Railway vs Hetzner for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Railway Overview

Railway is a managed platform that handles the infrastructure so you don't have to. Push your code, Railway builds it, deploys it, and keeps it running. Need a database? Click to add Postgres or Redis. Need environment variables? Set them in the dashboard and they're injected into your service. The visual canvas showing your services and their connections is genuinely useful for understanding your stack.

I reach for Railway when I want something running fast without infrastructure work. A Django backend with Postgres and Redis deploys in under 10 minutes. The usage-based pricing keeps costs low for small projects. And the developer experience, from the dashboard to the CLI to the deploy logs, is polished.

Railway's usage-based model means a small backend running 24/7 costs roughly $5-10/month. Add Postgres and you're looking at $7-12/month total. Reasonable, but it adds up as you add more services.

Hetzner Overview

Hetzner is where you go when you want the most server for the least money. Their VPS pricing is legendary in the developer community. A server with 2 vCPUs, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD, and 20TB bandwidth costs around EUR 5/month. The same specs on AWS would cost 4-5x more. The hardware is solid, the network is fast, and the uptime has been reliable in my experience.

I run production services on Hetzner and the value is hard to argue with. For the price of a Railway backend, you get an entire server that can run your frontend, backend, database, Redis, and a monitoring stack all at once. The catch is that you're setting everything up yourself.

Hetzner is bare infrastructure. You get a Linux VM with an IP address. Everything else, from Docker to Nginx to SSL to deploy pipelines, is your responsibility. If you enjoy that kind of work, it's satisfying. If you don't, it's a time sink.

Key Differences

Managed vs manual. Railway manages your infrastructure completely. Deploys, networking, service health, and scaling are handled for you. Hetzner gives you a server and nothing else. You install the OS, configure the firewall, set up the web server, manage SSL, and build your own deployment process. The gap in operational overhead is significant.

Cost efficiency. This is where Hetzner shines. For EUR 5/month, you get resources that would cost $15-25/month on Railway. A Hetzner VPS with 4GB RAM can run multiple services simultaneously. On Railway, each service consumes its own resources and generates its own cost. For multi-service stacks, the cost difference is dramatic.

Time investment. Railway saves you hours of setup time. A new project goes from zero to production in minutes. Hetzner's initial setup takes hours, including server hardening, Docker configuration, SSL, and deploy automation. After the initial setup, ongoing maintenance still takes time. Security updates, monitoring, and troubleshooting are your responsibility.

Multi-project hosting. On Railway, each project has isolated resources and its own bill. On Hetzner, you can run 5-10 small projects on a single VPS. For solo developers with multiple side projects, Hetzner is significantly cheaper because you consolidate everything on one machine.

Reliability and uptime. Railway handles failover, health checks, and zero-downtime deploys automatically. On Hetzner, if your VPS goes down, your services go down until you fix them. You can set up monitoring and alerting, but the responsibility is yours. Railway's managed reliability is worth something, especially for projects with users depending on uptime.

Scaling. Railway can scale your services by adjusting resource limits in the dashboard. Hetzner requires you to resize the VPS (which involves brief downtime) or set up a more complex architecture with multiple servers. Railway's scaling is more convenient. Hetzner's scaling requires more planning.

Location and latency. Hetzner has data centers in Germany, Finland, and the US (Ashburn). Railway runs on GCP infrastructure with more region options. If your users are primarily in the US, Railway offers better regional coverage. If your users are in Europe, Hetzner's network is fast and well-connected.

When to Choose Railway

• You want to deploy fast without managing servers
• Your time is more valuable than the cost difference
• You need a quick staging environment or prototype
• Managed infrastructure, deploys, and health checks matter to you
• You're building a single project, not hosting a portfolio of side projects

When to Choose Hetzner

• You want maximum performance and storage per dollar spent
• You're comfortable with Linux server administration
• You're hosting multiple projects and want to consolidate costs
• 20TB bandwidth included matters for your traffic levels
• You want full control over your infrastructure and security

The Verdict

This comes down to what you value more. Time or money.

Railway saves time. You deploy in minutes, never manage a server, and pay a premium for the convenience. For solo developers in the early stages of a project who need to validate an idea quickly, Railway's speed is worth the higher cost.

Hetzner saves money. You spend time upfront setting up infrastructure, but the ongoing cost is a fraction of managed platforms. For solo developers with established projects who want to optimize costs, moving to Hetzner makes financial sense.

A pattern I see often in the solo developer community: start on Railway for speed, then migrate to Hetzner when costs start mattering. Railway for prototyping and validation. Hetzner for production when you know the project has legs. That's a pragmatic approach that uses each platform where it excels.

If you go the Hetzner route, pair it with Coolify or Kamal to get a deployment experience closer to Railway's. You won't match Railway's polish, but you'll get Git-based deploys and a dashboard on top of Hetzner's excellent hardware value.