If speed to production is the priority, a few platforms get you there in minutes.

1. 1.Netlify — a close alternative with similar developer experience and a strong plugin ecosystem, particularly popular for static sites and Jamstack, though its serverless function limits are tighter than some competing platforms' ¹
2. 2.Railway — known for a clean UI and a genuinely fast setup, popular with indie developers and small teams, though it's a newer platform with a smaller track record at scale
3. 3.Render — a simpler, more affordable option for smaller projects and side projects, with predictable pricing, though it lacks the edge footprint of the larger platforms ²

The gap has narrowed a lot in the last year — what used to take a custom CI pipeline is now a default feature on most of these platforms. ³

All of them connect directly to a Git repo and deploy on every push, so the fastest option is usually whichever one your team already has an account with.