The closest feel to early Heroku with modern pricing: deploy a repo or Docker image, add Postgres, MySQL or Redis in a click, and pay per second of CPU and memory, but costs float with usage and the free plan is a 30-day trial followed by a very small allowance.
What it is
Railway builds and deploys services from a GitHub repo, a Dockerfile or a Docker image, and runs databases, background workers, cron jobs and volumes in the same project, with private networking, replicas and multiple regions. Plans: Free $0 starts with a 30-day trial with $5 of credit, then $1 of usage a month with up to 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB of RAM per service and 0.5 GB of volume storage; Hobby has a $5 monthly minimum that includes $5 of usage (up to 48 vCPU and 48 GB RAM per service, 5 GB storage, one developer); Pro has a $20 minimum that includes $20 of usage, with unlimited workspace seats and up to 1 TB of storage. Usage is billed per second: about $20 per vCPU-month and $10 per GB of RAM a month, volumes about $0.15 per GB-month, and egress $0.05 per GB. Checked on railway.com November 13, 2026.
Best for
- Heroku users who want git deploys plus one-click databases
- Side projects and small apps that idle most of the time
- Teams that prefer paying for actual CPU and memory over fixed instances
What we like
- Deploys from a repo, Dockerfile or image, with Postgres, MySQL and Redis a click away
- Per-second usage billing: a small app that mostly idles can stay within the included credit
- Pro includes unlimited workspace seats
What to watch
- Bills float with usage, so a busy month costs more and needs usage limits set
- The free plan is a 30-day trial, then only $1 of usage a month with 0.5 GB of RAM per service
- Egress is $0.05 per GB, more than Fly.io's $0.02 in North America and Europe
- Smaller add-on ecosystem than Heroku's marketplace
Where Railway ranks
Alternatives and head-to-heads
Netlify
Cloudflare Workers
Render
Work at Railway? Claim the listing and put this badge on your site.Claim Railway