Hetzner vs Railway: Which One Fits Your Solo Dev Stack?
Free tier limits, real costs for 1-10 users, and honest "not for" warnings. The Solo Dev decision guide for Hetzner vs Railway.
⚡ Quick Verdict
It's a tie! Both tools score 4.6/5. Your choice should depend on your specific workflow and team needs.
💰 Cost by Team Size
| Team Size | Hetzner | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Solo (1 user) | $3.29/mo | $5/mo |
| Small (5 users) | $5.39/mo | $25/mo |
| Growing (10 users) | $15.59/mo | $50/mo |
| Free Tier | ❌ No | ✅ $5 free credits/month. 500 execution hours. 100GB outbound bandwidth. No credit card required. |
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Hetzner | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| CX22 | $3.29/mo | $5/mo |
| CX32 | $5.39/mo | $20/mo |
| CX42 | $15.59/mo | Custom |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Hetzner | Railway |
|---|
Pros & Cons
Hetzner
✅ Pros
- Most cost-effective cloud hosting in the market
- Excellent bare metal and VPS performance
- European data centers (GDPR-friendly)
- Transparent pricing — no hidden costs
❌ Cons
- Mostly EU/US regions (no Asia-Pacific)
- Less managed services than AWS/GCP
- Dashboard is functional but not modern
Railway
✅ Pros
- Deploy anything — Docker, Node, Python, Go, Rust, databases
- One-click PostgreSQL, Redis, MySQL provisioning
- Usage-based pricing — only pay for what you use
- Beautiful dashboard and dead-simple DX
- Built-in private networking between services
❌ Cons
- Free tier is just $5 credit (runs out fast with always-on services)
- No serverless functions (everything is container-based)
- Can get expensive for high-traffic apps
- Limited regions compared to AWS/GCP
- No built-in CDN — need Cloudflare in front
Who Should Use What?
✅ Choose Hetzner if...
- You are a budget-conscious developers
- You are a self-hosted projects
- You are a eu-based companies
🚫 Skip if...
- Teams needing global CDN edge presence
- Users wanting fully managed PaaS
✅ Choose Railway if...
- You are a backend apps, apis, and workers that need always-on compute
- You are a solo devs who want heroku-like simplicity with modern pricing
- You are a quick database provisioning (postgres, redis) alongside apps
🚫 Skip if...
- Static sites or JAMstack (use Vercel or Netlify)
- Enterprise needing multi-region deployments
- Cost-sensitive projects (VPS on Hetzner is cheaper)
🏆 Our Verdict
Both Hetzner (4.6/5) and Railway (4.6/5) are excellent tools in their category. They're evenly matched — your decision should come down to your team's specific workflow and budget requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hetzner better than Railway?
It depends on your needs. Hetzner excels in some areas while Railway has its own strengths. Read our full comparison above to see which tool fits your specific requirements.
How does Hetzner pricing compare to Railway?
Hetzner starts at $3.29/mo, while Railway starts at Free / $5/mo. Both offer different value propositions — check our pricing comparison section for a detailed breakdown.
Can I migrate from Hetzner to Railway?
Yes, most B2B tools offer data import/export features. Railway typically provides migration guides and sometimes even dedicated support for switching from Hetzner.
Which is easier to use, Hetzner or Railway?
Ease of use depends on your team's experience and workflow preferences. We evaluated both tools on usability — see our feature comparison scores above for details.
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