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Railway, Render and Fly.io all let you try them for nothing, and all three draw the line in a different place. Railway gives a small monthly credit, Render gives free instances that sleep and a database that expires, and Fly.io gives new accounts a short trial instead of a free tier.
This post compares what each free offer includes as of 2026-10-27, from each provider’s pricing page and docs, and what the first paid month costs once a project needs to stay up.
TL;DR
- Railway has a Free plan with $1 of credit a month, plus a one-time $5 trial for up to 30 days. A dollar covers about 100 MB of memory held all month, so most apps that stay up move to Hobby at $5 a month.
- Render has free web services that spin down after 15 minutes without traffic, 750 free instance hours a month, and a free 1 GB Postgres that expires 30 days after you create it.
- Fly.io has no free tier for new organizations. New accounts get a trial of up to 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days, whichever comes first.
- Ownkube has no free tier on Compute. Pay as you go starts with a $5 top-up, and unused credit never expires.
- For anything that has to stay up all month, compare the first paid month instead. With a database, that is about $9 on Ownkube, about $13 on Render and about $18 on Railway Hobby.
The free tiers at a glance
| Platform | Free offer | Main limit | What happens at the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Railway | $1 of credit a month, plus a one-time $5 trial | $1 a month, and 0.5 GB of memory per service | Upgrade to Hobby at $5 a month |
| Render | Free web services, Postgres and Key Value | Web services sleep after 15 idle minutes, Postgres expires after 30 days | Services suspend when the 750 hours run out |
| Fly.io | Trial only for new organizations | 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days | Add a card and pay for usage |
| Vercel | Hobby plan | Non-commercial projects only | Upgrade to Pro at $20 per seat |
| Netlify | Free plan with 300 credits a month | Hard limit | Every site pauses until credits return |
| Heroku | None | Eco dyno is $5 a month | n/a |
| Ownkube | None | Pay as you go from a $5 top-up | Apps pause with data kept until you top up |
Does Railway have a free tier?
Yes, in two parts.
The trial is a one-time $5 credit that lasts up to 30 days or until you spend it. Trial projects are limited to 1 GB of RAM, a shared vCPU and 5 services per project. Railway checks your GitHub account to decide whether a trial gets full or limited network access.
The Free plan follows the trial and gives $1 of credit a month, which does not carry over. Each service is capped at 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB of RAM, a 0.5 GB volume, 1 GB of ephemeral storage and one replica.
The dollar is the binding limit. Railway bills memory at about $10 per GB a month, so $1 covers roughly 100 MB of memory held for a whole month, before any CPU. A small Node or Python API usually holds more than that, so the Free plan suits a cron job or a service that runs a few times a day better than an always-on app.
The first paid step is Hobby at $5 a month, which includes $5 of usage. A small API often fits inside it. See Railway pricing explained for how the meter works.
Does Render have a free tier?
Yes, for web services, Postgres and Key Value, each with its own catch.
Free web services spin down after 15 minutes without traffic, and the next request waits about a minute while the service starts again. Each workspace gets 750 free instance hours a month, with no rollover, and free services suspend when the hours run out. A 31-day month has 744 hours, so the allowance covers one service awake around the clock. Free services run a single instance with an ephemeral filesystem, and outbound mail ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked.
Free Postgres is one database per workspace, with 1 GB of storage and no backups. It expires 30 days after you create it, with a 14-day grace period to upgrade before the data goes.
Free Key Value is one instance, held in memory only, so its data does not survive a restart.
That makes Render’s free tier good for demos and previews and a poor fit for anything you want to keep. The first paid step is a $7 web service (0.5 CPU, 512 MB) and a $6 Postgres, so about $13 a month plus storage. See Render pricing explained.
Does Fly.io have a free tier?
No, not for new organizations. Fly.io’s docs say new organizations get no free tier or monthly free usage allowance. Organizations on plans discontinued in October 2024 keep their old allowances, which is why older posts still describe one.
