Fly.io vs Railway (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Railway grades higher than Fly.io: 2.6 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Railway grades higher on value for money and ease of use. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Fly.io
Virtual machines and databases in 18 regions, billed per second
Railway
App and database hosting billed by the second for usage
Which one is for you
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
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
| 2.2GPAFly.ioFair | 2.6GPARailwayGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | 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 | CNew accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days with no card. That's a taste, not a plan. | 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 | 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. | BUsage billing, templates, volumes, object storage, replicas and regions, and sandboxes. The listing names no core gap. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. The flow is built around its command line and a Dockerfile. | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects, services and databases. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with GitHub, Slack, Tigris and Upstash and a CLI. | BWeb, iOS and Android, but no desktop app and no integrations listed. |
| Best for | small servers in many regions, billed by the second | 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: Fly.io and Railway. How we grade
Price against what you get
Fly.io starts at $2.19 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, and starts $2.81 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 1 scores higher than Fly.io 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
At a glance
| Fly.io | Railway | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go | $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | New accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days, no card required. | 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, no card required. |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Fly.io | Railway Corp. |
| Price read from | fly.io | railway.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Fly.io or Railway?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Fly.io is cheaper to start with: $2.19 a month, against $5 a month for Railway. Fly.io starts at $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go, and Railway starts at $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby).
Which has a free plan, Fly.io or Railway?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Fly.io nor Railway has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do Fly.io and Railway run on?
As of Nov 12, 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.