Railway vs Coolify
Railway is a managed cloud platform that deploys apps, databases and cron jobs from GitHub or Docker and bills by the second for CPU, memory, storage and egress. Coolify is an open source platform you host on your own server to deploy apps and databases, with a paid Cloud option for the control plane. Choose Railway if you want zero server management, and Coolify if you want lower cost and control and are comfortable running your own infrastructure.
Facts checked on against the official sources listed at the end. Usage numbers update daily.
Best for
Teams wanting managed deployment with usage-based billing and no servers to run
Free plan. Paid from $5 a month for Hobby, including $5 of usage.
Best for
Teams wanting to deploy to their own servers at a flat, low cost
Free plan. Paid from $5 a month for Coolify Cloud, connecting up to 2 servers.
Railway vs Coolify at a glance
| Compared on | Railway | Coolify |
|---|---|---|
| Where apps run | On infrastructure Railway runs itself | On servers you provide and manage |
| Billing basis | Per second for CPU, memory, storage and egress | Your own server cost; Cloud charges by connected server |
| Server management | None | Yours, including updates and backups |
| Databases | PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB | 280+ supported services including databases |
| Source availability | Closed | Open, so you can inspect and self-host |
| Resource ceilings | Per-service limits by plan, up to 2.4 TB RAM on Enterprise | Limited by your own hardware |
| Open source | No, Proprietary | Yes, Apache-2.0 |
| Free plan | Yes: a 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, then a free plan with $1 of credit a month (0.5 GB RAM and 1 vCPU per service) | Yes: self-hosting Coolify on your own infrastructure is free forever with full access to all features |
| Paid plans from | $5 a month for Hobby, including $5 of usage | $5 a month for Coolify Cloud, connecting up to 2 servers |
| Made by | Railway Corp. | Coolify (open source project) |
| Launched | 2020 | Not listed |
What's the difference between Railway and Coolify?
Who runs the servers
Railway runs the infrastructure and you pay for what your services use. With Coolify you rent or own servers and Coolify orchestrates deployments on them.
Cost curve
Railway usage is billed at $20 per vCPU, $10 per GB RAM and $0.05 per GB egress per month, so cost tracks consumption. Coolify's cost is mostly your server bill, which can be cheaper for steady workloads but needs your time.
Operational responsibility
Railway takes on scaling and uptime. On Coolify, backups, security patches and capacity are yours.
Positioning
Coolify presents itself as an alternative to managed platforms such as Vercel, Heroku, Netlify and Railway.
Railway vs Coolify pricing
Railway charges a monthly subscription that counts toward usage. Coolify is free to self-host, with a $5 a month Cloud option.
Railway
Free is a 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, then $1 of credit a month. Hobby is $5 a month with $5 of usage and Pro is $20 a month with $20 of usage. Enterprise is custom.
- Free
- $0
- Hobby
- $5 a month
- Pro
- $20 a month
- Enterprise
- Custom
Coolify
Self-hosting is free with all features. Coolify Cloud starts at $5 a month for up to 2 servers, plus $3 a month per extra server, with 20% off annual billing.
- Self-hosted
- $0
- Coolify Cloud
- $5 a month
Prices in USD from the official pricing pages on 5 October 2026. They change often, so confirm on railway.com and coolify.io before you commit.
Usage and activity
Coolify has 101 times as many GitHub stars as Railway (63k against 621). Releases on GitHub in the last 90 days: 10 for Railway and 10 for Coolify.
| Measure | Railway | Coolify |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 621 | 63,031 |
| npm downloads a week | 415k (@railway/cli) | Not on npm |
| Latest release | v5.69.0, 1 day ago | v4.4.6, 1 week ago |
| Releases in 90 days | 10 | 10 |
From the public GitHub and npm APIs, updated daily. Stars and downloads show developer interest, not product quality.
Should you choose Railway or Coolify?
Choose Railway if
- You want to deploy from GitHub with no server administration
- Your usage is spiky and per-second billing suits you
- You need managed databases next to your apps
- You want vendor-run reliability
Choose Coolify if
- You already have or want to rent your own servers
- You want to avoid usage-based billing
- You want open source tooling you can inspect
- You can handle updates, backups and security
Switching between Railway and Coolify
Both deploy from Git or Docker, so applications move easily. The work is in data and operations: exporting databases from Railway, provisioning a server, installing Coolify, recreating environment variables and domains, and setting up backups yourself. Moving the other way means adopting Railway's billing and giving up your own server.
Railway vs Coolify: common questions
Is Coolify free?
Self-hosting is free forever with full features. Coolify Cloud is optional from $5 a month.
Does Railway have a free plan?
It has a 30-day trial with a one-time $5 credit, then a free plan with $1 of credit a month.
Which is cheaper?
For steady workloads, self-hosting Coolify on your own server is often cheaper, but you pay in time. Railway costs track usage.
Do I need to manage servers on Coolify?
Yes, you provide and maintain the servers it deploys to.
Is Railway open source?
No, it is a proprietary managed platform.
Other options to consider
All hosting toolsCloudflare Workers
Serverless functions that run on Cloudflare's global network, billed by CPU time.
Cloudflare Pages
JAMstack hosting platform with Git integration and unlimited bandwidth, deployed on Cloudflare's edge network.
Vercel
Cloud platform for deploying web apps and frameworks like Next.js, with preview URLs and serverless functions.
Dokploy
Open source, self-hostable platform as a service for deploying apps and databases with Docker.
Sources
More sources for each tool are on the Railway and Coolify pages.
Related comparisons
RendervsRailway
Render deploys apps and managed databases from a Git repository, charging a workspace plan fee (free Hobby or $25-a-month Pro) plus usage-based compute, bandwidth and storage on top.
VercelvsRailway
Vercel is built by the Next.js team around frontend frameworks and serverless functions, pricing Pro at $20 a month per deploying seat with usage credit included.