Question

I know 2 now:

1. http://heroku.com: Supports play1 and play2, has free plan.
2. http://www.playapps.net: Supports play1, unknown play2, no free plan.

Answer 1

There many options for deploying play framework applications on the cloud

Like codemwnci said, most of them work with a war deployment.

• Heroku for play!

  princing: http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2011/8/29/play/
  (seems like you get 1 web dyno + 5mb postresql db for free)

  sample: http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/play

  db: postgresql

  deployment: native via git

  tutorial: https://github.com/opensas/play-demo/wiki/Step-13—deploy-to-heroku

  play2 support: http://www.playframework.org/documentation/2.0/ProductionHeroku

• Openshift

  A PaaS offering by Red Hat

  module: http://www.playframework.org/modules/openshift

  pricing: you get 5 apps, with 500MB space each, for free, supports mysql, mongo, jenkins, perl, php, python and java

  article: http://playlatam.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/play-framework-on-the-cloud-made-easy-openshift-module/

  db: mysql, mongodb, postgresql

  deployment: war deploy via git (or using the module)

  (Using the raw cartridge is possible to deploy play apps natively, I’ll see if I can write a tutorial on the next few days…)

  vote for native support: https://www.redhat.com/openshift/community/content/native-support-for-play-framework-application

  tutorial: https://github.com/opensas/play-demo/wiki/Step-12.5—deploy-to-openshift

• Google Application Engine

  module: http://www.playframework.org/modules/gae-1.4/home

  cons: can’t use mysql, should not use JPA

  http://www.playframework.org/modules/siena-2.0.0/home

  db: uses it’s own datastore (Instead of JPA it is advised to use siena)

  deployment: via module

  nice example: http://viralpatel.net/blogs/2011/01/first-play-framework-gae-siena-application-tutorial-example.html

  tutorial: https://github.com/opensas/play-demo/wiki/Step-14—deploy-to-gae

• dotCloud

  module: http://www.playframework.org/modules/cloudbees

  princing: https://www.dotcloud.com/pricing/
  (there’s a free plan with 10MB db)

  floss: https://www.dotcloud.com/pricing/pricing-faq/

• AWS – Amazon Web Services

  pricing: http://aws.amazon.com/en/ec2/#pricing

  pricing: http://aws.amazon.com/en/elasticbeanstalk/#pricing

  samples:
  http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-javadev2-19/index.html
  http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-javadev2-16/index.html

• Jelastic –

  homepage: http://jelastic.com/

  module: http://www.playframework.org/modules/jelastic

• CleverCloud

  homepage: https://www.clever-cloud.com/en/

  pricing: https://www.clever-cloud.com/doc/clever-cloud-overview/pricing/

  deploying for Scala: https://www.clever-cloud.com/doc/scala/play-framework-2/
  deploying for Java (same?): https://www.clever-cloud.com/doc/java/play-framework-2/

There are lots of options, and new ones come out every day…

Here’s an article with a list of the Public and Private Cloud PaaS for java: http://cloud.dzone.com/articles/regarding-java-platforms

Regarding play 2 support, heroku provides native support and once war deployment is ready (is scheduled for next minor release) you’ll be able to deploy to most of them. I managed to deploy a play2 app to openshift using the do-it-yourself cartridge, here’s a screencast and a tutorial)