Porter is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that allows you to deploy and manage your applications in your own cloud account. Here’s how you can use Porter:

Provision Infrastructure: Connect your cloud account, and Porter will set up a production-ready Kubernetes cluster along with other necessary infrastructure like VPC, load balancers, and image registries.
Deploy Applications: Link up your Git repository, and Porter will build your application using Dockerfiles or Buildpacks. It also configures CI/CD using GitHub Actions that you can customize later.
Manage and Scale: Assign resources, add environment variables, and customize networking. Porter monitors your cluster to ensure scalability.

Porter brings the simplicity of a traditional PaaS like Heroku to your own cloud provider while preserving the configurability of Kubernetes. This means you get the ease of deployment without the overhead of managing complex infrastructure. With Porter, you can start quickly and customize your infrastructure as you scale.

For those familiar with Kubernetes and Helm, Porter offers additional features like connecting to existing Kubernetes clusters, visualizing and deploying Helm charts via the GUI, and managing `values.yaml` files. It also includes a marketplace for one-click add-ons like MongoDB, Redis, and PostgreSQL.