Deploy apps close to users on edge infrastructure
Visit WebsiteThe Bottom Line
Entry price
Free plan available, paid tiers above
Biggest pro
Run apps close to users globally
Biggest con
Learning curve for full features
TL;DR - Fly.io
- Fly.io is a platform for deploying applications globally on servers close to users
- It runs Docker containers, databases, and full-stack apps on edge infrastructure
- Free tier available, pay-per-resource after that
What is Fly.io?
Available on: Web
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Run apps close to users globally
- Excellent for containerized apps
- Free allowance included
- Good CLI experience
- Sqlite and Postgres hosting
Cons
- Learning curve for full features
- Pricing model complex
- Support can be slow
- UI less polished
- Debugging remote apps hard
Ratings Across the Web
What people say
“It just works, no frills. You write a dockerfile, you deploy it. and thats it.”via G2
Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more
Key Features
Pricing Plans
Pricing checked Aug 6, 2026
Free
Hobby
- 3 shared VMs
- 3GB storage
- 160GB bandwidth
Pay as you go
$1.94/month
Per shared VM
- 256MB RAM
- Edge deployment
- Auto-scaling
Is Fly.io worth the price?
Fly.io abandoned fixed plans in favor of pure pay-as-you-go, which is transparent but makes cost prediction harder.
The cheapest useful VM (shared-cpu-1x, 256MB) costs $2.02/month, genuinely cheap for a persistent server with global deployment. But costs compound quickly: persistent storage ($0.15/GB-month), dedicated IPv4 ($2/month), bandwidth ($0.02/GB in NA/EU, up to $0.12/GB in Africa/India), and volume snapshots add layers of billing.
A minimal production app (1 VM + 1GB storage + dedicated IP) costs roughly $7-10/month. The legacy free tier (3 shared VMs, 3GB storage) is discontinued for new signups, only a $5 trial credit remains.
For teams, the $29/month Standard support plan is practically required since free support has no SLA.
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Bandwidth is not free and varies wildly by region
$0.02/GB in North America/Europe but $0.12/GB in Africa and India. An app serving 100GB/month to African users costs $12/month in bandwidth alone, 6x the North American rate
Persistent storage (Fly Volumes) at $0.15/GB-month is pricier than cloud block storage (AWS EBS: $0.08/GB). A 50GB database volume costs $7.50/month
Dedicated IPv4 addresses cost $2/month each. Shared IPv4 is free but means your app shares an IP with others, some compliance and email setups require dedicated IPs
Volume snapshots cost $0.08/GB-month after the first 10GB free. A 100GB database with hourly snapshots: ~$7.20/month for snapshot storage
Stopped machines still cost $0.15/GB of rootfs per 30 days. An app with 10 stopped machines (1GB rootfs each) costs $1.50/month even when doing nothing
Fly Kubernetes costs $75/month per cluster on top of all compute and volume charges. This is a significant fixed cost for teams that need K8s compatibility
Support tiers are a hidden operational cost
Standard ($29/month), Premium ($199/month), Enterprise ($2,500/month). Free support offers no guaranteed response time
Cross-region data transfer ($0.006-$0.05/GB depending on regions) adds up for apps that replicate data across regions for latency optimization
SSL certificates for custom domains
single hostname $0.10/month (first 10 free), wildcard $1/month. A multi-tenant SaaS with 50 custom domains: $4/month for certs
How Fly.io Compares to Competitors
Railway (Hobby $5/month with $5 credit, Pro $20/month with $20 credit) offers a simpler developer experience with Git-push deploys and automatic database provisioning. Railway is easier to start with but less flexible for multi-region deployment, Fly.io deploys to 30+ regions natively. For a single-region app, Railway is often cheaper and simpler.
Render (free tier with 750 hours, Professional from $7/service/month) provides a more traditional PaaS experience with managed PostgreSQL, automatic deploys from Git, and predictable per-service pricing. Render is better for teams that want Heroku-like simplicity without the Heroku price tag. Fly.io wins on multi-region edge deployment and fine-grained machine control.
Heroku (Eco $5/month for 1,000 dyno-hours, Basic $7/month, Standard $25/month) is the legacy option. Basic dynos at $7/month are 3.5x the cost of Fly.io shared VMs ($2/month) for comparable specs. Heroku charges separately for add-ons (Postgres $5-2,000/month, Redis $15+/month). For new projects, Fly.io or Railway offer better value than Heroku at every tier.
Reviews
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Fly.io FAQ
How does Fly.io help applications achieve global presence?
Which teams would benefit most from using Fly.io?
How is Fly.io's pricing structured?
Can Fly.io host databases alongside applications?
What kind of trade-offs should users consider when choosing Fly.io?
How does Fly.io compare to Cloudflare Workers for application deployment?
Source: fly.io