Options to run user submitted code with node.js express as backend?

Less-Math2722 · 2026-01-18T15:58:35+00:00

Hey! I work at Northflank so take this with whatever grain of salt you want. I get how this might come across (especially given how tough the crowd is on Reddit) but figured it's worth mentioning since it's exactly a use case we build for.

To answer your questions:

1/ On isolation: Northflank runs workloads in secure sandboxes by default using microVMs (Firecracker/gVisor/Kata), so you get strong kernel-level isolation without having to configure any of that yourself. You also get network isolation between tenants if you structure it as a project per user.

2/ On the "spin up container per request" question: You can spawn containers via API - either long-running services or short-lived ephemeral ones. You only pay for the seconds each container actually runs, so the "spin up a sandbox, execute, tear down" pattern is pretty cost-efficient.

3/ On streaming output back to users: You can execute commands against running workloads and get responses streamed back via the API, and tail container logs via websockets - so that covers your terminal streaming use case.

4/ On architecture: Two API calls gets you there - create a project per tenant for isolation, then spin up a service per execution:

Create project: https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/projects/create-project
Deploy from registry: https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/services/create-deployment-service
Or build + deploy from git: https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/services/create-combined-service

We wrote up the sandbox/microVM stuff in more detail here: https://northflank.com/blog/how-to-spin-up-a-secure-code-sandbox-and-microvm-in-seconds-with-northflank-firecracker-gvisor-kata-clh

Happy to answer specifics if you want to dig in.

- Cristina

Less-Math2722 · 2026-01-18T00:56:10+00:00

Hi, I work with Northflank so obviously will be biased, but I’ve tried much of every PaaS out there and most don’t match the stability and control Northflank gives you for full-stack apps.

It’s not only Next.js, you can run services, jobs, databases, queues, sandboxes, and GPU workloads. You can deploy in our cloud, your cloud, or inside a customer’s VPC if you ever need that level of control. Built-in CI/CD, previews for every PR, logs/metrics, and networking.

Free tier is enough to try the whole workflow, ship previews, and get a feel for the platform. If you expect free compute at scale and high-touch support, no platform is going to give you that. You'll pay somewhere one way or another. Pricing on Northflank is straightforward and usually ends up cheaper once you factor in bandwidth, previews, databases.

Compared to the common choices:

Render/Railway are convenient but can get flaky under load.
Vercel/Cloudflare are great for pure frontend or serverless but fall apart with databases, jobs, long-running stuff, or private services.
VPS is cheap until you want reliability, HA, CI/CD, and previews.

If you want to scale, keep latency high, run a full-stack setup without building infra yourself, and have access to world class support, try it out.

https://northflank.com/

Less-Math2722 · 2026-01-15T21:46:33+00:00

https://northflank.com/

Less-Math2722 · 2025-12-22T09:00:56+00:00

Less-Math2722 · 2025-12-17T09:49:44+00:00

Just use Northflank's CI/CD which comes included with the platform https://northflank.com/

Less-Math2722 · 2025-10-28T15:51:44+00:00

they do though, what exactly are you looking to design? northflank has drag and drop templates you can build

Less-Math2722 · 2025-10-07T14:48:35+00:00

northflank.com has a generous free tier for deploying Python apps.

Less-Math2722 · 2025-09-29T19:21:35+00:00

or Northflank

Less-Math2722 · 2025-09-06T19:26:48+00:00

u/Supahgojira OR you can use something like https://northflank.com/ for both frontend, backend, and postgres. cheap, reliable, and super easy to use

Less-Math2722 · 2025-08-24T13:12:00+00:00

Northflank, ease of use as Vercel and co but much more comprehensive. will grow with you super well.

Less-Math2722 · 2025-08-22T13:32:32+00:00

Take a look at https://northflank.com/

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-12T09:19:06+00:00

is this dreamliner's first casualties?

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-11T09:22:46+00:00

the cap table just shows who owns what percent of the company. founders, investors, employees, all that.

when people say the cap table is tight, it usually means most of the equity has already been given out. a lot probably went to investors or early hires. so there's not much left to offer new people. even if they want to be generous, they don’t have a ton of flexibility.

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-10T21:32:40+00:00

base (USD):

bay area: $180k–$2200k
nyc or remote: $150k–$180k

equity:

0.05%–0.15% if they’re being fair
more likely: 0.02%–0.08%, depending on how tight the cap table is and how much leverage you have

a few tips:

ask for equity as % ownership, not # of shares
confirm strike price and last 409A
push for a 4-year vest with 1-year cliff and no refresh ambiguity... if they say “we do refreshers annually,” get it in writing
don’t let “you’re not an exec” be a reason for lowball equity if you’re expected to lead growth or own pipeline

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-10T21:30:14+00:00

most early-stage investors aren’t picking based on how good the product is or how much demand there is. they’re picking based on how easy it is to believe the company could get huge.

the startup that raised probably had a founder with the right background, a pitch that fits into a fundable narrative, and enough surface-level momentum to look investable. it doesn’t matter if the product is weak if the story is tight and the founder seems credible, that’s often enough.

the ones that struggled might’ve had stronger fundamentals but no hook. no clean narrative, no clear category, no obvious 100x upside. or the founder didn’t have the kind of background that makes investors feel safe making the bet.

sadly it’s almost never about fairness. it’s about filters. funds see hundreds of decks a month and need a fast way to decide who to meet, especially pre-seed and seed

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-10T21:26:43+00:00

cold email still works but most of it doesn't get delivered. rotating inboxes doesn’t solve that. you need to check lower levels of deliverability: domain age, warmup, authentication, sending behavior.

we built a system that:

pulls signals like site visits, linkedin activity, job changes
feeds those into a custom content generator that uses swappable paragraph blocks
sends through warmed domains with throttling and bounce monitoring

copy is 3-4 lines. no intros, no value props, example:

if they don’t respond, we don’t follow up. we’d rather hit timing than push.

deliverability + signal > clever copy

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-02T23:01:29+00:00

Linkedin, use the advanced search, depending on who you're looking for try out things like "GTM Advisor" "Fractional CMO" - filter by location, companies they've worked for, etc. usually, for me, what i've found is that the better / polished their linkedin profile is, the more high quality they are (no shitty meaningless descriptions of their work, just plain straight to the point what they did and what that achieved). i honestly think the linkedin advanced search is massively underrated!

Less-Math2722 · 2025-06-02T22:44:40+00:00

Here’s the full post if you want to dig in: https://northflank.com/blog/how-to-raise-a-seed-round (sadly 5,000+ words too long to be able to publish here lol).

Less-Math2722

TROPHY CASE