Netlify vs Railway.
Prices checked
Railway is cheaper on 1 of the 2 shapes both sell, the widest gap hobby tier at $5/mo against $9/mo, checked .
Where to start
Netlifyall 3 prices →It builds your site, serves it from a network of its own and runs your functions beside it.
Starts at
$9/mo
Personal
Railwayall 2 prices →It takes your code or an image and runs a container of it for you.
Starts at
$5/mo
Hobby
Side by side
| Fact | Netlify | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Kind of platform | Frontend cloud | App platform |
| Prices published | 3 | 2 |
| Entry price | $9/mo | $5/mo |
| Cheaper of the two | 0 of 2 | 1 of 2 |
| Free tier | Free, always on | none listed |
| Transfer per GB | not published | 5¢ per GB |
| One build minute | not published | not published |
| One extra member | not published | not published |
| A GB of disk a month | not published | 1.5¢ per GB a month |
Every shape both sell
2 shapes, sizes first, smallest first. Monthly prices.
| Shape | Netlify | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby tier | $9Personal1 seatalways on | $5Hobby1 seatalways on |
| Pro tier | $20Prono seat feealways on | $20Prono seat feealways on |
How we count
Railway is cheaper on 1 of the 2 shapes both sell, Netlify on 0, and 1 are level or have a free tier on one side. Netlify builds your site, serves it from a network of its own and runs your functions beside it; Railway takes your code or an image and runs a container of it for you. The two catalogues overlap without matching.
A shape is a runtime with the same stated memory at both, smallest first, or a subscription at the same step of both ladders. A seat and a gigabyte are never put in the same row.
Where one side of a row costs nothing, neither is marked as the cheaper: free is a limit rather than a price. What each platform meters on top is listed beside the prices and never folded into them, and a rate that is not published is not a rate of zero.
Frequently asked
- Is Netlify cheaper than Railway?
- On the 2 shapes both sell, Netlify is cheaper on 0, Railway on 1, and 1 are level or have a free tier on one side. Prices exclude tax and were read on 29 Sept 2026.
- What is the difference between Netlify and Railway?
- Netlify: It builds the site, serves the static half from its own network and runs the dynamic half as functions beside it. There is no instance to size, so what the price buys is an account with allowances attached, and the compute is metered on top of it. Railway: You push a repository or an image and the platform builds it, runs it and keeps it running. There is no operating system to look after and no root, which is the point: the container is replaced rather than repaired. What you size is memory and a share of a processor.
- Does Netlify or Railway stop your app when nothing calls it?
- Netlify: its free tier stays on. Railway: it lists no free tier.
- What does each one charge on top of the plan price?
- Netlify: transfer not published, builds not published, members not published. Railway: transfer 5¢ per GB, builds not published, members not published. A rate that is not published is not a rate of zero, and none of these is folded into the monthly figures above.
- How current are these prices?
- Both catalogues are read every day. Netlify was last read 29 Sept 2026 and Railway 29 Sept 2026; the whole index was refreshed 29 Sept 2026. Prices exclude tax, and a tier that costs nothing is listed here and is the cheaper of two nowhere.
Platform pages