Release
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Release firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Release
- Website
- https://release.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Release industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cloud Development Environments
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Release Engineering & Environment Management (BPAEAKAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Developer Tools & DevOps Platform Services (CI/CD, Artifacts, IaC) (HDABAAAI), Developer Experience Platforms for Enterprise (IDEs, CI/CD, Dev Portals) (HDAEAKAI), Cloud-Native Development (Containers, Kubernetes, Microservices) (BPAEACAD), Managed Application Platforms (App PaaS & Runtime Services) (HDABAAAD)
Keywords
Where Release is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Release business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Release product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Release is an environments-as-a-service platform that enables software development teams to create isolated, resource-efficient development environments within their own cloud accounts. The platform integrates with source control and CI/CD tools to streamline environment provisioning, testing, and pre-production management. It positions itself as a Heroku replacement and Vercel alternative for full-stack applications.
Product overview
Release is a single unified environments-as-a-service platform designed to replace traditional resource-intensive development environment methods. The platform facilitates creating isolated environments for software development, integrates with source control and CI/CD tools, and enables resource-efficient environment creation within customers' cloud accounts. It serves as an alternative to platforms like Heroku and Vercel, attracting migrations from these services.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Release An environments-as-a-service platform that enables creating isolated development environments for software development. Integrates with source control and CI/CD tools and enables flexible, resource-efficient environment creation within customers' cloud accounts. Positions as a Vercel alternative for full-stack apps and a replacement for Heroku.
Companies that use Release
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Release technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature2 records
Release partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators1 record
Recent moves4 records
Expansion highlights3 records
Release competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Vercel: Frontend cloud platform offering preview deployments and per-branch environments for web applications. Explicitly named by Release as a comparable/alternative, with overlapping buyer (engineering teams) and overlapping workflow (branch-based previews).
- Netlify: Web application deployment platform with deep Git-based workflow integration and preview environments. Comparable to Release on the deploy/preview-environment axis for web and full-stack apps.
- Render: Cloud platform for hosting apps, databases, and services with Git-driven deploys and preview environments. Competes for the same Heroku-displacement buyer and offers a similar full-stack app deployment story.
- Heroku: Long-standing PaaS for full-stack app deployment owned by Salesforce. Release positions itself as a Heroku replacement, targeting the same customer base (developer-led teams deploying full-stack apps) with a more flexible, cloud-account-based model.
- Gitpod: Automated cloud development environments spun up per task or branch. Directly comparable in product surface (ephemeral cloud dev environments) and target buyer (engineering teams), with a similar in-cloud-account deployment story.
- GitHub Codespaces: Cloud-hosted development environments tightly integrated with GitHub repositories. Competes with Release on the cloud development environment use case for developer teams already standardized on GitHub.
- Railway: Infrastructure platform for deploying full-stack apps with simple Git-based workflows. Competes for developers leaving Heroku and is a direct alternative on full-stack app hosting.
- Fly.io: Application platform running close to users via distributed infrastructure, with full-stack app deployment and preview environments. Comparable on the deployment-plus-preview axis and on the developer-led buyer persona.
Emerging players
- Coder: Self-hosted and cloud development environment platform for enterprise engineering teams. Comparable to Release on the cloud dev environment use case, with a stronger enterprise/Self-hosted angle.
Broad incumbents
- Amazon CodeCatalyst: AWS-managed software development service bundling source repos, pipelines, and cloud dev environments. Broader incumbent alternative that overlaps with Release's environment-provisioning workflow as part of a wider AWS portfolio.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Release social profiles
Digital presenceRelease financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Release leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Release funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors11 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Release M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Release
What does Release do?
Release is an environments-as-a-service platform that enables software development teams to create isolated, resource-efficient development environments within their own cloud accounts. The platform integrates with source control and CI/CD tools to streamline environment provisioning, testing, and pre-production management. It positions itself as a Heroku replacement and Vercel alternative for full-stack applications.
Is Release a public or private company?
Release is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Release founded?
Release was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Release based?
Release is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Release's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Vercel, Netlify, Render, Heroku, Gitpod, GitHub Codespaces, Railway and Fly.io. Coder is listed as an emerging player. Amazon CodeCatalyst is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Release have an API?
No public API is recorded for Release.
What industry is Release in?
Release's product category is Cloud Development Environments. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAKAH, Release Engineering & Environment Management, with a secondary code of HDABAAAI, Developer Tools & DevOps Platform Services (CI/CD, Artifacts, IaC). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.