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Quickstart: deploy a pod
Five minutes. One pod. Live on the internet.
1. Sign in
Open console.microapps.io and sign in. (No account yet? Register here.)
2. Make sure you have credit
Click Billing in the side panel, or go straight to Billing.
You need at least $3 of credit to run a pod. If you're short, click Add credit and top up.
3. Create a pod
Click Pods in the side panel, then New at the top right of the pods table. You land on the create form. Fill it in:
| Field | Pick | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Workload | Ubuntu | The OS. MySQL here would give you a database pod instead. |
| Version | 24.04 | Ubuntu's versions are 22.04 and 24.04. |
| Compute | the smallest, 1 vCPU, 0.5GB RAM | The dropdown lists CPU and RAM combinations, not size names. Bump this up any time with a Resize. |
| Region | (nearest to you) | Where the pod runs. Required. |
| Storage | 5 GB | Listed as plain sizes. Disk grows later, never shrinks. |
| SSH key | (optional) | Paste a public key or pick a saved one. Skip it and we'll show you a login password once. |
| Network | (optional) | Attach a private network if you have one. Blank reuses your existing network in that Region, or creates one if you have none. |
| Firewall | (optional) | Blank creates a firewall that blocks all public traffic. Add your IP to its allow-list (Firewalls -> your pod's firewall -> add rule) before connecting over SSH or the public port. |
Click Create Pod.
4. Watch it come up
You come back to the pods table with your pod in it. Its Status goes from Initializing to Running, usually in under a minute.
Click the pod's name to open it. The tabs across the top are Overview, Metrics, Snapshots, Backups, Networking and Connection Strings. What you need to connect is split across two of them:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| A ready-made SSH command, Public SSH, that already has the host, port and username in it | Connection Strings tab. Click the card to copy it. |
| The Username on its own | Overview tab, Details card |
| Public Host and the Ports it maps | Networking tab, Security & Public Access card |
Grab the password now if you see one
If you didn't add an SSH key, a one-time login password is shown at creation and never again. Copy it somewhere safe. Added a key instead? Then there's no password to copy - you log in with the key.
5. Connect
Copy the Public SSH command from the Connection Strings tab and run it. It looks like this:
bash
ssh -p 3001 ubuntu@your-pod.microapps.io(Swap in the external port and public host shown on your pod.)
Or skip SSH entirely and click Shell in the console for an in-browser terminal - no port, no client, no key required.
6. Verify it's yours
bash
uname -a
df -h
free -mThat's it. You have a pod. Billing is hourly from your credit for as long as it exists - see the pricing page for the rate. Have fun.