Head-to-head, indicative as of Oct 2026. Prices change — always confirm on the vendor page.
Quick read: pick Railway if your workload is databases + apps in one place, fast deploy and its included egress fits your traffic shape; pick Hetzner Cloud if you need maximum hardware per dollar, self-managed. For anything latency-sensitive at the edge, cold start row is the tiebreaker.
| Railway | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | App platform | VPS / cloud |
| Free tier | $5 trial credit | None |
| Paid pricing (indicative) | Usage-based, ~$5/mo hobby min | From ~€4/mo (best price-perf in EU/US) |
| Egress | Included in usage | 20TB included on most plans |
| Cold start | N/A (persistent) | N/A (always-on) |
| Regions | Multi-region | EU + US + Singapore |
| Best for | Databases + apps in one place, fast deploy | Maximum hardware per dollar, self-managed |
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Last reviewed 2026-10-02 · NinjaOps SEO grid · DevOps blog