Northflank vs Railway (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Northflank and Railway share a 2.6 GPA, and only Northflank has a free plan.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Northflank grades higher on the free plan. Railway grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Northflank
Container platform for services, jobs, databases and GPUs
Railway
App and database hosting billed by the second for usage
Which one is for you
Pick Northflank if
- Fits if you want container hosting billed by the second
- Works for teams that want to run in their own AWS, Google Cloud or Azure account
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay on Sandbox: 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database
- Watch out: SAML, SCIM and audit logging need Enterprise
- Watch out: egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud
- Pricey if you size up, as the $12 figure is only the smallest compute plan
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
| 2.6GPANorthflankGood | 2.6GPARailwayGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$12 a month for the smallest plan, billed by the second, with a 2 vCPU, 4 GB plan at $48. Egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud. | 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 | BSandbox is free with no card: 2 services, 2 jobs, 1 database, always on, up to $20 of resources a month. | 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 | BServices, jobs, Postgres and Redis, autoscaling, RBAC, GPUs and bring-your-own-cloud. The listing names no core gap. | BUsage billing, templates, volumes, object storage, replicas and regions, and sandboxes. The listing names no core gap. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You configure services, builds and cloud accounts. | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects, services and databases. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle, Postgres, Redis and an SDK. | BWeb, iOS and Android, but no desktop app and no integrations listed. |
| Best for | containers billed by the second, or in your own cloud | 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: Northflank and Railway. How we grade
Price against what you get
Northflank starts at $12 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Railway starts at $5 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Railway starts $7 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Northflank 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
- Railway also covers databases and AI agents.
At a glance
| Northflank | Railway | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $12 per month for 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB, billed by the second | $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby) |
| Free plan | Sandbox: free, no card needed, with 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database, up to $20 a month of resources on Northflank Cloud, and 1 bring-your-own-cloud cluster up to 12 vCPU and 48 GB. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, no card required. |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Northflank | Railway Corp. |
| Price read from | northflank.com | railway.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Northflank
- Network egress is $0.06 per GB on Northflank Cloud, and ingress is free.
- The Sandbox tier is capped at 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database.
- SAML, SCIM and audit logging need the Enterprise plan.
- The price depends on what you run; the monthly figures on the page are for always-on compute.
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
Northflank
- Bring your own cloud
- Workloads can run on Northflank Cloud or in your own cloud account, where compute is billed at $0.02083 per node vCPU hour.
- Per-second billing
- Every resource is billed by the second, with no seat fees and unlimited users on the paid plan.
- GPUs
- GPUs on Northflank Cloud range from an L4 at $0.80 an hour to a B200 at $5.87 an hour, and BYOC GPUs are billed at $1.00 per GB of VRAM a month.
- Databases and storage
- Postgres and Redis databases are listed, with NVMe persistent disk at $0.11657 per GiB a month.
- Autoscaling and RBAC
- Autoscaling, role-based access control and a Platform SDK are included on pay-as-you-go.
- Bill estimator
- A calculator on the pricing page estimates a month's bill from a chosen mix of services, databases and sizes.
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
Northflank
Sandbox$0
2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database, always on with no sleeping, and up to $20 a month of resources.
Pay as you go$12
per month for the smallest compute plan, billed by the second
Unlimited users, deployments and workloads. Compute is $0.01667 per vCPU hour, memory $0.00833 per GB hour; the page shows a 2 vCPU, 4 GB plan at $48 a month.
EnterpriseCustom
Platform fee, usage, support and SLA: your own VPC or air-gapped setup, SAML, SCIM, audit logging and a dedicated Slack channel.
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, Northflank or Railway?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Railway is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $12 a month for Northflank. Northflank starts at $12 per month for 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB, billed by the second, and Railway starts at $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby).
Which has a free plan, Northflank or Railway?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Northflank has a free plan. Railway does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Northflank 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.