Overview
Railway deploys services from a Git repository, a Docker image or a marketplace template onto its own hardware in four regions. A project is shown as a canvas of services, databases and volumes connected by private networking, and each service can scale vertically up to the plan maximum and horizontally with replicas.
Billing is usage-based. CPU, memory and volume storage are metered per second, so a stopped service costs nothing, and egress is $0.05/GB. Each plan's fee is also a usage credit: Hobby is $5 including $5 of usage, Pro is $20 per workspace including $20, with unlimited seats. You pay the fee plus anything above the credit.
The Free plan is small ($1 of usage a month, 0.5 GB per service, no custom domains) and exists mainly for trying the product; new accounts start with a one-time $5 trial credit. An optional Serverless mode puts services to sleep after 5 to 10 minutes without outbound traffic.
Databases are templates rather than a managed service: Railway's docs say you are responsible for backups, tuning and maintenance unless you are on Enterprise, so plan for that before storing production data.
Pricing and plans
Free tier · no card
Free plan: $1 of usage credit per month, 1 project, 3 services, up to 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service, no custom domains, 3-day logs. New accounts also get a one-time $5 trial credit for 30 days.
At the limit Pauses Services are stopped when the free credit runs out and are redeployed once it resets, if that is within 30 days.
No backups| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | $1/month usage credit, 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service |
| Hobby | $5/mo | Includes $5 usage; 48 vCPU / 48 GB per service, 5 GB volumes, 7-day logs |
| Pro | $20/mo | Per workspace, includes $20 usage, unlimited seats, 30-day logs, 1 TB volumes |
| Enterprise | Custom | 99.99% SLA, SSO, HIPAA BAA, dedicated VMs |
What it does
- Per-second billing
- CPU at $20 per vCPU-month and memory at $10 per GB-month, charged only while services run.
- Database templates
- One-click PostgreSQL (including an HA cluster), MySQL, Redis and MongoDB, plus any database available as a Docker image.
- Serverless mode
- Idle services sleep after 5 to 10 minutes of no outbound traffic and wake on the next request.
- Region changes
- Move a service between regions without changing domains or private networking; volumes are migrated.
- Replicas
- Up to 6 replicas per service on Hobby and 42 on Pro.
- Agent tooling
- CLI, local and remote MCP servers and agent skills for deploying from coding agents.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Pay only for resources actually used, metered per second.
- Very fast path from repository to running service with databases alongside.
- Pro fee is per workspace with unlimited seats.
- Services can change region without downtime (unless they have a volume).
Limitations
- Database templates are unmanaged: you handle backups, tuning and maintenance outside Enterprise.
- The Hobby fee is charged even when usage is below $5.
- The Free plan allows no custom domains and only 0.5 GB of memory per service.
- Usage-based bills vary with traffic; set usage limits to avoid surprises.
- Only four regions.
Who it suits
Good for
- Side projects and indie apps that fit in $5 of usage
- Prototypes with a database and a few services
- Small teams that want unlimited seats
Look elsewhere if
- Teams that need a fully managed database with guaranteed backups on a small plan
- Workloads that need a fixed, predictable monthly price
Alternatives to Railway
| Tool | From | Free option | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sevalla Managed PaaS | $5/mo | Free tier | |
| Cloudflare Workers (incl. Pages) Edge serverless platform | $5/mo | Free tier | |
| DigitalOcean App Platform Managed PaaS | $5/mo | Free tier | |
| alwaysdata European managed hosting | €5/mo | Free tier | |
| Render Managed PaaS | $7/mo | Free tier | |
| Northflank Kubernetes-based PaaS | $2.70/mo | Free tier |
Questions
Is Railway free?
There is a Free plan with $1 of usage per month and a one-time $5 trial credit for 30 days. Hobby is $5/mo and includes $5 of usage.
How much does Railway charge for CPU and RAM?
$20 per vCPU-month and $10 per GB of RAM per month, metered per second, plus $0.05/GB egress.
Does Railway back up my Postgres database?
Railway's database templates are unmanaged services; its docs say you are responsible for configuring backups and disaster recovery.
Can Railway services sleep when idle?
Yes, with the optional Serverless setting, a service sleeps after 5 to 10 minutes with no outbound traffic and wakes on the next request.
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