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Render vs Fly.io

What the same app costs on each, how they bill, and where each one gets expensive.

prices checked 29 September 2026 · USD, without VAT

Monthly cost in 4 sample setups

SetupRenderFly.io
Hobby API1 × 0.5 vCPU / 512 MB, 20 GB egress, 10 % load$9.25$4.09
App with Postgres1 × 1 vCPU / 1 GB, Postgres 1 GB RAM, 5 GB, 100 GB egress, 25 % load$59.45$48.10
Small SaaS2 × 2 vCPU / 4 GB, Postgres 4 GB RAM, 50 GB, 500 GB egress, 25 % load$313.95—
Staging, 8 hours a day1 × 0.5 vCPU / 512 MB, Postgres 1 GB RAM, 5 GB, 10 GB egress, 8 h a day, 10 % load$27.95$40.83

Of our 4 sample setups, 3 can be priced on both; Render is cheaper in 1, Fly.io in 2. Click a setup to open it in the calculator and change the numbers.

In short

Render gives fixed monthly instances and a free tier that sleeps; Fly.io gives small per-second machines with no free allowance. For a single small app without a database, Fly.io comes out cheaper. Managed Postgres changes the balance: Render's 1 GB database is $19 and Fly's is $38, so with a tiny app, as in our staging setup, Render wins, while a bigger app instance keeps Fly.io ahead.

Render

  • Fixed monthly instances from $7 (0.5 CPU, 512 MB) to $175 (4 CPU, 8 GB), billed by the second.
  • Free instances sleep after 15 minutes idle; a workspace gets 750 free instance hours a month.
  • Hobby workspace (one seat): 5 GB of bandwidth, then $0.15 per GB. Pro: $25 a month with 25 GB.
  • Postgres from $6 (256 MB) or $19 (1 GB) plus $0.30 per GB of storage; free Postgres expires after 30 days.
  • Disks $0.25 per GB-month; a service with a disk can't scale to several instances.

Fly.io

  • Machines billed per second while running; from 1 October 2026 the smallest (shared CPU, 256 MB) is $2.19 a month.
  • No free allowance for new customers; the trial is 2 machine hours or 7 days.
  • Egress $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe; a dedicated IPv4 address is $2 a month.
  • Managed Postgres from $38 (1 GB) plus $0.28 per GB of storage.
  • Volumes $0.15 per GB-month, one per machine; stopped machines pay $0.15 per GB of root filesystem.

More comparisons

Sources

Prices were read from these pages on 29 September 2026.