Railway
Runs servers, workers and databases from a repo or Docker image, billed by the second.
- Price
- Hobby $5/month with $5 of usage included; Pro $20/month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Setup
- A little code
- Up and running
- About 30 minutes for a Node or Python API with a database.
What Railway is for
Some apps need a server that stays on all the time: an API, a queue worker, a database. Railway runs all of that from your GitHub repository in one project, without you setting up a machine. You pay for the memory and CPU actually used, measured by the second.
How it plugs into your product
- 1Sign up and start with the trial ($5 of credit for up to 30 days).
- 2Create a project from the GitHub repository and add Postgres or Redis with one click.
- 3Set the environment variables and generate a public domain for the service.
- 4Move to Hobby ($5/month) before launch and set a usage limit so a bug can't run up the bill.
Does it fit your idea?
It fits if
- A SaaS with a Node or Python back end, a queue worker and Postgres, all in one place.
- A bot or automation (WhatsApp, Discord, scraping) that needs to run 24 hours a day.
- An early product with little traffic, where paying only for what runs costs less than a fixed server.
Look elsewhere if
- Your users are in South America, Africa or Australia and every millisecond counts, since there is no region near them.
- You need to know the exact bill in advance for a fixed monthly budget.
- You only have a static site or a Next.js front end, which Cloudflare or Vercel host for less.
What people only find out after building
Read this before you build on it. Each item links to the official page that says so.
There is no permanent free server. The trial is a one-time $5 for up to 30 days; after that the free plan gives $1 of usage a month, with 0.5 GB of RAM per service.
Official source: docs.railway.comRailway deletes the volumes (saved data) of trial accounts 30 days after the credits expire. If your database lives there, upgrade or back it up first.
Official source: docs.railway.comRegions are only in the US, Amsterdam and Singapore. Users in places like South America or Australia reach a faraway server on every request.
Official source: docs.railway.comUsage past the plan is billed on top. A hard limit stops your services when reached, but the lowest you can set is $10, and hitting it takes the app offline.
Official source: docs.railway.com
Price
Hobby $5/month with $5 of usage included; Pro $20/month
$5 trial credit for 30 days, then a free plan with $1 of usage a month.
- Free tier
- $1 of usage/month (after $5 trial)
- First paid plan
- Hobby: $5/month with $5 of usage
- Best for
- Node, Python, Docker, Postgres, Redis
Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing
What it costs in practice
API using 0.5 GB of RAM all month ($5) + 0.1 vCPU on average ($2) + Postgres with 0.25 GB of RAM ($2.50) and a 1 GB volume ($0.15) + 20 GB of egress ($1) ≈ $10.65 of usage. On Hobby ($5 with $5 included) the bill is about $10.65/month. Estimate.
Estimate from the official price. Check it before you decide.
At a glance
- Free plan: yes
- Open source: no
“Not stated” means the official site doesn’t say.
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