# Fly.io review (2026): is it worth $2.19 a month? > Virtual machines and databases in 18 regions, billed per second Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Fly.io runs apps on fast-booting virtual machines it calls Fly Machines, placed in 18 regions close to users, and sells Managed Postgres, volumes and sandboxes alongside. New organizations pay as they go with no monthly platform fee, and the smallest always-on Machine costs $2.19 per 30 days. - **Category:** Web Hosting - **Made by:** Fly.io - **Website:** https://fly.io - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want a free plan, as the trial is $1 for 7 days. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Fly.io is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $2.19 per month for the smallest Machine, pay as you go. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** New accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days, no card required. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | Read from https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/ on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Fly.io before buying. ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers who want VMs placed in several regions - Apps that stop when idle and want to pay only while running - Teams that prefer a command-line deploy flow ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Fly.io runs virtual machines in 18 regions, billed by the second, from $2.19 a month. There's no free plan, the trial is $1 for 7 days, and the vendor's own example of a small web app with Postgres comes to about $44 a month. - **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. - **Free plan and trial: C.** New accounts get $1 of credit for 7 days with no card. That's a taste, not a plan. - **Features: B.** Machines in 18 regions, launch from a repo, Managed Postgres, volumes, snapshots and free shared IPv4. The listing names no gap in the core job. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. The flow is built around its command line and a Dockerfile. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with GitHub, Slack, Tigris and Upstash and a CLI. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Fly.io's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among web hosts - Fly.io's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 31 of the 54 other web hosts we grade, and level with 13. - It stands best on features (B, above 29 of 54) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $2.19 a month, against a middle price of $9 for the category: 5 of the 52 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/web-hosting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Fly.io you would be making an AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $26.28 a year. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: Databases with views, filters and links between them. - You could not: It plugs into other products, GitHub, Slack and Tigris among them, and has an API. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with GitHub, Slack, Tigris, Upstash **Tags:** Databases, Public API, AI agents ## Alternatives - [Render](https://toolgpa.com/tools/render): Cloud hosting for web services, databases and workers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fly-io-vs-render) - [Railway](https://toolgpa.com/tools/railway): App and database hosting billed by the second for usage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fly-io-vs-railway) - [Koyeb](https://toolgpa.com/tools/koyeb): Serverless platform for apps, APIs and GPU workloads. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fly-io-vs-koyeb) - [DigitalOcean](https://toolgpa.com/tools/digitalocean): Cloud servers, app hosting and managed databases for developers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/digitalocean-vs-fly-io) - [Northflank](https://toolgpa.com/tools/northflank): Container platform for services, jobs, databases and GPUs. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fly-io-vs-northflank) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/ - https://fly.io - https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/ - https://fly.io/docs/about/billing/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/fly-io Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).