Netlify vs Fly.io for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Netlify Overview

Netlify made deploying static sites so simple that it changed how we think about frontend hosting. Connect your GitHub repo, configure a build command, and your site is live on a global CDN. Preview deployments for every pull request, built-in form handling, and serverless functions for light backend work. For static content, the developer experience is excellent.

I've had Netlify projects running for over a year on the free tier without issues. Netlify moved new accounts to a credit-based model in late 2025, so the free plan now hands you a fixed monthly allotment of 300 credits instead of the old 100GB bandwidth and 300 build minutes split. In practice that still covers most idle and low-traffic solo projects, and when a free project runs out of credits it pauses until the next billing cycle rather than charging you. When you need a contact form, Netlify handles it without a separate backend, and form submissions stopped consuming credits on Credit plans as of April 2026. When you need a redirect, you drop a _redirects file and it works. Simple stuff done simply.

The limitations show up when you need more than static hosting. Netlify's serverless functions have cold starts, execution time limits, and no persistent connections. If your project outgrows JAMstack, you'll need to bring in another platform for the backend.

Fly.io Overview

Fly.io takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of hosting static files on a CDN, it runs your application in lightweight VMs (called Machines) distributed across data centers worldwide. You package your app in a Docker container, and Fly deploys it close to your users. Your API can run in Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Chicago simultaneously.

I tested Fly.io for a side project that needed low-latency API responses across different regions. The flyctl CLI is well-designed, and deploying a Dockerfile was straightforward after the initial setup. The free tier gives you enough resources for small projects, though the pricing model takes some getting used to.

Fly.io's learning curve is steeper than managed platforms. You're working with Machines, volumes, internal networking, and a CLI-first workflow. It's not hard, but it's more hands-on than clicking "Deploy" on Netlify. For solo developers who are comfortable with Docker and CLIs, it's powerful. For those who just want a site live, it's overkill.

Key Differences

Deployment model. Netlify deploys static assets to a CDN. Fly.io runs your application in containers at the edge. These are entirely different paradigms. Netlify is for content you build once and serve. Fly.io is for applications that need to run code on every request.

Global distribution. Both serve content globally, but differently. Netlify caches your static output at CDN edges. Fly.io actually runs your backend code at edges. If your API needs to be fast everywhere, Fly.io's approach wins. If you're serving HTML and CSS, Netlify's CDN is more efficient.

Database and storage. Fly.io can run Postgres, Redis, and persistent volumes alongside your app. Netlify has no native database support. For full-stack projects, Fly.io is self-contained. On Netlify, you'd need Supabase, Neon, or another managed database.

Pricing at rest. Netlify's free tier costs nothing for a deployed static site that gets no traffic. Fly.io Machines can be set to auto-stop when idle, but persistent services like databases still accumulate costs. For projects that sit idle between bursts of traffic, Netlify is cheaper.

CLI vs dashboard. Netlify's dashboard is polished and handles most tasks. Fly.io is CLI-first. You'll spend most of your time in the terminal with flyctl. Some developers prefer this. Others find it tedious for simple operations.

Serverless vs persistent. Netlify functions are request-response only. Fly.io runs persistent processes, so you can handle WebSockets, background jobs, and long-lived connections. If you need a real backend, not just API endpoints, Fly.io is the platform.

When to Choose Netlify

• You're deploying a static site, blog, or client-rendered SPA
• Simplicity matters more than infrastructure control
• Built-in form handling replaces the need for a backend
• Your backend exists elsewhere and you only need frontend hosting
• You want zero cost for low-traffic projects

When to Choose Fly.io

• You're running a full-stack app that needs global low-latency
• Your backend needs persistent connections like WebSockets
• You want your API running in multiple regions close to users
• You're comfortable with Docker and CLI-based workflows
• You need co-located databases and application servers

By the Numbers (2026)

Checked on 2026-05-29 against vendor pricing pages, official docs, the GitHub API, and the npm registry.

Netlify

• Plans: Free at $0/mo with 300 credits, Personal at $9/mo with 1,000 credits, Pro at $20/mo with 3,000 credits, plus custom Enterprise.
• Credit conversion on the new credit-based plans: 15 credits per production deploy, 20 credits per GB of bandwidth, 10 credits per GB-hour of compute, 2 credits per 10,000 web requests, and form submissions are free.
• A free project that exhausts its monthly credits enters a paused state and serves a "Site not available" page until the next billing cycle. You cannot buy add-on credits on the free plan.
• CLI: netlify-cli is at v26.0.2 and pulls roughly 235,438 npm downloads in a single week (week of 2026-05-21 to 2026-05-27).
• The netlify/cli repo sits at 1,875 GitHub stars with 125 open issues.

