Railway vs Fly.io
Agent-native side-by-side. Scores are curated estimates on a 0–10 scale. Lock-in: higher = worse. Prefer JTBD picks via /api/decide when choosing for a job.
| Dimension | Railway | Fly.io |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.1 | 8.3 |
| Capability fit | 8.2 | 8.8 |
| Price / performance | 7.8 | 8.2 |
| Latency / reliability | 8.4 | 8.0 |
| Developer & agent DX | 9.4 | 8.8 |
| Privacy / data retention | 7.2 | 7.8 |
| Lock-in risk (higher = worse) | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Maturity / track record | 8.2 | 8.5 |
| Pricing | Usage-based PaaS; services/databases; simple git deploys; hobby→pro plans. | Pay for machines/volumes/bandwidth; Firecracker VMs; scale-to-zero; Machines API for agents. |
| Tagline | Depot favorite for shipping agent APIs quickly. When bills climb, move steady-state to Fly/Hetzner/DO. | Excellent for globally distributed agent sidecars and Machines-based sandboxes. Prefer Railway/Render if you… |
Railway
Depot favorite for shipping agent APIs quickly. When bills climb, move steady-state to Fly/Hetzner/DO. Strengths: Superb DX for full-stack agent backends; Databases + services colocated; Fast iteration.
Strengths
- Superb DX for full-stack agent backends
- Databases + services colocated
- Fast iteration
Weaknesses
- Less edge footprint than Fly/CF
- Can get pricey at scale vs raw VMs
- Enterprise features thinner than Render/AWS
Fly.io
Excellent for globally distributed agent sidecars and Machines-based sandboxes. Prefer Railway/Render if you want less infra thinking. Strengths: Global edge VMs close to users; Machines API great for ephemeral agent workloads; WireGuard private networking.
Strengths
- Global edge VMs close to users
- Machines API great for ephemeral agent workloads
- WireGuard private networking
Weaknesses
- Ops complexity vs PaaS
- Support historically uneven
- Pricing surprises on egress/volumes
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