# Render vs Railway vs Fly.io (2026): Pricing, Free Tiers and Which to Pick

Render vs Railway vs Fly.io in 2026: free tiers, always-on prices, Postgres costs and billing models side by side, with every price checked on 6 Nov 2026.

URL: https://blog.dockhosting.dev/render-vs-railway-vs-flyio
Published: 2026-10-25 · Updated: 2026-11-06 · Author: Doughmi ILYAS

## Summary

- Render is per-service pricing (always-on from $7); Railway and Fly.io bill for the resources you use.
- Only Render still has free web services, and its free Postgres expires after 30 days; Fly.io has a 7-day trial, Railway $1 of credit a month.
- Pick Render for a Heroku-like workflow, Railway for usage-based simplicity, Fly.io for multi-region apps.

ort const meta = {
  title: "Render vs Railway vs Fly.io (2026): Pricing, Free Tiers and Which to Pick",
  seoTitle: "Render vs Railway vs Fly.io (2026): Pricing & Free Tiers",
  description:
    "Render vs Railway vs Fly.io in 2026: free tiers, always-on prices, Postgres costs and billing models side by side, with every price checked on 6 Nov 2026.",
  date: "2026-10-25",
  updated: "2026-11-06",
  sources: [
    "https://render.com/pricing",
    "https://render.com/docs/free",
    "https://railway.com/pricing",
    "https://docs.railway.com/pricing/plans",
    "https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing",
    "https://docs.fly.io/mpg",
  ],
  category: "Comparisons",
  tags: ["Render", "Railway", "Fly.io", "PaaS", "Comparison"],
  stack: ["render", "railway", "flyio"],
  tryLabel: "app",
  command: "dock deploy",
  takeaways: [
    "Render is per-service pricing (always-on from $7); Railway and Fly.io bill for the resources you use.",
    "Only Render still has free web services, and its free Postgres expires after 30 days; Fly.io has a 7-day trial, Railway $1 of credit a month.",
    "Pick Render for a Heroku-like workflow, Railway for usage-based simplicity, Fly.io for multi-region apps.",
  ],
  faq: [
    {
      q: "Which is cheapest: Render, Railway or Fly.io?",
      a: "For one small always-on service, Fly.io's shared-cpu-1x VMs start lowest ($2.19/month for 256 MB, $3.69 for 512 MB). Railway's Hobby plan is $5/month including $5 of usage. Render's Starter instance is $7/month. Postgres changes the picture: Render from $6, Fly.io Managed Postgres from $38, Railway billed by usage.",
    },
    {
      q: "Do Render, Railway or Fly.io have a free tier in 2026?",
      a: "Render has free web services that spin down after 15 minutes idle and a free Postgres that expires after 30 days. Railway has a one-time $5 trial, then a Free plan with $1 of credit per month. Fly.io has no free tier for new organizations, only a 7-day trial with $1 of credit.",
    },
    {
      q: "Is there an alternative with a free database that doesn't expire?",
      a: "Yes. DockHosting's Free plan includes one managed PostgreSQL database (500 MB) that doesn't pause or expire, plus an app on a .dockhosting.cloud subdomain. Always-on apps start at $4/month.",
    },
  ],
};

Render, Railway and Fly.io are the three names that come up most when developers leave Heroku. All three deploy from Git and run containers, but they **charge in very different ways**, and that matters more than any feature list.

> **Sources:** Prices are from each vendor's own page, read on **6 November 2026**: [Render pricing](https://render.com/pricing), [Render free tier](https://render.com/docs/free), [Railway pricing](https://railway.com/pricing), [Railway plans](https://docs.railway.com/pricing/plans), [Fly.io pricing](https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing) and [Fly.io Managed Postgres](https://docs.fly.io/mpg). USD per month. Check again before you buy.

## At a glance

| | Render | Railway | Fly.io |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Billing model** | Per service, fixed size | Usage (RAM + CPU used) | Usage (VM size × time) |
| **Free tier** | Free web services (sleep after 15 min) | $1 credit / month after a $5 trial | 7-day trial, $1 credit |
| **Cheapest always-on** | Starter, $7 (512 MB) | Hobby, $5 incl. $5 usage | ~$2.19 (256 MB) |
| **Postgres from** | $6 (free tier expires after 30 days) | Usage-based | $38 (Managed Postgres) |
| **Best for** | Heroku-style teams | Simple usage billing | Multi-region apps |

## Render: predictable, per-service pricing

Render feels the most like Heroku. Each web service, worker, cron job and database has a fixed size and a fixed price.

