Railway vs Render — free-tier comparison
At a glance
Render: Most generous free tier · Railway: Cheapest paid plan
Railway
PaaS
$5 credit/month, 500 hours execution
Paid from $5/month
- $5 free credit/month
- 500 execution hours
- 1GB RAM per service
- Provisions Postgres, MySQL and Redis in a click
- Deploy from Git, a template or a Dockerfile
- Free usage is a limited monthly credit, not unlimited
Best for
- Full-stack apps and APIs that need a database
- Background workers and cron-style jobs
Render
PaaS
750 hours/month for web services
Paid from $7/month
- Free static sites
- 750 hours/month for web services
- Free managed PostgreSQL (90 days)
- One platform for web services, static sites, databases, workers and cron
- Auto-deploys from Git with free TLS
- Free web services sleep after about 15 minutes of inactivity
Best for
- Full-stack apps and APIs that need an always-deployable server
- Side projects that want a free database to start
The catch?
Railway
- Trial that expires
Render
- Sleeps when idle
Detailed comparison
| Railway | Render | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier & pricing | ||
| Free tier ↑ better | Trial credit | Perpetual (sleeps) ★ |
| Paid from ↓ better | $5/mo ★ | $7/mo |
| Regions ↑ better | 4 regions ★ | 4 regions ★ |
| PaaS | ||
| Included RAM ↑ better | 512 MB ★ | 512 MB ★ |
| Compute hours ↑ better | ~500 hrs (credit) | 750 hrs/mo ★ |
FAQ
Is Railway free?
Railway provides a monthly usage credit rather than an always-free tier. Light or idle services can fit within it, but terms change — check Railway's pricing page.
Can I host a database?
Yes. Postgres, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB can be provisioned as plugins right next to your app.
Why does my free service go to sleep?
Free web services spin down after about 15 minutes of inactivity and cold-start on the next request. Paid instances stay always-on.
Is the database free forever?
Render's free managed PostgreSQL is offered for an initial period, after which it expires. Check current terms on Render's pricing page.