New accounts get a trial of up to 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days, whichever comes first, and you can start it without a card.
After that, Fly.io bills per second with no plan fee. The smallest Machine (shared-cpu-1x with 256 MB) is $2.19 a month, and outbound traffic is $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe. A database is where the bill jumps: Managed Postgres starts at $38 a month plus $0.28 per GB. See Fly.io pricing explained.
Which free tier is best?
It depends on what you are building.
| If you want | Best free option |
|---|---|
| A demo that can sleep between visits | Render |
| A scheduled job or a tiny service | Railway Free plan |
| A frontend or static site | Vercel Hobby (non-commercial) or Netlify Free |
| A full app with a database for a week of testing | Railway’s $5 trial |
| An app that stays up all month with data you keep | None of them. Compare the first paid month |
Every free offer here stops short of a small production app that stays up with its database. Render’s database expires, Railway’s dollar runs out, and Fly.io’s trial ends within a week.
For a frontend on Vercel’s Hobby plan, Is Vercel free? covers the commercial-use rule and what happens at the limits.
What does the first paid month cost?
Here is the smallest setup on each platform that keeps a web app and a Postgres database up all month.
| Platform | Web app | Postgres | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Railway | Hobby plan, includes $5 of usage | Metered service, inside the same usage | about $5 to $18, depending on usage |
| Render | $7 (0.5 CPU, 512 MB) | $6 plus storage | about $13 |
| Fly.io | $2.19 (shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB) | Managed Postgres from $38 | about $40 |
| Ownkube | $5 (Spark 1: 0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GiB) | $4 (DB 0.5) plus $0.25 per GB | about $9 |
Railway’s range comes from its meter: a quiet API with a small database can fit inside the $5 of included usage, and an app with its own Postgres usually lands around $18. Fly.io’s total is higher because of the database. Without Managed Postgres, you can run Postgres yourself on a Machine and a volume, and own the backups.
How does Ownkube compare?
Ownkube has no free tier on Compute. Pay as you go starts with a $5 top-up, and Personal ($5 a month) and Team ($20 a month) load the same amount of credit each month.
Unused credit rolls over and never expires. A project that costs $3 one month leaves $2 for the next, where Railway’s included usage resets each cycle. When the balance runs out, apps pause with their data kept until you top up, so the bill can never run past what you loaded.
Web apps can sleep after 1 to 60 idle minutes, which you set per app. A sleeping app meters no CPU or memory, and the next request wakes it. Databases run on flat boxes with storage at $0.25 per GB and 7-day backups on Personal and Team, so the data does not expire.
Apps run in the Germany and Mumbai regions and get an *.ownkube.app hostname. Custom domains come with Personal and Team.
FAQ
Does Railway have a free tier in 2026?
Yes. A one-time $5 trial for up to 30 days, then a Free plan with $1 of credit a month and small per-service limits. Most always-on apps need Hobby at $5 a month.
Is Render’s free tier good for production?
It suits demos. Free web services sleep after 15 minutes without traffic and take about a minute to wake, and free Postgres expires 30 days after creation with no backups.
Does Fly.io still have a free tier?
Not for new organizations. New accounts get a trial of up to 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days. Organizations on plans discontinued in October 2024 keep their old allowances.
Does Heroku have a free tier?
No. The cheapest option is the Eco dyno at $5 a month, which sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Does Ownkube have a free tier?
No. Pay as you go starts with a $5 top-up, and the credit never expires.
What is the cheapest way to keep an app and a database up all month?
On list prices, Railway Hobby for a very quiet app, then Ownkube at about $9 and Render at about $13. Our cheapest way to host a web app with Postgres comparison prices a larger stack on seven platforms.
Where Ownkube fits
Free tiers are good for trying a platform. When a project needs to stay up with data you keep, the cheapest option that holds up is a small paid setup with a bill that cannot surprise you. On Ownkube that is a $5 box and a $4 database, from a wallet where unused credit carries over. Deploy my first app.