Netlify vs Railway (2026)
Pricing, features and who each one is for, checked against both vendors' pricing pages in November 2026.
Quick verdict: Both are hosting & deploy, so this is a direct choice. Railway is cheaper to start (from $5/mo). Pick Netlify for hosting for AI-built apps and sites, cheap and free AI coding tools, professional developers. Pick Railway for hosting for AI-built apps and sites, professional developers.
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Side by side
| Netlify | Railway | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Web app deploy platform | App and database hosting |
| Made by | Netlify | Railway |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Starts at | From $9/mo | From $5/mo |
| Plans | Free $0 (300 credits/mo); Personal from $9/mo; Pro from $20/mo with unlimited members; Enterprise custom | Free trial with $5 credits, then $1/mo; Hobby $5 minimum usage; Pro $20 minimum usage; billed per second for CPU, memory and storage |
| Open source | No | No |
| Runs in | Web, CLI | Web, CLI |
Netlify strengths
- Free plan with hard limits, no surprise bills
- Deploy straight from Claude, Codex or Cursor
- Unlimited deploy previews
Railway strengths
- Usage-based, no overprovisioning
- Deploy any open-source database
- Sandboxes for agents and untrusted code
Netlify drawbacks
- Credit-based metering takes getting used to
- Projects pause when credits run out
Railway drawbacks
- Bills vary with usage
- Free plan is very limited after the trial