Alpha progress — Postgres, Valkey, and Next.js
When we opened alpha, the pitch was simple: deploy a JavaScript app, optionally attach an addon, and skip the stack assembly. That still holds. Since then we have been filling in the pieces that experiments actually ask for—a Postgres database, a Redis-compatible cache, and Next.js when the app is not a single Express file.
This post is a progress note, not a launch announcement. We are still in alpha. But the runtime and dashboard now cover more of what a typical side project or prototype needs without sending you to three other providers.
Three addons, one app
SQLite is the light option — small memory footprint, good for prototypes and quiet apps.
Postgres costs more memory, but it is Postgres. Use it when your app already expects it or you want the full database.
Valkey is for caching and session state (Redis-compatible). It sits alongside a database, not instead of one.
All three use the same addon flow. Remove one and its data is gone.
Next.js is in the test suite
Express, Hono, Fastify, Nuxt, Astro, and the rest were the first bar: build, run, serve real HTTP in end-to-end tests. Next.js is a harder bar because it is not one bundle—it is thousands of modules, a custom server, and two router generations.
We now run Next.js through the same gate: static export, Pages Router, and App Router.
That does not mean every Next.js feature works on Lacho yet. It means the core paths we care about for real apps—build, run, serve traffic—pass host tests. If your app uses something unusual, try it and tell us what breaks.
Faster wake when addons are attached
Cold start was already a design goal: sleeping apps should come back quickly. Adding Postgres or Valkey could have made that worse—wake the app, then wake each addon in sequence.
It does not work that way anymore. Your app and its addons wake in parallel. Total wake time is the slowest single piece, not the sum of all of them.
Quiet apps still sleep to near-zero memory. The pool model has not changed—only the path back from sleep got sharper.
What this means if you are trying Lacho
If you have been waiting to move a Postgres app, a Next side project, or anything that needs a cache, alpha is a better fit than it was a month ago. You still get one URL, git-connected deploys, and optional HTTPS on a custom domain. You still do not get a production SLA or multi-region—those come later.
We are measuring what people actually deploy: which addons get attached, how often apps sleep and wake, what frameworks break. That data will shape limits and pricing when alpha ends.
For now: deploy the experiment, attach what it needs, and see if the idea works. That was always the point. The platform is just catching up to what those experiments already assume.