Deploy AI support on Zeabur — Chinese-friendly PaaS
Zeabur is a modern PaaS built by Chinese-speaking developers — true docker-compose deploys, transparent pricing.
What Zeabur is#
Zeabur, built by a Taiwanese / Chinese developer team, positions itself like Railway + Vercel combined — but with a fully Chinese UI, docs and community. Key value:
- Real docker-compose deploys — paste a compose, everything wires up
- Asia-heavy regions — Taipei / Tokyo / Hong Kong / Singapore
- Transparent pricing — per container instance, no “Active CPU seconds”
- Zero-config databases
- Chinese-language docs and support
Fits#
- Chinese-speaking developers who want a native UI
- Greater China audience (excluding mainland — which needs ICP filing elsewhere)
- Want Railway-style DX with more predictable pricing
- Comfortable with docker-compose, not with K8s
Steps#
1. Sign up + create project#
https://zeabur.com → Create Project → pick region (Tokyo recommended).
2. Deploy Chatwoot#
Fastest: Templates → search “Chatwoot” for the official one-click template.
Manual:
npm install -g zeabur
zeabur login
zeabur deploy chatwoot/chatwootOr in the console: “Add Service → Docker Image → chatwoot/chatwoot:v4”.
3. Postgres + Redis#
“Add Service → Marketplace” → Postgres / Redis. Zeabur injects:
${POSTGRES_HOST}${POSTGRES_USERNAME}${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}${POSTGRES_DATABASE}${REDIS_URL}
4. Dify#
The marketplace has a Dify template too. Or add manually:
langgenius/dify-api:latestlanggenius/dify-worker:latestlanggenius/dify-web:latestsemitechnologies/weaviate:1.27
5. Custom domain#
Domains → CNAME to the Zeabur-provided host. Free Let’s Encrypt auto-issues.
Cost#
| Resource | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Chatwoot (512MB) | ~$5 |
| Sidekiq worker (256MB) | ~$3 |
| Postgres (1GB) | ~$5 |
| Redis (256MB) | ~$3 |
| Dify services | ~$15-25 |
| Total | $30-40 / mo |
Hobby plan starts at $5/mo with base allowances; overage is usage-based.
Zeabur vs Railway vs fly.io#
| Axis | Zeabur | Railway | fly.io |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Chinese-first | English | English |
| Regions | Asia-heavy | Global | Global (30+) |
| Learning curve | Easiest | Easy | Medium (CLI) |
| Pricing | Transparent, predictable | Usage-floating | Usage-floating |
| Mainland CN latency | HK / Tokyo OK | Americas slow | Tokyo OK |
| GPU | No | No | Yes |
| China compliance | No | No | No |
Mainland China compliance still needs Aliyun / TencentCloud / Sealos.
Gotchas#
- Build timeout — Chatwoot Rails build can exceed 10 minutes; default cap is 10; premium for longer
- Persistence — Volume mounts needed for attachments; free tier has no Volume quota
- LLM provider latency — calling DeepSeek (mainland) from Tokyo adds latency
- DNS — Zeabur uses CNAME; some China DNS chains resolve slowly; front with Cloudflare
Advanced: branch deploys#
Zeabur supports Branch Deploy — each Git branch gets a separate preview env. Solid for Chatwoot / Dify team collaboration in PR review.