[op]: Render is a web host, on which we host other applications. They offer a managed Postgres version, which is in my experience pretty similar to Heroku, RDS, or other managed databases.

Maybe the sentence makes that confusing - we're using other stuff on Render, which are basically "web servers" in the Heroku-ish sense, and we're also using their managed database, which is just a database. And it's nice that Render, like some other managed hosting providers, lets you boot up and connect those services.

I guess it's more than a database in some sense because it networks to our web servers and can be booted up in a preview environment, but it is mostly just a database. There are cheaper options that would be more work to wire up in such a convenient way, but the pricing difference between a database on AWS and one on Render is not the highest priority right now.

Thanks, that does clear it up. I was missing the context about Render's full offering. Makes sense re the current priority; I can see many situations or phases of a company where using Render could make a lot of sense even if there are cheaper way to get a PG database.

They just want to think about it as just a database when they are in building-the-application mindset. But they want it to have lots of conveniences and features and easy management when they are in building-the-company-and-team mindset.