# Dedicated Cloud overview

> Give your project a real backend — database, user accounts, realtime, file storage, and server functions — fully managed, in a few minutes.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/cloud/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

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**Dedicated Cloud** is your project's own backend. Where a regular site just *shows* things, a
site with a Dedicated Cloud can *do* things: store data, sign users in, update live in
real time, accept file uploads, and run server-side code.

It's fully managed — you pick a plan, Genesis provisions everything, and both you and the AI
work with it from there.

## When you need it

You **don't** need a Dedicated Cloud for a normal marketing site, landing page, or blog. You
**do** need it the moment your site has to remember or react to anything:

- Member areas and user accounts (sign up / log in)
- Feeds, comments, likes — anything visitors create
- Custom forms whose data you want to own and query
- Live features: chat, counters, dashboards that update without refresh
- File uploads from visitors
- Server logic: notifications, scheduled work, payments glue

:::tip
Not sure? Just ask the AI for the feature you want ("let visitors leave reviews"). If it needs
a backend, Genesis will tell you and offer to set one up — see
[Building backend features with AI](/cloud/building-with-ai/).
:::

## Plans

Six tiers, from a starter for small sites to enterprise-grade compute. Every tier is a
dedicated instance with daily backups:

| Plan | Compute | Good for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Starter** | 2-core · 1 GB RAM | Small sites, up to a few hundred users |
| **Standard** | 2-core · 2 GB RAM | Growing apps |
| **Plus** | 2-core · 4 GB RAM | Busy production apps |
| **Pro** | 2-core · 8 GB RAM | High-traffic products |
| **Scale** | 4-core · 16 GB RAM | Data-intensive workloads at scale |
| **Max** | 8-core · 32 GB RAM | Enterprise workloads |

Current monthly prices are shown in the plan picker. Billing is monthly to your card; upgrade
or cancel anytime.

### Upgrading

Click the **plan pill** (or **Upgrade**) in the Cloud workspace header, pick a bigger tier,
and confirm. The difference is charged immediately (prorated), compute resizes in minutes, and
**your database stays online** — no downtime.

## Setting it up

1. Open **Project Settings → Dedicated Cloud** (or the full-width Cloud page from your
   project).
2. Pick a plan and click **Activate Dedicated Cloud**.
3. Pay with a saved card or a new one.
4. Watch the *"Setting up your cloud…"* status — provisioning usually takes a few minutes.
5. When the status flips to **Active**, your workspace opens with six tabs.

## The Cloud workspace

| Tab | What you manage there |
| --- | --- |
| [Database](/cloud/database/) | Tables, rows, access policies, realtime, SQL editor |
| [Auth](/cloud/auth/) | Your site's user accounts and sign-in providers (Google, GitHub…) |
| [Email](/cloud/auth/#email-tab--auth-emails) | The emails your site sends for sign-up, password reset, magic links |
| [Storage](/cloud/storage/) | File buckets and uploads |
| [Functions](/cloud/functions/) | Server-side code (edge functions) with logs |
| [Secrets](/cloud/functions/#secrets) | Encrypted API keys for your functions |

You rarely have to build any of this by hand — the AI creates tables, policies, and functions
for you when you ask for features. The workspace is where you **see and manage** what exists.

Start with [Building backend features with AI →](/cloud/building-with-ai/)