Railway
Railway is a developer platform for deploying, hosting, and managing web apps and databases with minimal configuration. · Railway · Hosting
Changed in May 2025: Railway introduced a recurring Free plan ($1 of credit per month) alongside its existing one-time trial credit.
Overview
Railway offers a simple platform for deploying and managing web apps and databases, ideal for rapid prototyping and small-scale production use.
Good fit
Use Railway to quickly deploy web apps or APIs without managing infrastructure, especially for prototypes, demos, or small production workloads.
- prototyping
- hackathons
- side-projects
- student projects
Not a fit
Avoid if you need persistent custom domains on the free tier, require advanced networking, or need more than the Free plan's $1 of credit per month — upgrading means paying the Hobby plan's flat $5 monthly fee.
- high-traffic production
- custom domain required
- complex networking
Quickstart · 5 steps
- Sign up at railway.app with your GitHub account.
- Create a new project and connect your GitHub repository.
- Configure environment variables if needed.
- Deploy your app with one click or via CLI.
- Access your app's live URL and monitor logs.