- **Free:** 512 MB / 0.1 CPU web services that spin down after **15 minutes** without traffic, with 750 instance hours per workspace per month. Free Postgres has 1 GB of storage and **expires 30 days after creation**, followed by a 14-day grace period.
- **Paid:** Starter at $7 (512 MB, 0.5 CPU), then Standard at $25 (2 GB, 1 CPU). Postgres starts at $6.
- **2026 change:** workspace plans were restructured in April 2026. Pro is now $25 flat, with $0.15/GB bandwidth overage.

**Pick Render if** you want each service to have a known monthly cost and a familiar Heroku-like dashboard.

## Railway: pay for what you use

Railway bills for the memory and CPU your services actually consume, about $10 per GB of RAM and $20 per vCPU per month, with a $5 Hobby plan that includes $5 of usage.

- **Free:** a one-time $5 trial (30 days), then a Free plan with $1 of credit per month (0.5 GB RAM).
- **Databases:** Postgres, MySQL and Redis run as regular services at the same resource rates.
- **Watch out:** usage billing is efficient for quiet apps but less predictable when traffic spikes, so watch your usage.

**Pick Railway if** you like a fast, visual workflow and want to pay for exact usage.

## Fly.io: your app, everywhere

Fly.io runs apps as lightweight VMs in data centers around the world, so you can put compute next to your users.

- **Free:** none for new organizations, only a 7-day trial with $1 of credit. The old Hobby plan ended in October 2024.
- **Compute:** shared-cpu-1x from $2.19/month (256 MB), $3.69 (512 MB) or $6.70 (1 GB).
- **Postgres:** Managed Postgres starts at $38/month, with high availability, backups and pooling included.

**Pick Fly.io if** latency matters and you want to run in several regions.

## A fourth option: flat pricing with a free database

If what you want is **one predictable price and a database that doesn't expire**, [DockHosting](https://dockhosting.dev/pricing) (that's us) takes a different approach:

| | Free | Hobby | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $4 | $9 |
| Memory (shared by your apps) | 512 MB | 1 GB | 3 GB |
| Projects / databases | 2 / 1 | 3 / 2 | 10 / 6 |
| Always on | Sleeps after 1 h idle | Yes | Yes |
| Free Postgres expiry | Never | Never | Never |

No bandwidth metering, deploys with `dock deploy` or from GitHub, and managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis and ClickHouse on a private network. The trade-off: one region (eu-central-1).

## The short version

- **Predictable per-service bills:** Render
- **Usage-based and visual:** Railway
- **Global, multi-region:** Fly.io
- **Flat price, free database that stays:** DockHosting

For the wider picture, including Heroku, Northflank, DigitalOcean and Koyeb, read [the 7 best Heroku alternatives in 2026](/best-heroku-alternatives-2026).

**Related:** [Railway app alternatives](/railway-alternatives) · [Render free Postgres expired?](/render-free-postgres-expired) · [Free backend hosting compared](/free-backend-hosting)

## FAQ

### Which is cheapest: Render, Railway or Fly.io?

For one small always-on service, Fly.io's shared-cpu-1x VMs start lowest ($2.19/month for 256 MB, $3.69 for 512 MB). Railway's Hobby plan is $5/month including $5 of usage. Render's Starter instance is $7/month. Postgres changes the picture: Render from $6, Fly.io Managed Postgres from $38, Railway billed by usage.

### Do Render, Railway or Fly.io have a free tier in 2026?

Render has free web services that spin down after 15 minutes idle and a free Postgres that expires after 30 days. Railway has a one-time $5 trial, then a Free plan with $1 of credit per month. Fly.io has no free tier for new organizations, only a 7-day trial with $1 of credit.

### Is there an alternative with a free database that doesn't expire?

Yes. DockHosting's Free plan includes one managed PostgreSQL database (500 MB) that doesn't pause or expire, plus an app on a .dockhosting.cloud subdomain. Always-on apps start at $4/month.