Railway vs Fly.io for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Railway Overview

Railway is the modern PaaS that makes deploying full-stack applications feel approachable. Push your code, and Railway's Nixpacks auto-detect your language, build your project, and deploy it. Need a database? Click a button. Need Redis for caching? Another click. Everything lives in one project with connected services.

The UI is where Railway really separates itself. Each project shows a visual graph of services, databases, and their connections. Environment variables flow between services automatically. You can see real-time logs, resource usage, and costs per service. For a solo developer managing an API, database, and worker process, this visual overview prevents the kind of confusion that comes from juggling multiple dashboards.

I deployed a Django backend with PostgreSQL and Redis on Railway in under 10 minutes. No Dockerfile, no build config, no infrastructure setup. Railway detected Django, set up the WSGI server, connected the database URL automatically, and everything worked. That kind of experience is rare.

Fly.io Overview

Fly.io takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of abstracting away infrastructure, Fly.io gives you micro VMs (Firecracker-based) that run your Docker containers on edge servers around the world. Your app doesn't just deploy to one region. It can run in Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Chicago simultaneously.

This global-first architecture makes Fly.io compelling for applications where latency matters. If your users are spread across continents, running app instances close to them eliminates the round-trip to a single data center. Fly.io also supports persistent volumes, built-in Postgres, Redis (through Upstash), and LiteFS for distributed SQLite.

The tradeoff is a steeper learning curve. Fly.io leans heavily on its CLI tool, flyctl. You write a fly.toml config file, manage deployments from the terminal, and troubleshoot with CLI commands. It's not as visual as Railway, but it's powerful once you learn the workflow.

Key Differences

Deployment model. Railway deploys to a single region with auto-scaling containers. Fly.io deploys to multiple global regions with micro VMs. If your users are mostly in one region, Railway's simpler model works great. If you need low latency worldwide, Fly.io's global deployment is the better architecture.

Ease of use. Railway wins on simplicity by a wide margin. The web UI is intuitive, Nixpacks handle builds automatically, and database provisioning is a click away. Fly.io requires CLI proficiency, Docker knowledge, and more configuration. The gap narrows as your project grows, but for getting started, Railway is significantly easier.

Pricing structure. Railway charges $5/month base plus compute and storage usage. Fly.io offers a free tier with 3 shared VMs and then charges per VM, bandwidth, and storage. For simple projects, Fly.io's free tier wins. For projects with databases and multiple services, Railway's bundled pricing is often more predictable.

Database experience. Railway's one-click databases are hard to beat. Postgres, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB deploy inside your project with automatic connection strings. Fly.io offers Postgres through fly postgres and Redis through third-party Upstash integration. Railway's database experience is more integrated and easier to manage.

Global distribution. Fly.io's entire architecture is built for global deployment. You can scale to multiple regions with a single command. Railway deploys to one region. If you're building an app for a global audience, Fly.io gives you infrastructure that Railway simply doesn't offer.

Reliability. Both platforms have had occasional reliability incidents. Fly.io has faced more public outages and community complaints about unexpected downtime. Railway has been more stable in my experience, though they're a smaller platform with less public scrutiny.

When to Choose Railway

• You want the simplest path to deploying a full-stack app
• Your users are concentrated in one geographic region
• You need databases and services managed in one dashboard
• You prefer a visual web UI over CLI-driven workflows
• Predictable pricing matters more than a free tier

When to Choose Fly.io

• Your app needs to run close to users globally
• You want a free tier for hobby projects
• You're comfortable with Docker and CLI-based workflows
• Low latency across multiple continents is a requirement
• You want to use SQLite with LiteFS for distributed reads

The Verdict

For most solo developers, Railway is the better choice. The setup is faster, the UI is cleaner, and the integrated database experience removes an entire category of DevOps work. You push code, Railway handles the rest.

Fly.io is the pick when your application genuinely needs global distribution. If you're building a multiplayer game, a globally-used API, or anything where 50ms of latency matters, Fly.io's edge architecture justifies the extra complexity. But be honest with yourself about whether you actually need that.

My recommendation: start with Railway. If you find yourself needing multi-region deployment later, migrate to Fly.io. Most solo projects never need global distribution, and Railway's simplicity will save you hours of DevOps time you could spend building features.