Railway vs Sliplane (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Railway grades higher than Sliplane: 2.6 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
Railway grades higher on value for money, the free plan and features. They get the same grade on 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
Sliplane
Docker container hosting on European servers, priced per server
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 Sliplane if
- Fits if you run Docker containers and want several services on one server
- Works for small teams that deploy from GitHub
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want shared PHP hosting, as it is built around containers
- Tight if you want to try it, as the demo server is deleted after 48 hours
- Pricey if you need a database, as managed PostgreSQL starts at €19 a month with no free tier
- Watch out: prices are in euros ex. VAT and a busy app may need a bigger tier
How we grade them
| 2.6GPARailwayGood | 2.0GPASliplaneFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CStarter is €9 a month per server ex. VAT, in the ordinary range, and managed PostgreSQL adds €19 a month. |
| 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. | DA demo server is removed after 48 hours unless you add a payment method, shorter than a week. |
| Features | BUsage billing, templates, volumes, object storage, replicas and regions, and sandboxes. The listing names no core gap. | CPush to deploy, unlimited services per server, backups, SSL and a REST API. Built around containers, not shared PHP hosting. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects, services and databases. | CYou pick server sizes and deploy containers, which has a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iOS and Android, but no desktop app and no integrations listed. | BWeb dashboard with a REST API and several integrations. |
| Best for | side projects billed by usage | container hosting billed per server |
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 Sliplane. 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. Sliplane starts at about $10.05 a month and scores 2.3.
Railway scores higher and starts $5.05 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Railway for less, and 3 score higher than Sliplane 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 | Sliplane | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby) | €9 per server / month (Starter), excluding VAT |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, no card required. | A free demo server, deleted automatically after 48 hours unless you add a payment method and turn it into a paid server. |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Railway Corp. | Sliplane |
| Price read from | railway.com | sliplane.io |
| 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.
Sliplane
- Prices are in euros and exclude VAT; yearly billing is labeled 33% cheaper and hourly billing costs more than monthly, but those figures are not in the page text.
- Servers are billed by size, so a busy app may need a larger tier; custom configurations require a minimum commitment.
- Managed PostgreSQL starts at €19 a month with no free tier, and object storage costs €5 per extra 250 GB.
- The service is built around containers; the site describes deploying from GitHub or Docker images rather than shared PHP hosting.
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.
Sliplane
- Push to deploy
- Connect a GitHub repository or a container registry; Sliplane detects the framework, builds, and deploys with zero-downtime releases.
- Unlimited services per server
- Each server runs as many services as fit on it at no extra charge, so the bill follows servers, not apps.
- One-click presets
- Presets cover popular software such as n8n, Open WebUI, Grafana, Metabase and several databases.
- Backups and SSL
- Daily volume backups, free SSL certificates and free Sliplane subdomains for public services are listed as always included.
- Managed PostgreSQL and object storage
- PostgreSQL with point-in-time backups starts at €19 a month, and S3-compatible storage is billed in 250 GB blocks with the first GB free.
- REST API
- Servers and services can be provisioned and deployed programmatically with a personal access token.
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.
Sliplane
Starter€9
per server / month, billed monthly, excluding VAT
1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM and 20 GB storage on a shared-CPU server. Unlimited services, collaborators and free egress are included.
Base€17.80
per server / month, billed monthly, excluding VAT
2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 20 GB storage. Larger tiers run to 16 vCPU and 32 GB RAM at €224 a month.
Medium€28.80
per server / month, billed monthly, excluding VAT
3 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 20 GB storage. Extra NVMe storage is sold separately, from €5 a month for 50 GB.
Large€45
per server / month, billed monthly, excluding VAT
4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 20 GB storage.
Ways to pay less
Railway
No public discounts listed.
Sliplane
- Annual discount
Yearly billing labeled 33% off
The App Runtime billing toggle marks yearly billing as 33% cheaper than hourly and monthly as 20% cheaper than hourly; yearly prices are not shown in the page text.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Railway or Sliplane?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Railway is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against about $10.05 a month for Sliplane. Railway starts at $5 minimum usage per month (Hobby), and Sliplane starts at €9 per server / month (Starter), excluding VAT.
Which has a free plan, Railway or Sliplane?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Railway nor Sliplane has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do Railway and Sliplane 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.