Convox vs Fly.io (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Fly.io grades higher than Convox: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Convox grades higher on ease of use. Fly.io grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Convox
Heroku-style deploy platform that runs in your own cloud account
Fly.io
Virtual machines and databases in 18 regions, billed per second
Which one is for you
Pick Convox if
- Fits if you want Heroku-style deploys inside your own AWS or Google Cloud account
- Makes sense if you are one developer who can stay within the free plan
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are a small team, at $165 a month for 2 users and $99 for each extra
- Tight if you want more than 1 rack or 2 workflows, which the free plan caps
- Skip it if you need RBAC or email support, as those start at Pro at $415 a month
- Watch out: the self-hosted console for PCI or HIPAA is quoted through sales
Pick Fly.io if
- Fits if you want machines near users in several regions and are fine on the command line
- Works for apps that stop when idle and pay by the second
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as the trial is $1 for 7 days
- Not for you if you don't like a command line
- Pricey if you add a database: Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month
- Watch out: the prices quoted are for Ashburn and Secaucus, the cheapest regions, and a dedicated IPv4 is $2 a month
- Watch out: data out costs $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe and $0.12 in Africa and India
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAConvoxFair | 2.2GPAFly.ioFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DBasic is $165 a month billed annually with 2 users, many times the $10.99 middle for web hosting, and each extra user is $99. Your cloud account is billed separately. | C$2.19 a month buys a 256MB machine, but the vendor's own example of a small app with Managed Postgres is about $44 a month, and Postgres starts at $38. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with API throttling. Those caps will be hit by any team. | CNew accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days with no card. That's a taste, not a plan. |
| Features | CAuto-scaling, CI/CD workflows, racks and quick apps, database and cache management and a local rack. RBAC and email support start at Pro, and WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon. | BMachines in 18 regions, launch from a repo, Managed Postgres, volumes, snapshots and free shared IPv4. The listing names no gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You connect cloud accounts and set up racks and workflows. | DNo store rating on record. The flow is built around its command line and a Dockerfile. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it connects to GitHub, GitLab, Slack, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean. | BWeb only, with GitHub, Slack, Tigris and Upstash and a CLI. |
| Best for | Heroku-style deploys into your own cloud | small servers in many regions, billed by the second |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Convox and Fly.io. How we grade
Price against what you get
Convox starts at $165 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Fly.io starts at $2.19 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Fly.io starts $162.81 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 12 score higher than Convox for less, and 1 scores higher than Fly.io for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Convox also covers workflow automation.
- Fly.io also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Convox | Fly.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly) | $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go |
| Free plan | 1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows and 1 quick app, with a limited monitoring dashboard. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | New accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days, no card required. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Convox | Fly.io |
| Price read from | convox.com | fly.io |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Convox
- Convox's fee covers the console only; infrastructure is billed by your cloud provider, though the FAQ says Convox adds no markup on instances or apps.
- Each user beyond those included costs $99 a month on every paid plan.
- RBAC and email support start on Pro, and the self-hosted console for PCI/HIPAA is quoted through sales.
- WordPress and Magento quick apps are listed as coming soon.
Fly.io
- There is no free plan; the trial is a $1 credit that lasts 7 days or until it is used up.
- Machine prices quoted are for Ashburn and Secaucus, the lowest-priced regions, and vary by region.
- Outbound data costs $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe and $0.12 per GB in Africa and India.
- A dedicated IPv4 address is $2 a month, and a small web app with Managed Postgres is about $44 a month by the vendor's own example.
Key features
Convox
- Runs in your cloud account
- Convox deploys to your own AWS, Google Cloud, Azure or DigitalOcean account, so you keep direct access to the infrastructure.
- Auto-scaling
- The platform ships with pre-configured auto-scaling policies that can be tuned as needs change.
- CI/CD workflows
- Workflow integrations with GitHub and GitLab build and deploy code, with a limit on workflows and concurrent jobs set by plan.
- Racks and quick apps
- Racks are the infrastructure environments Convox manages, and quick apps launch prebuilt applications such as Drupal.
- Database and cache management
- The product pages cover managing databases and caches, plus monitoring and alerts through a dashboard and Slack notifications.
- Local development rack
- A local rack installs on Mac or Linux to mirror staging and production environments on a developer machine.
Fly.io
- Fly Machines
- Fast-booting VMs for production apps, run in 18 regions, billed by the second while running and at a lower rate when stopped.
- Launch from GitHub or the CLI
- fly launch deploys an app from a repo or folder and generates a Dockerfile for many popular frameworks when none exists.
- Managed Postgres
- A managed database service, or you can run your own datastore on Machines with attached volumes.
- Sprites
- Hardware-isolated sandboxes that start quickly, stay on and scale to zero when idle, aimed at agents and untrusted code.
- Volumes and snapshots
- Persistent volumes cost $0.15 per GB a month and snapshots $0.08 per GB, with the first 10GB of snapshots free.
- Free shared IPv4 and certificates
- Apps get a shared IPv4 address and IPv6 addresses free, and the first 10 single-hostname SSL certificates are free.
Plans
Convox
Free$0
1 user, 1 rack, 2 workflows, 1 quick app and 1 deploy key, with some API throttling.
Basic$165
per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
2 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 5 racks, 10 workflows, Slack notifications and 24-hour audit logs.
Pro$415
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
5 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 20 racks, 50 workflows, simple RBAC, email support and 30-day audit logs.
Plus$832
per month, billed annually ($999 billed monthly)
10 users plus $99 a month per extra user, 100 racks, 100 workflows, priority feature requests and 90-day audit logs.
Fly.io
Pay As You Go$2.19
per month for a 256MB Machine, billed by the second
No platform fee. 512MB is $3.69, 1GB is $6.70 and 2GB is $13.39 a month in Ashburn and Secaucus; other regions cost more.
Managed Postgres$38
per month for the Basic cluster, plus $0.28/GB storage
Managed database clusters run from $38 a month (Basic) to $1,922 a month (Performance).
Standard support$29
per month
Optional paid support. Premium is $199 a month and Enterprise starts at $2,500 a month; community support is free.
Ways to pay less
Convox
- Annual discount
2 months free with annual billing
The pricing page marks annual billing as two months free; Basic is $165 a month billed annually against $199 billed monthly.
Fly.io
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Convox or Fly.io?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Fly.io is cheaper to start with: $2.19 a month, against $165 a month for Convox. Convox starts at $165 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly), and Fly.io starts at $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go.
Which has a free plan, Convox or Fly.io?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Convox has a free plan. Fly.io does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.