Railway
The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.
Deploys services and databases from a repository with almost no configuration: it infers the build, provisions the dependencies, wires the networking and bills by what actually runs.
Set me up so a new service and its database are one command on my own server.
STACK
- Docker Compose as the unit of a project, one directory per environment
- Caddy in front with automatic TLS, Postgres and Redis as containers
- A deploy script over SSH that pulls, builds and rolls
PROJECT LAYOUT
- environments/{production,staging}/compose.yml plus an env file that is never committed
- A template command that scaffolds a new service with health check, limits and logging already set
NETWORKING
- Services reachable by name on an internal network; only Caddy is published
- Postgres and Redis never exposed to the host's public interface
DEPLOY
- Build, start the new container, wait for its health check, then swap the Caddy upstream and stop the old one
- Keep the previous image tagged so a rollback is one command
DATA
- Named volumes for Postgres and Redis, backed up nightly with pg_dump plus a volume snapshot to S3-compatible storage
- Restore script included, and a note that it has to be tested
ENVIRONMENTS
- Staging is the same compose file with a different env file and its own database
- Never share a database between environments; the README should say why
COST
- Record CPU and memory per service weekly, so the machine can be sized honestly
Include a README with the scaffold command, the rollback command and the backup schedule.What you lose
- Provisioning a database, a queue and a service in one screen with networking already wired
- Usage-based pricing that costs nothing while a side project is idle
- Environments per branch, each with their own variables and data
- Metrics, logs and deploy history without configuring anything
- Migration between regions and machine sizes as a setting rather than a project
If you would rather not build
- Fly.io — paid, closest for multi-region deploys
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Dokploy
$0Docker and Compose deployments with a web UI, on your own machine.
Dokploy/dokployfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
24/100
Verdict no at 24: Compose plus a deploy script gets you most of the ergonomics, and the prompt is specific about health checks and rollbacks. What does not survive is scale-to-zero pricing — a side project on your own VPS costs the same asleep as awake.
History
tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Railway
answered from the record above
Is Railway free?
No — the plan we track is $20 a month. Pro at $20 per seat per month with usage billed on top; the Hobby plan is $5/month including some usage credit.
Can you replace Railway by building your own?
KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 24 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Railway cost?
$20 a month on Pro — $240 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Railway?
Provisioning a database, a queue and a service in one screen with networking already wired; Usage-based pricing that costs nothing while a side project is idle; Environments per branch, each with their own variables and data; Metrics, logs and deploy history without configuring anything; Migration between regions and machine sizes as a setting rather than a project. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Railway?
Yes: Coolify, Dokploy. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
Related entries
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