Heroku vs Railway: Pricing Comparison 2026
Side-by-side pricing comparison of Heroku and Railway. See all plans, features, and costs at a glance.
Bottom line: Heroku starts at $5/mo and Railway starts at $5/mo. Compare all 6 pricing tiers side by side.
Last updated: March 23, 2026
Railway — Railway offers a more modern experience with transparent usage-based pricing. Choose Heroku only for enterprise compliance requirements or its mature add-on ecosystem.
Heroku vs Railway: Quick Pricing Facts
| Feature | Heroku | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $5/mo | $5/mo |
| Number of Plans | 4 | 2 |
| Free Tier | No | No |
| Pricing Model | usage-based | usage-based |
| Annual Discount | N/A | N/A |
Heroku and Railway are both priced at $5/mo, making them equally accessible Hosting & Infra tools. Together they offer 6 pricing plans with 32 features compared, so the best choice comes down to which features match your needs.
Review the detailed tier-by-tier comparison above to see exactly which features are included at each price point and find the best fit for your Hosting & Infra needs.
| Pricing Plans |  Heroku Try it free |  Railway Try it free |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Hobby $5/monthCheapest Includes
| |
| Tier 2 | Pro $20/month Includes
| |
| Tier 3 | Standard 1xPopular $25/monthCheapest Includes
| — |
| Tier 4 | Performance M $250/monthCheapest Includes
| — |
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What Reviewers Say
Railway
Railway
Railway offers a more modern experience with transparent usage-based pricing. Choose Heroku only for enterprise compliance requirements or its mature add-on ecosystem.
Based on pricing data only. Review the full comparison below for your specific needs.
Best value: Railway
Try Railway freeWhich Should You Choose?
Choose Heroku if:
- •You want the most mature PaaS with 15+ years of production reliability and enterprise security certifications
- •Heroku's add-on marketplace with 200+ managed services (Postgres, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch) is essential
- •Your team relies on buildpack auto-detection for polyglot deployments across multiple languages
- •Enterprise requirements like Private Spaces, Shield compliance, and SOC 2 certification are non-negotiable
Choose Railway if:
- •You want a modern Heroku alternative with transparent, usage-based pricing instead of fixed dyno costs
- •Railway's UI and deployment experience feel more modern — instant project creation, automatic builds, and team features
- •You need managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB) included in the platform without add-on complexity
- •Railway's $5/month Hobby plan with $5 of included usage makes it cheaper than Heroku for small projects
Railway is what Heroku would look like if it were built today. Both are PaaS platforms that deploy applications from Git with managed databases, but their pricing models and developer experience differ significantly. Heroku Basic dynos start at $7/month per process. Standard at $25/month. Managed Postgres starts at $5/month. Each add-on has its own pricing, making total costs hard to predict. Railway uses usage-based pricing. Hobby at $5/month includes $5 of resource usage (compute at $0.000463/vCPU/minute, memory at $0.000231/GB/minute). Pro at $20/user/month includes $10 of usage. This model means you only pay for what you use, making Railway significantly cheaper for small projects and development environments. Railway's developer experience is notably better. Project creation takes seconds, databases provision instantly, and the UI shows real-time logs, metrics, and deployment history in a clean interface. Heroku's dashboard feels dated by comparison, though its CLI and git-based workflow remain solid. For startups and small teams wanting modern PaaS with transparent pricing and a polished UI, Railway is the compelling alternative to Heroku. For enterprises needing Private Spaces, Shield compliance, and a proven track record across millions of deployments, Heroku's maturity still matters.
Frequently Asked Questions: Heroku vs Railway
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Sources
- Heroku Official Pricing— Vendor pricing page
- Railway Official Pricing— Vendor pricing page
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