EmDash Hosting Get started
Now in early access

Managed hosting
for EmDash CMS

Pick a plan, pick a region, pay. Your site is live in under a minute — HTTPS, CMS admin, daily backups, and custom domains included. No VPS, no Docker, no SSL config.

Get started View pricing →
em-dash provision
# Starter plan — Sydney — subdomain assigned
Provisioning elder-river-11.em-dash.app...
Allocating container (syd1)
✓ Container started
✓ SSL issued for elder-river-11.em-dash.app
✓ CMS admin ready
Done in 47s

Live in three steps

No infrastructure knowledge required. If you've bought software online before, you can do this.

01

Pick a plan and region

Choose the resources your site needs and the DigitalOcean region closest to your audience. Nine regions from Sydney to Frankfurt.

02

Pay with a card

Stripe handles billing. One card for all your sites. Per-site subscriptions, cancel any time. Your card statement shows "Host Local".

03

Your site is live

Within ~60 seconds you get an assigned subdomain on em-dash.app with HTTPS, an EmDash CMS admin, and daily automated backups.

Everything included

No add-ons, no upsells. Every plan gets the full feature set.

🌏 9 regions

Global infrastructure

Sydney, NYC, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Singapore, London, Toronto, Bangalore, San Francisco. Sites spin up on-demand in any region.

💾 7-day rolling

Automatic backups

Daily backups kept for 7 days. Pre-update backups kept for 30 days. Manual backups on demand. All downloadable as .tar.gz.

🔄 1 click

Version updates

When a new EmDash version lands, update with one click. A backup runs first. If anything breaks, one click rolls back.

Everything about your site, in one place

Plan & billing, EmDash version, backup history, and custom domains — all on one page. No SSH sessions, no config files.

  • One-click version updates with pre-update backups
  • Restore or download any backup in seconds
  • Point your own domain, we handle the cert
  • Manage billing through Stripe's hosted portal
See all features →
EmDash Hosting dashboard showing site details, plan & billing, version, backups, and custom domains

Simple pricing

Four tiers, no hidden fees. Start small, scale when you need to.

Full pricing details →
Starter $6/mo

Personal sites, docs, and landing pages.

Get started
Pro $10/mo

Real blogs and small business sites with growing traffic.

Get started
Business $19/mo

Media-heavy sites and small teams that need headroom.

Get started
Dedicated $39/mo

Mission-critical sites that don't share resources with anyone.

Get started

Common questions

What is EmDash?
EmDash is an open-source, Astro-native CMS. EmDash Hosting runs it for you — you get a managed instance without touching a server. The CMS itself is free and self-hostable; we charge for the managed hosting layer.
How long does provisioning actually take?
For a region that already has a server with capacity: ~60 seconds from payment to live site. If you pick a region with no existing server, we spin up a new DigitalOcean droplet, which takes ~5 minutes. Subsequent sites in that region are fast.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes. Every site gets a free assigned subdomain on em-dash.app. You can add as many custom domains as you want on top of that. Point an A record at us, and we issue and renew the SSL certificate automatically via Let's Encrypt.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
If a payment fails, your site is suspended (not deleted) for 14 days — data is preserved while you resolve it. If you delete the site yourself, it's gone immediately with no refund or proration. You can download your backups as a .tar.gz at any time.
Where is my data stored?
Your site runs on DigitalOcean in whichever region you pick. Backups are stored in DigitalOcean Spaces, encrypted at rest. Australian customers can choose Sydney (syd1) to keep data onshore.
What if a version update breaks my site?
We take a full backup before every version update. If the new version misbehaves, click Restore on the pre-update backup — it takes 15–30 seconds. You can also pin different sites to different EmDash versions.
Who charges my card?
Charges appear as "Host Local" on your statement. Host Local is the legal entity behind EmDash Hosting. Billing is handled by Stripe; you can manage invoices and payment methods in Stripe's hosted portal from your account page.

Ready to ship?

Your EmDash site, live in under a minute. No server setup required.

Get started