AppFog vs Deis: What are the differences?

Developers describe AppFog as "Simple PaaS for Java, Python, Node, .Net, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, Mongo, and PostgreSQL". AppFog provides the infrastructure web developers need to build apps without worrying about IT tasks or having to wait days to get servers ready for writing code. AppFog’s web application technologies include PHP, NodeJS, Ruby, Python, Java, .NET, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. On the other hand, Deis is detailed as "Open Source PaaS that builds upon Docker and CoreOS to provide a lightweight PaaS with a Heroku-inspired workflow". Deis can deploy any application or service that can run inside a Docker container. In order to be scaled horizontally, applications must follow Heroku's 12-factor methodology and store state in external backing services.

AppFog and Deis belong to "Platform as a Service" category of the tech stack.

Some of the features offered by AppFog are:

• Launches fast, runs fast- Varnish Cache and op-code caching run applications with less server load and accelerated performance.
• Reduces ops work- No more configuring servers, firewalls, Apache, security, or installing frameworks.
• Plays well with any SCM- Versioning is critical. AppFog is compatible with code management systems like git, svn, and mercurial.

On the other hand, Deis provides the following key features:

• Deis can deploy any language or framework using a Dockerfile
• If you don't have a Dockerfile, Deis includes Heroku buildpacks for Ruby, Python, Node.js, Java, Clojure, Scala, Play, PHP, Perl, Dart and Go.
• Deis can be deployed on any system that supports CoreOS including your workstation, as well as most public clouds, private clouds and bare metal.

"The basic plan is free" is the top reason why over 3 developers like AppFog, while over 15 developers mention "12-factor methodology" as the leading cause for choosing Deis.

Deis is an open source tool with 6.12K GitHub stars and 863 GitHub forks. Here's a link to Deis's open source repository on GitHub.