Our take
Pick Encore if backend teams who will stay on Starter $0 (2 Encore Cloud envs, 1M traces, Discord) while they Call API on a first urlshortener, then start the 14-day Pro trial and land on $49/member + $99/env + $2.50/resource when they need AWS/GCP and preview environments. 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
Best for
Encore A backend you start at $0
Railway A service you start at $0 / $1
Free plan
Encore $0 · email only. Local development with automated infra (no Terraform/YAML). 2 free Encore Cloud dev environments. 1M tracing events/month, 7-day retention. CI/CD and automated testing. Discord community support
Railway No free plan
Lowest paid
Encore Not published by the vendor
Railway Usage (services) $0.00000386
Next step up
Encore
Railway Sandboxes $0.00001929
Coding agent
Encore
Railway Sandboxes
Runs where
Encore Local; you host it
Railway Local; you host it
Watch out
Encore Starter is 2 Encore Cloud envs and 1M traces
Railway Free becomes $1/month after the 30-day $5-credit trial
Last checked
Encore 2026-10-22 · encore.dev/pricing
Railway 2026-10-22 · railway.com/pricing
backend teams who will stay on Starter $0 (2 Encore Cloud envs, 1M traces, Discord) while they Call API on a first urlshortener, then start the 14-day Pro trial and land on $49/member + $99/env + $2.50/resource when they need AWS/GCP and preview environments.
Read the Encore 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