Fly.io

• No flat monthly plan. You pay for what runs. A shared-cpu-1x Machine with 256MB of RAM costs about $0.00000078 per second, which works out to roughly $2.02 per month if left running, and the 1GB variant is about $5.92 per month. A shared-cpu-2x with 2GB is about $11.83 per month.
• Persistent volume storage is $0.15 per GB per month of provisioned capacity. Volume snapshots are $0.08 per GB per month with the first 10GB free.
• Outbound data egress is $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe, $0.04 per GB in Asia Pacific, Oceania, and South America, and $0.12 per GB in Africa and India.
• A dedicated IPv4 address is $2/mo. A stopped Machine still costs $0.15 per GB of rootfs per 30 days.
• CLI: flyctl is at v0.4.57, released 2026-05-27. The superfly/flyctl repo sits at 1,668 GitHub stars with 374 open issues.

Real Cost at Solo-Dev Scale

The two platforms bill on completely different axes, so a like-for-like number only makes sense against a stated workload. Here is the workload I am pricing, and the assumptions behind it.

Assume a small full-stack side project. One always-on API process, a small Postgres-style database on a persistent volume, a couple of deploys a day, and modest traffic of about 50GB of outbound transfer per month from North American and European users.

Netlify path. Netlify cannot run a persistent backend process, so this workload maps to Netlify only for the frontend plus serverless functions, with the database living on a separate provider. Pricing the frontend half on Netlify's credit model: about 60 deploys a month at 15 credits each is 900 credits, 50GB of bandwidth at 20 credits per GB is 1,000 credits, and web requests and light function compute add a few hundred more. That total clears the 300-credit Free allotment and lands inside the Pro plan at $20/mo, which carries 3,000 credits. So the realistic Netlify bill for the frontend is the $20/mo Pro plan, and you still owe a separate database bill elsewhere.

Fly.io path. Fly.io runs the whole thing in one place. One always-on shared-cpu-1x Machine with 1GB of RAM is about $5.92/mo. A second small Machine of the same size for the database process is another $5.92/mo. A 10GB persistent volume for the database is 10 times $0.15, so $1.50/mo. 50GB of North America and Europe egress at $0.02 per GB is $1.00/mo. A dedicated IPv4, if you need one, is $2/mo. That sums to roughly $16.34/mo, and Fly.io's auto-stop feature can trim the compute line if your Machines idle.

The takeaway for a solo dev is not "X is cheaper." It is that Netlify's $20/mo Pro plan only covers the frontend half of a full-stack app and you pay a database provider on top, whereas Fly.io's roughly $16/mo covers the entire app, backend and database included. For a pure static site with low traffic, Netlify's $0 Free plan still wins outright. The crossover point is the moment your project needs a persistent backend process.

The Verdict

Netlify and Fly.io overlap very little in practice. Netlify is a static site platform with serverless extras. Fly.io is an edge application platform for running real backend services globally.

If your project is a frontend that consumes an external API, Netlify is the easier and cheaper choice. The free tier is hard to beat for static content, and the deploy experience is best-in-class.

If you're building something that needs a backend, especially one that should be fast for users in different regions, Fly.io offers capabilities that Netlify simply doesn't have. The tradeoff is more complexity and a steeper learning curve.

For most solo developers, the decision comes down to whether your project needs a persistent backend process. No backend? Netlify. Backend? Look at Fly.io, Railway, or Render depending on how much infrastructure control you want.

Sources

All figures were checked on 2026-05-29.

• Netlify plan tiers and prices (Free $0, Personal $9, Pro $20): netlify.com/pricing
• Netlify credit conversion rates and free-plan pause behavior: Billing FAQ for Credit-based pricing plans, Netlify Docs
• netlify-cli latest version (v26.0.2): registry.npmjs.org/netlify-cli/latest
• netlify-cli weekly npm downloads (235,438 for 2026-05-21 to 2026-05-27): api.npmjs.org last-week point for netlify-cli
• netlify/cli GitHub stars and open issues: github.com/netlify/cli (via api.github.com/repos/netlify/cli)
• Fly.io Machine, volume, egress, IPv4, and stopped-Machine pricing: fly.io/docs/about/pricing
• flyctl latest release (v0.4.57, 2026-05-27): github.com/superfly/flyctl/releases/latest
• superfly/flyctl GitHub stars and open issues: github.com/superfly/flyctl (via api.github.com/repos/superfly/flyctl)