Railway Hobby vs Vercel Hobby

Prices checked

Two subscriptions at the same step of their ladders, which is the only honest way to hold a tier beside a tier: neither price buys a runtime of a stated size, and both meter the compute on top. Vercel Hobby takes 2 of 4 rounds against Railway Hobby. It is also the cheaper of the two, at free against $5/mo.

Railway

Hobby

compute metered · always on · Subscription

$5/mo

$60 a year

VercelWins 2 rounds

Hobby

compute metered · always on · Subscription

free

$0 a year

Monthly price (lower wins)

$5/mo

free

Price per GB of RAM (lower wins)

no size to divide by

no size to divide by

Memory

no size, the compute is metered

no size, the compute is metered

vCPU

not published

not published

Transfer included (more included is better)

none · metered per GB

100 GB

Build minutes included (more included is better)

not published

not published

Stops when idle (staying on wins)

always on

always on

Members covered (more members covered is better)

1 seat

1 seat

What the invoice adds

  • A gigabyte of transfer$0.05 per GB vs not published
  • Transfer includednone vs 100 GB
  • Build minutes includednot published vs not published
  • A year at this price$60 vs $0

Railway, then Vercel, at the published rates; a rate nobody publishes is not a rate of zero.

Go further

Add a third or fourth plan, or change the weighting, in the tool.

Frequently asked

Which is cheaper, Railway Hobby or Vercel Hobby?
Vercel Hobby, at free against $5/mo, both excluding tax and read on 1 Nov 2026. Over a year that is $0 against $60, before anything either platform meters on top.
Which gives you more memory?
Neither states a size: both are subscriptions with the compute metered on top, so the memory row is blank for each.
Does either one stop when the app is idle?
Railway Hobby: always on. Vercel Hobby: always on.
What does the monthly price leave out?
Railway Hobby: transfer none included and $0.05 per GB beyond it, builds not published, disk not published, 1 seat. Vercel Hobby: transfer 100 GB included and not published beyond it, builds not published, disk not published, 1 seat.

Every price is one month in the provider's own currency converted to dollars, read 1 Nov 2026 from each provider's own page, excluding tax. Transfer, build minutes, disks and members are metered on top wherever a platform says so, and none of those rates is folded into the figures above. Bars are scaled to the larger value in each row.

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