Railway vs Fly.io
Both bill compute by the second. The difference is reach and workflow: Fly.io runs your app as VMs in 17 regions from a CLI, Railway gives you a dashboard, four regions and Postgres in one click.
Pick Fly.io if your users are spread across continents, you want managed Postgres with HA from the first plan, or cheaper egress in the US and Europe. Stay on Railway if you prefer a dashboard to a CLI, want PR environments built in, or need Postgres for less than $38 a month.
Side by side
Railway vs Fly.io at a glance
| Railway | Fly.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Plan + per-second usage | Per second while a Machine runs; no platform fee |
| Cheapest always-on service | Hobby $5/mo, includes $5 of usage | $2.19/mo (shared CPU, 256 MB) |
| Free option | 30-day trial ($5 credit), then $1/mo of usage | Trial only: 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days |
| Postgres | One-click template on a volume; backups, PITR (about 4 weeks) and HA available | Managed Postgres from $38/mo with HA, backups (10 days) and PITR included |
| Persistent storage | Yes: $0.15/GB-month | Volumes $0.15/GB-month |
| Egress | $0.05/GB | $0.02/GB in North America and Europe, $0.04 in Asia Pacific, $0.12 in Africa and India |
| Regions | 4: California, Virginia, Amsterdam, Singapore | 17 (Managed Postgres in 13) |
| Scale to zero | Optional: sleeps 5 to 10 min after the last outbound traffic | Autostop and autostart, on by default with fly launch |
| How you deploy | Git push from the dashboard, Railpack or Dockerfile | fly deploy from the CLI; Git deploys through GitHub Actions |
| Preview environments | Yes: an environment per pull request | Not built in; scripted with GitHub Actions |
| Paid support | Pro: direct help, usually within 72 hours | Standard plan from $29/mo |
Sources: Fly.io pricing · Fly.io pricing docs · Fly Managed Postgres · Fly.io regions · Railway pricing · Railway plans · Railway backups · Railway regions. Checked October 22, 2026.
Where Fly.io wins
Seventeen regions
Fly.io runs Machines in 17 regions, from Johannesburg to São Paulo to Tokyo, against Railway's four. If latency to users outside the US and Western Europe matters, this is the main reason to move.
Postgres with HA from the first plan
Every Managed Postgres plan, including the $38 Basic one, has a primary and a replica, automated backups kept 10 days and point-in-time restore.
Cheaper egress where most traffic is
$0.02/GB in North America and Europe against Railway's $0.05/GB. For an API that sends a lot of data this can outweigh everything else on the bill.
Where Railway still wins
A dashboard, not a CLI
Railway deploys on git push and shows every service, database and variable on one canvas, with PR environments created for you. On Fly.io you work through flyctl and fly.toml, and Git-based deploys go through GitHub Actions.
A cheaper first database
A small Postgres on Railway costs the usage it consumes. On Fly.io managed Postgres starts at $38 a month. Note too that in July 2026 Fly.io said it is focusing the company on Sprites, its sandboxes for AI agents.
Moving from Railway to Fly.io
- Rotate first: copy no secret from Railway as-is. Issue new database passwords and API keys and put only the new values on the new host.
- Run
fly launchin the repo; it writes a Dockerfile andfly.toml. Set secrets withfly secrets set. - Create a Managed Postgres cluster in the region next to your app and restore a
pg_dumpfrom Railway into it. - Add a GitHub Actions workflow with a deploy token so pushes deploy, then switch DNS and delete the Railway services.
Common questions
Railway vs Fly.io: common questions
Is Fly.io cheaper than Railway?
For compute it can be: the smallest Fly.io Machine is $2.19 a month and egress in North America and Europe is $0.02/GB against Railway's $0.05/GB. For the database it is usually not: Fly Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month, while a small Postgres on Railway costs only the usage it consumes.
Does Fly.io have a free tier?
No. New Fly.io accounts get a trial of 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days, whichever comes first, and then pay for usage. Railway has a 30-day trial with $5 of credit, then a Free plan with $1 of usage a month.
Can I deploy to Fly.io on git push like Railway?
Not from the dashboard. Fly.io deploys with fly deploy from the CLI; for deploys on push you add a GitHub Actions workflow that runs flyctl deploy with an API token.