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Dedicated vs. Free/Shared Plans

Cloud

RESTHeart Cloud is available in two service tiers: Free / Shared and Dedicated. Both tiers expose the same RESTHeart feature set, but differ in infrastructure isolation, resource limits, and how the Cloud UI presents certain options — most notably the database selector and the paths of system collections.

This page is the authoritative reference for all plan-related differences visible in the Cloud UI and API.

At a Glance

Aspect Free / Shared Dedicated

Infrastructure

Shared multi-tenant infrastructure

Isolated, single-tenant dedicated resources

Databases

Single default database

Multiple databases; user selects from a dropdown

Database selector in UI

Not shown

Shown on Collections, Aggregations, WebSocket, and any other collection-scoped page

Custom domain

Not available

Available

Plugins

Marketplace plugins only

Marketplace plugins + custom plugins

Support

Community

Priority support with SLA

Monitoring

Basic

Advanced monitoring, logging, and analytics

MongoDB

Included and managed by RESTHeart Cloud

Required: connect your own MongoDB instance

Intended use

Prototyping, learning, small projects

Production applications, enterprise workloads

MongoDB

The way MongoDB is provided differs fundamentally between plan tiers.

Free / Shared — MongoDB Included

On Free / Shared plans, MongoDB is included and fully managed by RESTHeart Cloud. You do not need to provision, configure, or connect any database. RESTHeart Cloud handles database provisioning, backups, and maintenance automatically. Storage limits apply depending on the tier (see Pricing).

Dedicated — Bring Your Own MongoDB

Important
 The Dedicated plan does not include a managed MongoDB instance. You must supply your own external MongoDB connection before a Dedicated service can be provisioned. RESTHeart Cloud connects to your MongoDB on your behalf; it never hosts the database itself.

Accepted MongoDB providers include:

  • MongoDB Atlas (recommended) — any cluster tier on AWS, GCP, or Azure

  • Self-hosted / on-premise MongoDB — version 6.0 or later

  • Any MongoDB-compatible service that exposes a standard connection string

You provide the connection string when creating or configuring your Dedicated service in the RESTHeart Cloud dashboard. For full instructions, see Connecting Your MongoDB to RESTHeart Cloud Dedicated.

System Collection Paths

Several RESTHeart system collections have different paths depending on the plan. The Cloud UI abstracts this transparently — you always navigate to the same menu item regardless of plan — but the underlying API paths differ. This matters if you call the API directly (e.g. from curl, HTTPie, or application code).

Collection Free / Shared path Dedicated path

Users

/users

/restheart/users

ACL (Permissions)

/acl

/restheart/acl

GraphQL apps

/gql-apps

/restheart/gql-apps

JSON Schemas

/_schemas

/schemas _(same on both plans)

Aggregations / Streams

Stored in collection metadata at /<collection>/_meta

Same, scoped to the selected database: /<db>/<collection>/_meta
Important
 Always use the correct path for your plan when making direct API calls. The Cloud UI handles this automatically, but scripts and application code must be written with the right path.

The Database Selector (Dedicated Only)

On Dedicated plans, every collection-scoped page in the Cloud UI displays a database selector dropdown at the top of the page:

Switching the selected database refreshes the page content automatically. The selection persists during your session but is not saved across browser sessions.

On Free / Shared plans the database selector is hidden and all operations target the single default database.

Webhooks Plugin

The Webhooks plugin is available on both plan tiers, but plugin management (enable/disable) may be restricted on Free/Shared plans depending on your subscription. Check the Plugins tab in the Cloud dashboard for your service’s current plugin status.

Pricing

For a full feature and pricing comparison between all available tiers (Free, Shared, Dedicated), visit https://cloud.restheart.com/pricing.

Upgrading

You can upgrade from Free/Shared to Dedicated at any time from the RESTHeart Cloud dashboard. Your data is migrated and your existing API URL continues to work. After upgrading:

  • The database selector becomes visible in the UI.

  • System collection paths change from root-level (e.g. /users) to scoped (e.g. /restheart/users). Update any application code or scripts that reference these paths directly.

Summary Table: UI Behaviour by Plan

UI Feature Free / Shared behaviour Dedicated behaviour

Collections & Documents

Lists collections in the single default database

Database selector shown; lists collections in the selected database

User Management

Reads/writes /users

Reads/writes /restheart/users

Permissions (ACL)

Reads/writes /acl

Reads/writes /restheart/acl

Aggregations

Lists all collections; database selector hidden

Database selector shown; collections scoped to selected database

Webhooks

Available (plugin must be enabled)

Available (plugin must be enabled)

GraphQL

Reads/writes /gql-apps

Reads/writes /restheart/gql-apps

JSON Schema Validation

Reads/writes /_schemas

Reads/writes /schemas _(no difference)

WebSocket Change Streams

Lists all collections; database selector hidden

Database selector shown; collections scoped to selected database