable without someone in your building doing it by hand, the comparison stops being close.