Where should I deploy my app?

Pricing, features, and honest recommendations for the top platforms

Feature Comparison

Scroll to compare all platforms side by side.

Feature	Render	Railway	Fly.io	Vercel
Starting price	Free, then $7/mo	$5/mo + usage	Pay as you go	Free, Pro $20/mo
Free tier	✓ With limits	$5 trial (once)	✗ $5 credits only	✓ Personal use
Database	✓ PostgreSQL	✓ PG + Redis	✗ Not included	✗ Not included
Auto-scaling	✓ Available	✓ Usage-based	✓ Global	✓ Automatic
Deploy speed	⚡ Fast	⚡ Fast	⚡⚡ Very fast	⚡⚡ Very fast
Best for	Any stack, MVPs	Full-stack, startups	Global apps	Frontend

Render

Free → $7/mo

Simple and predictable pricing

Best for: first deploy, hobby projects, MVPs, any stack

Generous free tier
Automatic SSL and built-in CDN
PostgreSQL included
Clean, easy dashboard
Free tier spins down (slow cold starts)
Fewer regions than AWS/GCP

Try Render Free → No credit card required

Railway

From $5/mo

Modern Heroku alternative at a fraction of the price

Best for: full-stack apps, startups, anyone paying too much for Heroku

PostgreSQL and Redis included
Hobby plan includes $5/mo in usage credits
Excellent developer experience
Fast GitHub auto-deploys
No permanent free tier after trial
Can get expensive at scale

Try Railway → $5 one-time trial credit

Fly.io

Pay as you go

Global edge deployment

Best for: global apps, WebSockets, real-time, Docker-first teams

Deploy to 30+ regions worldwide
Low latency for global users
Full Docker support
Great for WebSockets
No free tier ($5 in trial credits only)
Steeper learning curve
Requires more DevOps knowledge

Try Fly.io → $5 in trial credits for new accounts

Vercel

Free → $20/mo

Frontend-focused platform

Best for: Next.js, React, static sites, frontend teams

Perfect for Next.js apps
Automatic PR preview deployments
Global CDN and edge functions
Zero-config deployments
Free tier is personal use only (any revenue requires Pro)
No persistent server processes (serverless only)
Bandwidth costs add up

Deploy on Vercel → Free for personal projects

Heroku

No new features

Battle-tested reliability, now frozen

Status: Salesforce froze all new feature development in early 2026 and closed enterprise contracts to new customers. Standard pay-as-you-go plans still work, but there is no future roadmap.

Battle-tested reliability
Massive add-on ecosystem
Existing apps will continue to run
No new features being developed
No new enterprise contracts
Long-term sunset risk
Most expensive option

Heroku.com → Moving off Heroku? Railway is the most common landing spot.

Self-Hosted VPS

More setup than a managed platform, but significantly cheaper at scale. Worth it once you have some DevOps comfort and want more control over your costs.

Feature	DigitalOcean	Linode (Akamai)
Starting price	$6/mo	$5/mo
New account credit	$200 (60 days)	$100 (60 days)
Managed databases	✓ PG, MySQL, Redis	✓ PG, MySQL, Redis
Regions	15+	11+
Documentation	⭐⭐⭐ Excellent	⭐⭐ Good
Best for	First VPS, moving off a managed platform	Cost-conscious teams

DigitalOcean

From $6/mo

The friendliest VPS for developers

Best for: teams moving off a managed platform, first VPS, anyone who wants great docs

$200 credit for new accounts
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis
Excellent documentation and tutorials
Simple, predictable pricing
More setup than a managed platform
No auto-deploy from Git out of the box

Try DigitalOcean → $200 free credit for new accounts

Linode (Akamai Cloud)

From $5/mo

Solid, no-frills VPS since 2003

Best for: cost-conscious teams, a second quote before committing to DigitalOcean

Slightly cheaper entry price
$100 credit for new accounts
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis
Backed by Akamai's global network
Smaller community than DigitalOcean
Less polished UI and documentation

Try Linode → $100 free credit for new accounts

For Engineering Teams

Most apps never need this. But once you have compliance requirements, dedicated infrastructure engineers, or workloads a managed platform can't handle, the big three are the common answer. The differences between them are real enough that companies hire architects specifically to make this call.

Feature	AWS	GCP	Azure
Market share	#1	#3	#2
ML / AI	SageMaker	⭐ Vertex AI, TPUs	Azure ML
Kubernetes	EKS	⭐ GKE (invented it)	AKS
Data / Analytics	Redshift	⭐ BigQuery	Synapse
Microsoft ecosystem	✗	✗	⭐ Native
Compliance certs	Most (SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP)	Fewer	Many
Best for	General default	AI/ML, data, K8s	Enterprise, Microsoft shops

AWS

Pay as you go

The safe default

Best for: teams without a strong reason to go elsewhere, compliance-heavy industries, broad hiring pool

Largest service catalog by far
Most compliance certifications (SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP)
Deepest talent pool
#1 market share
Pricing is hard to predict
Console can feel overwhelming

GCP

Pay as you go

Making up serious ground on AWS

Best for: AI/ML workloads, data pipelines, teams that run Kubernetes

GKE is the best managed Kubernetes (Google invented it)
BigQuery is the strongest data warehouse of the three
Vertex AI gives you Google's own ML infrastructure
Often cheaper compute than AWS
Smaller service catalog than AWS
Fewer compliance certifications

Azure

Pay as you go

Dominates enterprise and government

Best for: Microsoft shops, enterprise sales, government contracts

Native integration with Active Directory, Office 365, .NET
Strong compliance and government certifications
Often wins when procurement makes the call
Less exciting for greenfield web apps
Weaker developer experience than AWS or GCP