Side by side
IaaSvsPaaS
What is the difference between IaaS and PaaS?
Updated 2 min read6 differences
In short
IaaS rents you raw infrastructure like virtual machines that you manage yourself, while PaaS runs your code and handles the servers, OS and scaling for you.
IaaS
Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS (infrastructure as a service) is a cloud model where you rent virtual machines, storage and networks on demand and manage the OS and above yourself.
Read the page on IaaSPaaS
Platform as a Service
PaaS (platform as a service) is a cloud model where you deploy your code and the provider runs everything under it: servers, operating systems and scaling.
Read the page on PaaSIaaS and PaaS compared
| Aspect | IaaS | PaaS |
|---|---|---|
| You get | Virtual machines, storage, networks | A platform that runs your code |
| You manage | OS, runtime, patches, scaling, deployments | Your code and data |
| Provider manages | Hardware and virtualization | Servers, OS, runtime, scaling |
| Control | Maximum | Limited by the platform |
| Speed to ship | Slower; more setup | Fast; push and deploy |
| Examples | EC2, Azure VMs, Compute Engine | Heroku, Vercel, Render, App Engine |
The difference, explained
The cloud service models differ in how much the provider manages. With infrastructure as a service, such as Amazon EC2, Azure Virtual Machines or Google Compute Engine, you get virtual servers and networks and handle the operating system, runtime, patches, scaling and deployments. With platform as a service, such as Heroku, Vercel, Render, Google App Engine or Azure App Service, you push code and the platform builds, runs and scales it.
Software as a service is the third layer: finished applications such as Gmail, Slack or Salesforce that you simply sign in to. A useful way to remember the three is what you manage: with IaaS, everything above the hardware; with PaaS, only your code and data; with SaaS, only your account and settings.
IaaS gives maximum control and fits custom software, specific operating systems, unusual networking and lift-and-shift migrations, but requires operations skills. PaaS lets small teams ship quickly without managing servers, adds conveniences such as preview deployments and automatic HTTPS, but limits runtimes and configuration and can cost more at large scale.
A common misconception is that the models are rigid categories. Modern offerings blur them: serverless functions and container platforms such as Cloud Run sit between IaaS and PaaS, and many companies combine a PaaS front end with managed databases and some IaaS for special workloads.
Which one should you use?
Choose IaaS when…
- You need full control over the operating system and networking.
- You run software that doesn't fit a platform's limits.
- You have the operations skills and want to optimize costs at scale.
Choose PaaS when…
- You want to focus on code and ship quickly.
- Your app fits a supported runtime such as Node.js or Python.
- Your team is small and has no dedicated operations engineers.
Readers ask
What is the difference between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS?
IaaS provides infrastructure you manage, PaaS provides a platform that runs your code, and SaaS provides finished software you just use. You manage less at each step up.
Is serverless IaaS or PaaS?
Closest to PaaS, sometimes called function as a service. You provide code and the provider runs it on demand, scaling automatically, with no servers to manage.
Is Kubernetes IaaS or PaaS?
Neither exactly. Kubernetes is a platform you run on infrastructure; managed Kubernetes services sit between IaaS and PaaS, and many PaaS products are built on Kubernetes.