Our take
Pick DigitalOcean if app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker. Pick Railway if app teams who will stay on Free $0 during the 30-day $5-credit trial (then $1/month, 1 project, 3 services) while they ship a first GitHub service, then land on
usage-metered deploy desk
Best for
DigitalOcean CPU / memory you chart at a public $
Railway A service you start at $0 / $1
Free plan
DigitalOcean $0 · / month. 3 apps with static sites. 1 GiB transfer / app. GitHub / GitLab deploy. Automatic HTTPS. Extra static-only apps $3 / month
Railway No free plan
Lowest paid
DigitalOcean Paid containers $5
Railway Usage (services) $0.00000386
Next step up
DigitalOcean Add-ons we fetched $25
Railway Sandboxes $0.00001929
Coding agent
DigitalOcean
Railway Sandboxes
Runs where
DigitalOcean Hosted
Railway Local; you host it
Watch out
DigitalOcean Free is static sites only
Railway Free becomes $1/month after the 30-day $5-credit trial
Last checked
DigitalOcean 2026-10-23 · digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform
Railway 2026-10-22 · railway.com/pricing
app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker.
Read the DigitalOcean pageapp teams who will stay on Free $0 during the 30-day $5-credit trial (then $1/month, 1 project, 3 services) while they ship a first GitHub service, then land on Hobby at $5 minimum / month when they need 50 projects and 48 vCPU — or Pro at $20 minimum when they need 100 projects and 30-day logs.
Read the Railway page