Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head
Fly.io vs Render
Render
Cloud & Infrastructure
A modern cloud platform for the next generation
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Fly.io egress is priced by destination region, from $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe to $0.12 per GB for Africa and India, so the same traffic costs six times more depending on where users are; Render the free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth
- They diverge on capability: Fly.io covers Global deployment, Render covers Web services.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Fly.io and Render actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (usage-based), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud & Infrastructure).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Fly.io
- Global deployment
- Docker support
- Postgres databases
- Redis support
- Auto-scaling
- Health checks
- Backups
- Monitoring
Only in Render
- Web services
- Static sites
- Background workers
- Postgres database
- Redis database
- Scheduled jobs
- Environment variables
- Custom domains
Both cover
- Docker
- GitHub
- HTTPS
- Automatic SSL
- Cloud deployment
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Fly.io
- Deploying containerised applications close to users across regionsnot Render
- Running full stack apps and databases on managed machinesnot Render
Render
- Deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a Git repository without managing serversnot Fly.io
- Running managed Postgres and Redis alongside application servicesnot Fly.io
- Preview environments per pull request for small teamsnot Fly.io
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Fly.io
- Egress is priced by destination region, from $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe to $0.12 per GB for Africa and India, so the same traffic costs six times more depending on where users are
- Stopped machines still bill at $0.15 per GB of root filesystem a month, so a paused service is not a free one
- Volumes are billed on provisioned capacity rather than usage, at $0.15 per GB a month
- Reservation discounts of 40% require paying a year up front, from $36 to $1,440
- Fly Kubernetes is a separate $75 a month per cluster
- Dedicated IPv4 addresses are $2 a month each
Render
- The free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth
- Every paid plan charges the workspace fee plus compute on top, so $25 per month for Pro is a floor rather than a total
- SAML SSO and SCIM require the Scale plan at $499 per month
- HIPAA-compliant workspaces, inbound IP rules and advanced RBAC roles are Scale plan features
- Organization-level audit logs require Scale; Pro provides only workspace audit logs
- Contractual uptime SLAs, support response SLAs and a technical account manager are Enterprise only, and Enterprise is custom priced with no published rate
- Included bandwidth is 25 GB on Pro and 1 TB on Scale, with usage beyond that billed separately
Pricing, plan by plan
Fly.io
Free- FreeFree
- 3 shared-cpu-1x VMs
- 3GB persistence storage
- 160GB outbound data/month
- Pay-as-you-goFree
- Unlimited applications
- Dedicated machines
- Global deployment
Render
Free- FreeFree
- 1 web service
- 1 static site
- Shared CPU
- Starter$7/month
- Unlimited services
- Dedicated CPU
- 2GB RAM
Which should you pick?
Choose Fly.io if
- You need global deployment.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api, Docker.
- You also want docker support.
Choose Render if
- You need web services.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want static sites.
Questions people ask
- Is Fly.io or Render better?
- Neither clearly leads. Fly.io starts at Free and Render at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Fly.io or Render?
- Fly.io starts at Free and Render at Free.
- Does Fly.io or Render run on more platforms?
- Fly.io runs on Web, Api, Docker. Render runs on Web, Api.
- Can I use Fly.io for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Fly.io best used for?
- Fly.io is most often used for deploying containerised applications close to users across regions, running full stack apps and databases on managed machines. Of those, deploying containerised applications close to users across regions and running full stack apps and databases on managed machines are not what Render is typically brought in for.
- What can Fly.io do that Render cannot?
- Fly.io covers Global deployment, Docker support, Postgres databases, Redis support. Render covers Web services, Static sites, Background workers, Postgres database. Both handle Docker, GitHub, HTTPS, Automatic SSL.