Hosting and cloud · Comparison
Fly.io vs Render vs Railway vs Heroku
Four platforms that run your backend from Git or a container without you managing servers. They differ in free options, how they bill and how much control they give you.
4 options · 8 questions side by side · updated
| Compare | Fly.io | Render | Railway | Heroku |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deploys from | Docker image, via flyctl | Git or a Docker image | Git, a Docker image or a template | Git, with buildpacks |
| Free option | Short trial only | Free services that sleep | 30-day trial, then $1 of credit a month | None |
| Billing | Per second, by machine size | Fixed instance sizes | Per second, by actual usage | Per dyno, monthly |
| Entry price | About $2 a month per small machine | About $7 a month per instance | $5 a month minimum (Hobby) | $5 Eco hours or $7 Basic dyno |
| Databases | Managed Postgres | Postgres and Key Value | Postgres, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB | Postgres and add-ons |
| Regions | Many, several at once | A handful | Several | US and Europe |
| Control | High: machines, volumes, networking | Medium | Medium | Low, simple by design |
| Watch out for | More operations work | Free tier sleeps and expires | Bills follow load | Few new features since 2026 |
How to choose between Fly.io, Render, Railway and Heroku
- Pick Fly.io for apps that should run close to users in several regions, if you like hands-on control.
- Pick Render for a Heroku-like experience with predictable instance prices.
- Pick Railway for a quick path from repository to running app, billed by real usage.
- Keep Heroku for existing apps that run well; new projects usually start elsewhere.
The options
- Fly.ioA platform that runs your app's Docker image as small virtual machines in cities around the world, close to your users, billed by the second.
- RenderA cloud platform that runs web services, background workers, cron jobs, static sites and managed databases from a Git repository, with little setup.
- RailwayAn app platform that deploys code, Docker images and databases from a visual project canvas, charging for the CPU and memory your services actually use.
- HerokuOne of the first platforms as a service, where a git push turns code into a running web app. It is owned by Salesforce and no longer has a free tier.
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