Render can now pull and run a Docker image directly from your container registry. These new image-backed services can speed up your deploys significantly if you're currently building from source with a Dockerfile.

You can pull public images from any registry, along with 

 images from Docker Hub, GitHub, and GitLab.

Hey, cool news: Render now supports deploying a Docker image directly from a container registry! If you already build and push Docker images in CI, your Render services no longer need to spend time _also_ building those same images. This can significantly speed up your Docker-based deploys 🚀

## What it looks like

When you create a new Render service from your [dashboard](https://dashboard.render.com), we now ask whether you want to deploy from a Git repo or a container registry:

![Choosing a deploy method in the Render Dashboard](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/hvk0tap5/production/044b3366833a1ad7d70d1c9e64280052b4bce75b-1598x1052.png?w=550)

You can deploy a public image from _any_ registry, and you can deploy your _private_ images from Docker Hub, GitHub, or GitLab by adding your credentials:

<div style="max-width: 450px">

![UI for specifying a Docker image URL and credentials](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/hvk0tap5/production/7e01e643cc5c8fb51c1bf59e9166aa8c4368e18f-1282x1334.png?w=500)

</div>
	
When you provide your Docker image's URL, you can specify either a particular tag (such as `latest` above), or a **digest** like so:

```
docker.io/library/nginx@sha256:72099b46456fbd58481cbf842f22fd0030eb5bd1739de2ff8cff903180b76710
```

A digest always targets the _exact same image_, whereas a tag might target new images over time. Use whichever strategy is right for you! You can change the tag/digest later.

## Differences from Git-backed deploys

These new **image-backed services** behave _almost_ exactly like your existing Git-backed services: you can [scale them up and down](https://docs.render.com/scaling), add a [persistent disk](https://docs.render.com/disks), and set [environment variables and secrets](https://docs.render.com/configure-environment-variables).

However, image-backed services do differ from Git-backed services in a couple of important ways:

- **Redeploys:** Git-backed services automatically redeploy with changes to their associated branch. Image-backed services aren't connected to a Git repo, so you instead trigger redeploys manually or programmatically. [See redeploy options.](https://docs.render.com/deploy-an-image#triggering-a-deploy)
- **Build previews:** Git-backed services can automatically generate (and later delete) preview instances for every opened pull request. To manage preview instances of an image-backed service, you [use Render's REST API](https://docs.render.com/pull-request-previews#image-previews).

## Build it there, run it here

We're happy to build your image from a `Dockerfile`, but we're just as happy _not_ to! With image-backed deploys, Render can slot into your existing build pipeline without needlessly duplicating work.

Excited to deploy your first image? [Head over to your dashboard](https://dashboard.render.com) and [check out the docs](https://docs.render.com/deploy-an-image) for all the extra details.


Deploy Prebuilt Docker Images to Render

All Render services now use OpenSSH version 9.9 to manage SSH connections. Services previously used version 8.9.

If you initiate SSH connections from your service,

 this upgrade includes one change that might affect those connections. From the 

 are now first-match-wins to match other directives. Previously if an environment variable was multiply specified the last set value would have been used."

 directive in your service's SSH configuration, make sure you don't set the same environment variable multiple times to avoid unexpected behavior.

Learn more about using SSH on Render in the 

OpenSSH updated to version 9.9

 provides command-line support for common platform actions, including:

Triggering service deploys, restarts, and one-off jobs

The CLI supports interactive menu-based navigation, along with a non-interactive mode for use in scripts and CI/CD. 

The Render CLI is now available in public beta

 now provide AI-powered chat trained on our documentation content. Click 

Use the chat to receive fast, focused answers to your questions about the platform, along with links to relevant articles:

AI chat now available in the Render documentation

In-place PostgreSQL upgrades are now generally available for all Render workspaces. This feature upgrades your database to the most recent major PostgreSQL version supported by Render (currently 16).

Upgrading your database requires downtime.

Open the upgrade page for your database in the 

In-place PostgreSQL upgrades now generally available

Render has moved PostgreSQL version 12 to legacy support ahead of its 

Starting today, you cannot create new managed PostgreSQL 12 databases in your workspace unless you already have one.

We strongly recommend upgrading any PostgreSQL 12 databases to an actively supported version to continue receiving important security updates. Render supports 

PostgreSQL 12 moved to legacy support

Newly created Node.js services now use Node.js 22.10.0 by default. You can always 

 Node.js services keep their original default version to prevent breaking changes.

Default Node.js version updated to 22.10.0

Newly created Python services now use Python 3.11.10 by default. You can always 

 Python services keep their original default version to prevent breaking changes.

Default Python version updated to 3.11.10

Render now provides early access support for upgrading your PostgreSQL database's major version in-place. This upgrades your database to the most recent PostgreSQL version supported by Render (currently 16).

Then open the upgrade page for your database by clicking the version number on its 

In-place PostgreSQL upgrades now available in early access

 are now available for all workspaces. These plans enable you to set your database's storage separately from its RAM and CPU.

