Railway vs Scalingo (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Railway grades higher than Scalingo: 2.6 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Railway grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Railway
App and database hosting billed by the second for usage
Scalingo
European PaaS and managed databases billed by the minute
Which one is for you
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
Pick Scalingo if
- Fits if you want Heroku-style Git deploys and European regions
- Works for small apps that need a managed database
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: prices are in euros, exclude VAT and are on a 30-day basis
- Tight if uptime matters, as the 99.96% SLA is on the Business plan and starter databases are 98%
- Pricey if you add extras: a Docker image download costs €50 and OpenVPN €30 a month, both ex. VAT
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as it has only a 30-day trial
How we grade them
| 2.6GPARailwayGood | 2.2GPAScalingoFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | CA container starts at €7.20 a month and a starter database at €7.20, ex. VAT, in the ordinary range. Dollar prices are not shown. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | C30 days free per the pricing page. The page does not say here whether a card is needed. |
| Features | BUsage billing, templates, volumes, object storage, replicas and regions, and sandboxes. The listing names no core gap. | CGit deploys, managed databases and vector search. Starter databases run on one node with a 98% SLA, a gap, as the 99.96% SLA is on Business. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects, services and databases. | CDeploys follow a Git workflow and databases need setting up, with no store rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iOS and Android, but no desktop app and no integrations listed. | BWeb dashboard with a few integrations. No phone or desktop app. |
| Best for | side projects billed by usage | Git-deployed apps with European hosting |
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: Railway and Scalingo. How we grade
Price against what you get
Railway starts at $5 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Scalingo starts at about $8.04 a month and scores 2.3.
Railway scores higher and starts $3.04 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Railway for less, and 2 score higher than Scalingo 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 AI agents.
At a glance
| Railway | Scalingo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby) | €7.20 per month ex. VAT (smallest container or database) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, no card required. | Free for 30 days, per the pricing page description |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Railway Corp. | Scalingo SAS |
| Price read from | railway.com | scalingo.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Scalingo
- Prices are in euros, exclude VAT and are estimated on a 30-day basis; the page shows no dollar prices.
- Starter databases run on a single node with a 98% SLA; the 99.96% SLA is on the Business plan.
- Extra database storage is charged on top of the storage included in each plan.
- A Docker image download costs €50 and an OpenVPN option €30 per month, both ex. VAT.
Key features
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.
Scalingo
- Git-based deploys
- Connect a Git repository for deploys, with autoscaling on metrics and zero-downtime rolling deploys.
- Managed databases
- Offers PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, caching, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch and InfluxDB, with daily backups and PostgreSQL point-in-time recovery.
- Always-included extras
- Custom domains, Let's Encrypt SSL, metrics, unlimited collaborators and log archives come with every container.
- Sovereign and health regions
- A SecNumCloud region built on Outscale costs 20% more, and HDS plans exist for health data hosting.
- Vector search for AI apps
- Pgvector on PostgreSQL, plus ML and KNN features on OpenSearch, for semantic search and LLM applications.
Plans
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.
Scalingo
Container S€7.20
per month, ex. VAT, 30-day basis
256 MB RAM at low CPU priority. Sizes run to 3XL (8 GB RAM) at €230.40.
Container M€14.40
per month, ex. VAT, 30-day basis
512 MB RAM at standard CPU priority; L (1 GB) is €28.80 and XL (2 GB) is €57.60.
PostgreSQL Starter 512M€7.20
per month, ex. VAT, 30-day basis
512 MB RAM, 10 GB storage and 30 connections on a single node with a 98% SLA.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Railway or Scalingo?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Railway is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against about $8.04 a month for Scalingo. Railway starts at $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby), and Scalingo starts at €7.20 per month ex. VAT (smallest container or database).
Which has a free plan, Railway or Scalingo?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Railway nor Scalingo has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do Railway and Scalingo 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.