App hosting and PaaS

Fly.io vs Render

Fly.io runs Docker images as per-second-billed VMs in 18 regions with no free allowance; Render offers fixed-price instances in five regions, a free Hobby workspace and cheaper managed Postgres.

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The short answer

Fly.io has no plans: a shared-cpu-1x machine with 256 MB lists $1.94 a month in Ashburn, extra RAM is $5 per GB, other regions cost up to 1.6 times more, and new organizations need a card and get no free allowance. Render pairs a workspace plan (Hobby free, Pro $25) with fixed instances from $7 for 512 MB, and offers free static sites and free web services that sleep when idle.

Fly.io suits apps that need to be close to users: 18 regions across six continents, Anycast routing, and egress at $0.02/GB in North America and Europe. Render has five regions, a service’s region cannot be changed later, and bandwidth beyond 5 GB (Hobby) or 25 GB (Pro) costs $0.15/GB.

Databases shift the sums. Fly.io’s Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month; Render’s starts at $6. Fly.io also expects more hands-on work with machines, volumes and fly.toml, where Render gives you ready service types and Blueprints.

Choose Fly.io if

You need to serve users from several regions with low latency
Your app fits a small machine from $1.94 a month and you are comfortable with Docker and a CLI
You want to start a VM per user or per job through the Machines API

Choose Render if

You want a free tier to try things without a card
You need a cheap managed Postgres, from $6 a month
You want workers, cron jobs and databases as service types rather than VMs to configure

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Side by side

	Fly.io	Render
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Global VM platform	Managed PaaS
From	From $1.94/mo (shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB, Ashburn)	Starter instance from $7/mo
Free tier	None	Hobby workspace: free static sites, free web services (512 MB, 0.1 CPU) that spin down after 15 minutes idle within 750 instance hours a month, one free Postgres (1 GB, expires after 30 days) and one free 25 MB Key Value; 5 GB bandwidth, 25 services max.
Runs	Any Docker/OCI image	Node, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, Elixir, any Docker image
Free tier sleeps?	Machines can auto-stop when idle (optional)	Free web services sleep after 15 min; paid never
Managed DBs	Managed Postgres	Postgres, Key Value (Redis-compatible)
Regions	18 (NA, EU, APAC, South America, Africa)	5: Oregon, Ohio, Virginia, Frankfurt, Singapore
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
EU data residency	Available	Available
Compliance	HIPAA	SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	Cheapest entry compute among managed platforms, from $1.94/month. 18 regions across six continents with simple multi-region deploys. Low egress prices in North America and Europe ($0.02/GB). Machines API allows per-user or per-request VMs.	Fixed instance prices make monthly compute cost easy to predict. Workers, cron jobs, databases and web services on one private network. Flat workspace pricing with unlimited members from $25/mo. Frankfurt region for EU data residency.
Limitations	No free tier for new accounts, and a credit card is required. Managed Postgres starts at $38/month. Managed Postgres does not yet handle security patches and version upgrades, per Fly's docs. More hands-on than Render or Railway: regions, volumes and machine sizes are yours to manage.	Free web services sleep after 15 minutes idle and take about a minute to wake. Free Postgres databases expire after 30 days and have no backups. Only 5 GB of bandwidth is included on Hobby and 25 GB on Pro; more costs $0.15/GB. A service's region cannot be changed after creation, and private networks do not span regions.

Sources: Fly.io pricing, Render pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

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Plans

Fly.io

shared-cpu-1x 256 MB Ashburn price; other regions up to 1.6x	$1.94/mo
shared-cpu-4x 1 GB Extra RAM $5 per GB-month	$7.78/mo
performance-1x 2 GB Dedicated CPU	$31/mo
Managed Postgres Basic shared-2x, 1 GB, HA and backups; storage $0.28/GB	$38/mo
Support Standard 36-hour first response	$29/mo
HIPAA package BAA pre-signed	$99/mo

Render

Hobby workspace 1 member, 25 services, 5 GB bandwidth, 2 custom domains	$0/mo + compute
Pro workspace Unlimited members, 25 GB bandwidth, autoscaling, full-stack previews, SOC 2/ISO reports	$25/mo + compute
Scale workspace 1 TB bandwidth, SAML SSO, SCIM, HIPAA workspaces	$499/mo + compute
Enterprise Uptime SLAs, technical account manager	Custom
Starter instance 512 MB RAM, 0.5 CPU	$7/mo
Standard instance 2 GB RAM, 1 CPU	$25/mo
Postgres Basic-256mb 0.1 CPU, 256 MB, storage $0.30/GB	$6/mo

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