Coolify vs Railway (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Railway grades higher than Coolify: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Coolify grades higher on the free plan. Railway grades higher on value for money and ease of use. They get the same grade on features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Coolify
Open-source platform to deploy apps and databases to your own servers
Railway
App and database hosting billed by the second for usage
Which one is for you
Pick Coolify if
- Fits if you have your own servers and want a deploy dashboard
- Works for developers comfortable with SSH and Docker
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not have a server, as neither edition supplies one
- Not for you if you want someone else to handle updates and backups when self-hosting
- Tight if you want fast support, as it is community plus limited email on Cloud
- Pricey if you add many servers on Cloud, at $3 a month each past two
Pick Railway if
- Fits if you run side projects that only run part of the time
- Works for teams that want unlimited seats on the $20 plan
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay on Free: 1 project, 3 services, 0.5 GB RAM
- Watch out: usage above the included credit is billed on top of the minimum
- Watch out: Hobby has community support, and support and the 99.99% target start on Pro
- Not for you if you need SSO, RBAC or HIPAA BAAs, as those are Enterprise
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACoolifyFair | 2.6GPARailwayGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CFree software, but only free if you host it yourself on a server you pay for. Cloud is $5 a month for 2 servers, then $3 each. | BHobby is $5 minimum usage a month, inside the cheaper quarter ($5.28), but usage above the credit is on top and egress is $0.05 per GB. Pro is $20. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe self-hosted edition has every feature with no restrictions, once you have a server. Cloud has no trial on record. | CA 30-day trial with $5 and no card, then a Free plan at $1 a month, limited to 1 project, 3 services and 0.5 GB RAM a service. |
| Features | BGit deploys, builds, one-click databases and services, SSL, backups, monitoring, an API and an MCP server. The listing shows no gap in the core job. | BUsage billing, templates, volumes, object storage, replicas and regions, and sandboxes. The listing names no core gap. |
| Ease of use | DNeeds servers reached over SSH and self-hosting, with community support. | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects, services and databases. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web dashboard with an API, an MCP server and several integrations. | BWeb, iOS and Android, but no desktop app and no integrations listed. |
| Best for | self-hosting your own apps and databases | side projects billed by usage |
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: Coolify and Railway. How we grade
Price against what you get
Coolify starts at $5 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Railway starts at $5 a month and scores 2.7.
Railway scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Coolify for less, and none scores higher than Railway 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
- Coolify is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Railway also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Coolify | Railway | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 per month for up to 2 connected servers (Cloud), or free to self-host | $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby) |
| Free plan | The self-hosted edition is free forever with every feature and no restrictions; you run it on your own infrastructure. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, no card required. |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Coolify | Railway Corp. |
| Price read from | coolify.io | railway.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Coolify
- Coolify does not supply servers: both editions need servers you bring, and Cloud charges $3 a month for each server beyond the first two.
- Self-hosting means you handle installation, updates and backups, with community support.
- Cloud support is described as community plus limited email support.
- Some pricing FAQ answers, including trial and discount questions, were not readable on the page, so no trial is recorded.
Railway
- Egress is $0.05 per GB, and usage above the included credit is charged on top of the minimum.
- After the trial, the Free plan allows 1 project, 3 services and 0.5 GB of RAM per service.
- Hobby is a single developer workspace with community support; support and a 99.99% target begin on Pro.
- SSO, role-based access control and HIPAA BAAs are Enterprise only.
Key features
Coolify
- Deploy from Git
- Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Gitea give push-to-deploy and separate deployments for pull requests.
- Flexible builds
- Applications can be built with Nixpacks, Railpack, a Dockerfile or Docker Compose, served as static sites, or run from a prebuilt Docker image.
- One-click databases and services
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, KeyDB, Dragonfly and ClickHouse start in seconds, alongside a catalog of 360+ one-click services.
- Any server over SSH
- Resources can be deployed to your own server, a VPS, a Raspberry Pi or providers such as Hetzner and DigitalOcean, across one or many servers.
- SSL, backups and monitoring
- Let's Encrypt certificates renew automatically, databases back up to S3-compatible storage, and servers and deployments are monitored with notifications.
- API and MCP server
- An API automates deployments and resources, and an MCP server lets AI clients list resources, deploy and read logs with the same API tokens.
Railway
- Usage-based billing
- Memory costs $0.00000386 per GB-second and CPU $0.00000772 per vCPU-second, so an idle service costs little.
- Templates
- The templates page offers ready-made setups for apps and databases that deploy to a project in a few steps.
- Volumes and object storage
- Persistent volumes are billed per GB-second and object storage is $0.015 per GB-month with free egress.
- Sandboxes and VMs
- Isolated Linux VMs for agents, builds and untrusted code, billed for CPU used and memory held, at about $50 per vCPU-month.
- Replicas and regions
- Services can run up to 5 replicas on Hobby and 42 on Pro, across concurrent global regions.
- Mobile app
- The site lists a Railway app for iOS and Android.
Plans
Coolify
Self-hosted$0
Install Coolify yourself on your own infrastructure with all features and unlimited servers and teams. Support comes from the community, and you handle updates and backups.
Cloud$5
per month for up to 2 servers, then $3 per extra server
Coolify hosts the dashboard at app.coolify.io; you bring your own servers. Unlimited deployments, email alerts, and limited email support.
Railway
Free$0
per month, after the trial
After a 30-day trial with $5 in credits, $1 per month. Up to 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service, 0.5 GB volume.
Hobby$5
minimum usage per month, includes $5 of usage
Includes $5 of monthly usage credit, up to 48 vCPU and 48 GB RAM per service, a single developer workspace and 7-day logs.
Pro$20
minimum usage per month, includes $20 of usage
Includes $20 of monthly usage credit, unlimited workspace seats, up to 1,000 vCPU per service and a 99.99% availability target.
EnterpriseCustom
Single sign-on, role-based access control, HIPAA BAAs, dedicated VMs, bring-your-own-cloud and a 99.999% availability target.
Ways to pay less
Coolify
- Annual discount
20% off Cloud with annual billing
The pricing page's billing toggle marks annual billing as 20% cheaper than monthly for Coolify Cloud.
Railway
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Coolify or Railway?
As of Nov 13, 2026, they start at the same price. Coolify starts at $5 per month for up to 2 connected servers (Cloud), or free to self-host, and Railway starts at $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby).
Which has a free plan, Coolify or Railway?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Coolify has a free plan. Railway does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Coolify and Railway run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Railway lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
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.