Starting today, every new database created on Render has a flexible plan. If you have a database on a 

Flexible PostgreSQL plans now available for all workspaces

 for any paid web service in the Render Dashboard:

While in maintenance mode, a web service is not reachable from the public internet (but it remains up and running).

Enable maintenance mode to prevent incoming client requests while rolling out major changes to your infrastructure.

Enable maintenance mode to temporarily disable incoming service traffic

All individual and team accounts on Render are now 

. This unified account model simplifies upgrading from an individual to a team. There are no changes to 

Each team account is now a workspace with its existing plan, seats, and features.

 workspaces gain the ability to create one 

 workspace can add a maximum of two total custom domains.

This limit does not apply to individual accounts created before this date.

You can upgrade or downgrade your workspace's plan at any time.

For details about each workspace plan, see the 

Render accounts are now workspaces

When you update a service's environment variables in the 

, you can now specify whether this triggers a new deploy.

Render triggers a new build for your service and deploys it with the new environment variables.

 build with the new environment variables.

Render saves the new environment variables 

 triggering a deploy. Your service will not use the new variables until its next deploy.

Learn more about environment variables in the 

Specify deploy behavior when modifying environment variables

As part of creating a pull request preview, Render now creates a GitHub deploy on the associated pull request. This matches the behavior for 

 to open the preview instance in your browser.

Before this change, Render instead added a comment with preview details to your pull request. Render continues to use comments for GitLab and Bitbucket repositories.

Pull request previews now create GitHub deploys

 can now override their default log stream settings for individual services:

All teams can disable log streaming for an individual service.

Teams with an Organization plan or higher can stream an individual service's logs to a non-default destination.

 accounts can now configure whether logs from preview instances (service previews and preview environments) are included in their log stream.

Customize log streaming for individual services

You can now opt to create preview instances only for particular pull requests that you specify. This new 

 preview mode is provided alongside the original 

 mode, where Render creates a preview for 

In manual mode, you trigger a preview for a pull request by including the string 

You can enable manual previews for any combination of pull request previews and preview environments. See the documentation for each:

Create preview instances only for specific pull requests

 on Render now enforce the following additional restrictions:

 team members can view the values of environment variables and secret files for resources in the environment.

 team members can view connection URLs and passwords for PostgreSQL databases and Redis instances in the environment.

 of an organization's resources (not just resources in a protected environment).

Added restrictions and audit tracking for viewing secret values

Teams on Render can now configure a project environment to block all private network traffic from entering or leaving that environment. This helps prevent your staging services from inadvertently accessing a production resource (or vice versa).

Toggle this setting from an environment's Settings page in the 

Block private network traffic across environment boundaries

Render's Virginia (US East) region has graduated from early access to general availability.

Select a service's region as part of the creation flow in the 

Render supports deploying services to the following regions:

Virginia region (US East) now generally available

The Render Dashboard now provides a dark display theme:

Additionally, you can toggle a high contrast mode to more prominently highlight certain interactive elements.

Quickly set your theme from the account menu in the top-right corner of the dashboard:

To also toggle high contrast, open your account settings and scroll down to the 

Added dark display theme to the Render Dashboard

 has added over 50 new endpoints to support much more extensive integration with the Render platform.

Endpoints are now available for the following resources that were previously unsupported by the API:

Datastores (PostgreSQL, Redis, and persistent disks)

New endpoints are also available for certain resources that are already supported by the API, such as redirect/rewrite rules for static sites.

With these additions, the API supports almost all functionality available in the Render Dashboard. There are no breaking changes to existing API endpoints.

The OpenAPI spec for the Render API is available in JSON format at 

. You can use this spec to create your own custom clients and other tooling.

API endpoints for datastores, logs, environments, Blueprints, and more

 now emit service logs. As with logs for other service types, Redis logs are available in the 

Redis instances now emit service logs

Newly created Node.js services now use Node.js 20.15.1 by default. You can always 

Default Node.js version updated to 20.15.1

Teams with an Organization or Enterprise plan can now export audit logs of material events that occurred in the account over a given time frame. This includes events related to:

Team admins can export audit log data in the 

For a list of all audit log event types, see the 

Note the following about data availability:

 Organization and Enterprise accounts, audit log data is available starting from 

 Organization or Enterprise account, audit log data is available starting from the date of account creation.

 an account to Organization or Enterprise, audit log data is available starting from the date of the upgrade.

Audit logs for Organization and Enterprise plans

You can now pull and deploy your private Docker images from Google Artifact Registry. Add your credentials in the Render Dashboard during service creation:

With this addition, Render now supports pulling private images from the following registries:

Pull and deploy private images from Google Artifact Registry

Render now provides simplified deployment for popular PostgreSQL admin apps in the 

With a few clicks, you can deploy each app as a standalone web service that's automatically configured to connect to your database.

