Honest head-to-head comparisons with self-hosted bundles and SaaS stacks.
| Page | TL;DR |
|---|---|
| vs Cloudron | Cloudron is polished + click-to-install + $15-50/mo per server; PMA is open framework + manifest-driven + free + AI-agent-ready. Cloudron wins for non-engineers; PMA wins for cooperatives + agencies + engineering teams. |
| vs YunoHost | YunoHost is the personal-cloud + community-tech champion; PMA is the small-business + cooperative + engineering-team champion. Different audiences, both FOSS, both good at what they do. |
| vs SaaS stacks | The €30-120k/year-of-licenses comparison. PMA covers ~80-90% of an Atlassian + Slack + Salesforce + Datadog stack for €0 in licensing. Break-even at 6-12 months; multi-tens-of-thousands saved per year after. |
Each comparison page follows the same shape:
The framing principle: the alternatives are good tools that smart teams
ship with. The decision is rarely "which is universally best" — it's
"which fits my constraints". Naming the strengths of each makes that
decision easier.
If you want the long-form pitch for PMA specifically (cost story, AI-agent
gateway, manifest pattern, cooperative model):
/pma/why — five-personas framing./essays/pma-magic — long-form on what makes PMA distinct.If you want to evaluate PMA by running it:
/pma/learn/00-start-here — entry to the build-it-yourself ladder.A few comparisons came up during the PMA rebuild but didn't make this batch:
If a comparison would help your evaluation and isn't here, file a Redmine
ticket and we'll add it.