Your Options
HIPAA-compliant hosting isn’t one-size-fits-all. We find that it’s helpful to group them into these five categories:
- Major public clouds
- Specialty web hosts
- “Framework fortresses”
- PaaS (Platform as a Service) companies
- Managed service providers
Each takes a different approach to security, compliance, and infrastructure.
Curious how they compare? Here’s how each one works.
Major Public Clouds
Many companies host HIPAA-compliant applications on public cloud hosting providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. All of these companies will sign a BAA (business associate agreement) with their clients, a key HIPAA requirement, and have extremely flexible and configurable hosting platforms. These companies are well known and already boast numerous certifications such as SOC 2, making them a trusted choice for mission-critical application hosting.
That said, compliance isn’t built-in.
You’re responsible for configuring everything yourself. This includes firewalls, encryption (at rest and in transit), access controls, audit logging, and more.
For many smaller teams, that’s a heavy lift. Even when internal expertise exists, we often recommend pairing cloud infrastructure with compliance automation tools (we like Sprinto and Dash) to reduce risk and stay audit-ready..
Relevant links to HIPAA-compliance info by hosting provider:
Specialty Web Hosts
A number of smaller web hosts provide similar services as the public cloud providers, but with built-in protections like firewalls, siloed hosting environments, automated data backups, and other protections that are necessary for HIPAA.
The monthly subscription rates for the first two providers below are generally more expensive than hosting on public clouds, but since their services reduce your administrative overhead, they might actually end up being more cost effective than configuring all of the security yourself.
“Framework Fortresses”
This is our term for a turnkey hosting solution that enforces all of the technical safeguards from various regulatory frameworks – including HIPAA – out of the box, so you can focus on building your application:
Aptible – For Regulated Industries
Aptible is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) designed specifically for companies handling sensitive data in regulated industries like healthcare and fintech.
Unlike general-purpose cloud providers, Aptible’s platform provides built-in features like automated audit logging, encryption at rest and in transit, intrusion detection, DDoS protection, vulnerability scans, isolated environments for each application, and other security safeguards that are required by HIPAA.
This simplifies the process of building, deploying, and managing applications in a way that meets HIPAA requirements. Additionally, Aptible provides comprehensive compliance documentation and supports security best practices out-of-the-box, allowing developers to focus on building their apps while remaining confident they’re meeting regulatory obligations.
This specialization makes Aptible uniquely suited for startups and enterprises navigating complex compliance landscapes.
TrueVault – Compliance & Data Privacy First
TrueVault offers a backend-as-a-service platform built specifically for compliance with HIPAA and other frameworks. Instead of managing infrastructure, developers interact with TrueVault via its API to securely store and process PHI.
It includes built-in encryption, access controls, audit logging, and BAA support. Unlike Aptible, which provides full app hosting, TrueVault primarily hosts the regulated parts of your data, such as PHI. It’s a strong fit for mobile apps or frontend-heavy tools that need a compliant backend without the overhead of managing servers.
MedStack – Digital Health Focused
MedStack is a HIPAA-compliant hosting platform built specifically for digital health teams. It combines secure container hosting with built-in compliance tools like encryption, logging, vulnerability monitoring, and pre-configured DevOps workflows.
Compared to more flexible platforms like Aptible, for custom environments, MedStack focuses on fast, opinionated deployments that simplify the compliance path for lean teams. It’s ideal for early-stage companies prioritizing speed and simplicity.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Companies
These companies provide platforms where they manage all of the servers for you, and enable you to launch your application onto their platform without having to worry about configuring and maintaining any servers.
This often offers faster development, increased agility and reduced costs by freeing developers from having to manage servers. As with major public clouds, however, you will often need to do extra work to ensure that your application has the necessary safeguards in place.
Additionally, developing and deploying applications to PaaS platforms sometimes requires additional expertise, and PaaS applications can sometimes be more difficult to troubleshoot than conventional applications when things go wrong.
There are several PaaS providers in the market, and here are three strong options for HIPAA compliant application hosting:
Heroku Shield – Built for HIPAA Compliance
Heroku Shield is Heroku’s HIPAA-compliant offering. It uses a managed container model called “dynos” where applications run in smart containers, which are continually monitored, patched, and upgraded.
Vercel – Serverless Hosting
Vercel is a unique serverless hosting platform that was built for applications written in the Next.js programming framework but which is also available for other platforms. Its services are now HIPAA compliant.
AWS Amplify – Amazon’s PaaS Offering
AWS Amplify is Amazon Web Services’ PaaS offering, and can be used to host HIPAA compliant applications with the proper safeguards in place.
Managed Service Providers
If you want to stay out of the infrastructure layer entirely, MSPs handle compliance, security, uptime, and performance for you so your team can focus on building the product.