The following apps are currently supported:

Quickly deploy PostgreSQL admin apps from the Render Dashboard

 is now available in early access. You can use this provider to manage your Render services alongside other systems in your organization's infrastructure.

The provider and its documentation are available in the 

Note that breaking changes might be introduced during the early access period.

 Any such changes will be noted in accompanying release notes.

Official Render Terraform provider now available in early access

You can now change the native runtime for an existing service in any of the following ways:

Changing a service's runtime in the Render Dashboard is not currently supported.

Change an existing service's runtime via API or Blueprint

, newly created Free Render PostgreSQL databases expire after 30 days (previously 90 days). Free databases created prior to this date retain their original expiration date.

The following Free database policies remain unchanged:

Each individual and team account is limited to one Free database at a time.

After your Free database expires, you have an additional 14 days to upgrade it to a paid instance type before your data is deleted.

After your Free database expires, you can create a new Free database.

Learn more about Free PostgreSQL limitations in the 

Free PostgreSQL instances now expire after 30 days (previously 90)

Teams can now require all members to log in to Render via their Google account (instead of using another supported login method, such as username and password).

Admins can enable this feature from their Team Settings page in the 

If a team member does log in to Render using a different method, they cannot access the team's resources or settings.

Teams can now require login via Google account

You can now deploy Render services to the Virginia region (US East).

Note that this region is currently in early access. 

It's available to all users, and it's feature-complete with our other regions. Early access provides us an opportunity to address any one-off issues that might arise with spinning up a new region. We'll announce when this early access period completes.

Added Virginia region (US East) in early access

Powerful new application metrics are available for paid instances in the 

CPU and memory usage over time, segmented by instance for scaled services

HTTP request volume and response latency, segmented by status code, path, and more

Response latency metrics require a team account.

Metrics from the past 7 days are available for individual accounts. Teams can view metrics from the past 14 or 30 days, depending on their plan.

Enhanced service metrics in the Render Dashboard and API

 file from your existing services in the 

Use this file to create a Render Blueprint that manages those existing services, or to replicate your architecture with a completely new set of services.

Create a Blueprint from existing services

Many popular IDEs now provide schema-backed validation and autocompletion for the 

IDE validation for render.yaml files

You can now connect your Bitbucket account to Render and deploy from any Bitbucket repo you have access to.

. After you authorize Render, your Bitbucket repos appear in the selection list:

You can also now sign in to Render using your Bitbucket identity.

Added support for Bitbucket

Teams on Render can now designate individual project environments as 

. Doing so prevents non-Admin team members from performing potentially destructive actions on that environment or its resources, including:

Deleting any of the environment's resources (services, environment groups, etc.), or deleting the environment itself

Modifying environment variables or secret files for any service or environment group that belongs to the environment

Moving resources into or out of the environment

Modifying access control IPs for any PostgreSQL database or Redis instance that belongs to the environment

Accessing the shell for a service that belongs to the environment

Designate environments as protected to prevent destructive actions

 and persists their assets in the same region where you deployed your 

 non-static Render service. Previously, all static site assets were stored in the Oregon region.

Static sites are still cached and served to users by a global CDN, regardless of their region.

 This change primarily improves latency for any 

 that point to a Render web service in the same region.

Static site assets now built and persisted in the same region as other services

You can update your service's build and start commands to use Bun:

With this initial release, native runtimes use Bun version 

 by default. You can use a different version by setting the 

Added native support for Bun

Newly created Ruby services now use Ruby 3.3.0 by default. You can always 

 Ruby services keep their original default version to prevent breaking changes.

Default Ruby version updated to 3.3.0

Added gettext to all native runtimes

As of 2024-03-11, all newly created Redis instances on Render use Redis version 

Instances created before this date used version 

. Render will upgrade these instances to 6.2.14 as part of their next scheduled maintenance.

New Redis instances use version 6.2.14

Newly created Elixir services now use Elixir 1.16.1 and Erlang/OTP 26.2.2 by default. You can always 

 Elixir services keep their original default versions to prevent breaking changes.

Default Elixir version updated to 1.16.1

Newly created Node.js services now use Node.js 20.11.1 by default. You can always 

Default Node.js version updated to 20.11.1

Newly created Python services now use Python 3.11.8 by default. You can always 

Default Python version updated to 3.11.8

Render now supports PostgreSQL version 16 for newly created databases. You select your database's version during the creation flow in the 

If you have an existing database that you want to move to PostgreSQL 16, see 

PostgreSQL 16 now available for new Render PostgreSQL databases

 instance type or higher can enable high availability (HA) for that database from the 

 instance of your database and automatically fails over to it if your primary instance encounters an issue.

Enable high availability for large PostgreSQL databases

You can now bulk-add environment variables from your local 

 file while creating or modifying a service or 

Below any environment variable list in the 

Add environment variables in bulk from a .env file

 was disclosed to the public. We have patched all of our affected systems following the recommendations included in the disclosure.

Changelog

Deploy a prebuilt Docker image from a registry