They act as a dedicated ops layer, managing and monitoring your environment to keep it secure and running smoothly.
While there are many options, these are the HIPAA-compliant MSPs we’ve had the best experience with:
Pros and Cons of Each Approach
Some providers give you full control but require deep technical expertise. Others remove the complexity but limit your flexibility. The right option depends on your product, your team, and how hands-on you want to be with infrastructure and compliance.
Here’s a comparison of our five categories of HIPAA hosting:
| Hosting Option | Pros | Cons |
| Major Public Clouds | Configure your infrastructure any way you want with virtually no limitationsSubscribe to any of the public cloud’s services that are offered under their HIPAA compliance umbrella | Requires significant server admin work and expertiseRisk of error, which can result in data breach or lossRecommended only for companies with sufficient expertise |
| Specialty Web Hosts | Out-of-the-box configuration of many technical HIPAA requirementsGenerally, these are high quality hosting solution | Limited service offerings when compared with Major Public CloudsCan be more expensive than some other options (including PaaS; see below) |
| “Framework Fortresses” | Out-of-the-box configuration of virtually all infrastructure-related security and privacy safeguardsAs easy to comply as possible while still managing your infrastructureEasy to respond to security audits from your customers | Can be more expensive than public clouds and specialty web hostsCan sometimes limit how your app is configured and the technologies that it uses |
| Platforms-as-a-Service | No need to configure and maintain actual servers; deployment and management are significantly easierCan be less expensive to host than a platform with dedicated servers | Your app usually needs to be structured for deployment on a PaaS platform from the get-goNot all HIPAA safeguards are provided out of the box |
| Managed Service Providers | All server administration and security work is taken completely off your hands so that you can focus only on developmentYour servers are often monitored 24/7, with experts ready to jump in and attend to issues as they arise | May be somewhat limiting in terms of the technical options available to youOften the most costly option |
What We Use at SiteRocket Labs
We’ve worked across a range of HIPAA-compliant setups, from early-stage products to more complex, multi-service systems. There’s no single “best” option. The right choice usually comes down to how much infrastructure and compliance work your team wants to take on.
Here’s what we tend to use, and when.
MedStack
We’ve used MedStack extensively for healthcare applications that require a strong compliance foundation with reduced infrastructure overhead.
Why we’ve used it:
- Purpose-built for healthcare application compliance
- Strong default controls for HIPAA-oriented workflows
- Simplifies early-stage compliance and deployment decisions
- Strong support for Canadian and European frameworks
MedStack has been particularly effective for teams that want to focus more on application development and less on building compliance infrastructure from scratch.
Aptible
We are currently orchestrating a large and complex healthcare application on Aptible.
Why we use it:
- Strong environment and deployment isolation for regulated workloads
- Built-in support for audits and compliance workflows
- Handles more complex setups as systems scale
- Supports additional frameworks like SOC 2
Aptible is especially useful when applications grow beyond early-stage simplicity and require more structured operational controls.
AWS and Microsoft Azure
We also work with teams on AWS and Azure, usually when there are specific technical requirements that only a major cloud can support.
Common cases include:
- High-throughput data ingestion
- IoT (Internet of Things) integrations
- Large, globally distributed systems
In these environments, HIPAA compliance is achieved through correct configuration, security architecture design, and contractual agreements such as Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), and rely less on built-in controls that are provided by the platform. This is where compliance tooling comes into play.
Compliance tooling (Sprinto and Dash)
When working with general-purpose cloud infrastructure, we almost always layer in compliance automation and monitoring tools such as Sprinto and Dash. These tools help monitor key security settings and keep everything audit-ready over time. (At the moment, Dash is AWS-only.)
Key takeaway
The platform matters, but it’s rarely the deciding factor.
What actually drives compliance is how the system is designed. Data handling, access controls, logging, and operational processes matter far more than which host you pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are public clouds like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud HIPAA compliant?
Yes, but only when using HIPAA-eligible services, with a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), and proper configuration.
Do I need HIPAA-compliant hosting for my healthcare app?
If your application creates, receives, stores, or transmits protected health information (PHI), then yes.
What is the easiest HIPAA-compliant hosting option?
Managed platforms like Aptible reduce complexity by providing many compliance controls out of the box.
Can I use standard cloud hosting for healthcare applications?
Yes, if it’s configured correctly and the provider offers a BAA.
Need Help?
Not sure which HIPAA-compliant hosting setup makes the most sense for your app?
I’m not here for a hard sell or to push a particular platform. I’m here to help you make a smart call that fits your technology stack and your team. If you want to run your situation by someone who’s been through this with other health tech teams, feel free to reach out and I would be happy to chat!